Kent, France and Belgium travels

Gizzy

Gizzy

A gentleman, a scholar, and a railway modeller....
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Mizzy and I have not long returned from a trip to the continent.

Here are some of our railway themed photos.

Firstly, we over-nighted in Folkstone, ready for an early shuttle next day.

An ideal opportunity to revisit the RHDR beforehand then....

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Le Shuttle soon had us in France. We set off towards the town of Arques, famous for its lead crystal glass, but we had booked tickets on the local heritage line on the edge of the town....

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Although we both speak French, we found quite a few of the volunteers there spoke English. Everyone was very friendly there.

The line is still used for freight. There is a cement works at the end of the line in Lumbres.

The heritage organisation have running rights on certain days. We were expecting to ride on the Picasso railcar, but this was out of service. A Caravelle DMU towing a De Dion trailer car was provided instead....

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The train stopped at a few scenic places on the way to Lumbres, where we could see a few cement wagons in the sidings.

The Caravelle ran round the trailer, and the volunteers set up a stall with souvenirs and drinks.

The station building has been restored by the local council here. Quite a contrast to the one at Arques, which is derelict.

On the return journey, we stopped at another station which has been restored as a museum by the volunteers....


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From Arques, we headed through Cassel into Belgium towards Ypres where we attended the 8pm Remembrance ceremony, before heading on to our hotel in Westende on the Belgian Coast.

So the following day, we took the Kust Tram (Coast Tram) north east to Knokke, then south west to De Panne, stopping at De Haan aan Zee and Ostende en route. An all day ticket cost us Euro 7.50 each, quite reasonable I think....


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During our stop at Oostende, we booked tickets for Brugg (Brugges) for the next day, and visited the local model railway shop, Guy Vincke. I was very tempted by the Piko Glass Electric railcar he had on display, going quite cheaply, but as it was anti-log, I resisted. He mostly does HO and had very little G or N gauge.

So Oostende station the following day, riding on the top deck of M6 double deck stock to Brugg. As you can see from earlier photos, the tram to train interchange is quite easy....

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We had a super day in Brugg, visiting the sights that Mizzy wanted to see, and we had a nice lunch in the St Annes area of town. Navigating Brugg is quite difficult as there are no signs for the sights. A map and a 'phone are useful to find your way around.

We caught a train back to Oostende and then tram to Westende....

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Many moons ago, we did that trip the other way around - fast cat from Ramsgate to Ostend, then a weekend in Bruges :nod::nod:
 
It was nice to use the local tram network and trains to get about, but for our next day, we needed the car to drive to Maldegem, an hour's drive away.

Another heritage line, but this time in Belgium....

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As well as Standard Gauge, they have Narrow Gauge which runs along the old line to Brugg about 1Km to the suburb of Donk.

The line runs from Maldegem to Eeklo, where there is an interchange with NMBS/SNCB a distance of around 6 miles

The first service of the day was in railcar 4620, followed by a steam hauled dining train....

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We had dinner in the old station building, now a cafe/bar.

The lady proprietor told me that I speak nice Dutch!

After our visit, we headed back to Westende, popping briefly into the Netherlands, before driving along the coast from Knokke and to Middelkirke....

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Super trip one quite easily done from UK once you have got your head around the requirements to visit Euro Land these days. My Euro trips on hold for now due to having Poppy, but when the time comes will need to do lots of googling and asking about Euro travel.
 
dunnyrail said:
Super trip one quite easily done from UK once you have got your head around the requirements to visit Euro Land these days. My Euro trips on hold for now due to having Poppy, but when the time comes will need to do lots of googling and asking about Euro travel.
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Just a passport - and from next year some electronic thingy
 
dunnyrail said:
See I said it was getting trickier.
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Not really?

Once done, it'll be a simple check at the border.

I had it done in the US around 20 years ago, although I've not been back to the States since. Shouldn't be an issue should I ever revisit in the future....
 
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