A missing bicycle in Brussels... and a new friend.

Yesterday (30.7.) I got up to another hot, sunny morning (surprisingly no sore muscles despite the immense physical effort!), packed up my bags and loaded them onto my bicycle and headed for the train station. There I encountered my first problem of the day, when I couldn't print out my Eurostar ticket for some reason. Luckily I was allowed to board the train with just my email print-out of my reservation. My bike was loaded into the back of the train into a wee compartment to which only the conductor had the key. I thoroughly enjoyed the train ride (wow, someone/something else doing the work so I could get to another place! What a luxury!), watching the hills give way to gently rolling fields and then flat land, hawks and many other birds of prey perching on fenceposts, hunting for mice and other little critters. We passed Leuven (I thought of you, Jitske!) and I began to prepare for arrival in Brussels. The train arrived in Brussels Centraal, and I got off, thinking it was Bruxelles Midi (Brussels Zuid in Flemish - names in both languages can be confusing despite the fact I'd gone through Brussels by train loads of times now...,midi still turned to middle (and then to centraal) in my head! ). When no conductor came to take out my bicycle from the locked compartment, I grew worried, and had no choice but to get back on the train with all my things - better to be in the same place with my bicycle! I found the conductor and she calmed me down and told me Bruxelles Midi/Brussels Zuid was the next station. So I got off, went to collect my bicyle, only it wasnt there. It was nowhere to be found. I was totally shocked - how could it have gone missing from a locked compartment? The conductor was equally confused, and said it had been there a few stops ago, she couldn't understand what had happened. She told me to go to the police in the train station and file a complaint and tell them about the bike theft. The train left, and I stood on the platform utterly shocked and bewildered, with no physical evidence of actually having even been on that train since I didn't have a ticket. I hoping that somehow it would get sorted out (but how was I supposed to go on a cycle tour with no bike?? and I didnt have the money to go and buy a new one even if insurance would pay for it..). I rang dad crying, he was equally shocked, and told me to just go to the police, that it would be all right. I eventually found the police (Brussels Midi is a pretty big and crowded station), who were very friendly and supportive, though surprised about this bike theft from a train, which only happens once, maybe twice a year apparently. He began to take my details and information about the incident. Then another officer came in, saying a bicycle had been found in Brussels Centraal and was waiting to be picked up from lost and found! So I was happily reunited with my bicycle in the end after an emotional rollercoaster ride ending in a huge sense of relief, gratitude and not wanting to be separated from my bicycle again! :)

So you can imagine I wasn't too happy when I had to hand my bike over to the luggage people at the train station when I got on board the Eurostar a few hours later, and they would (apparently) make sure it got on the train with me. I wasn't so sure, and wasn't too happy with someone else having responsibility for it after the ordeal of the day, but I had no choice but to hope I'd see it again in London. On the Eurostar I met a lovely girl called Ruth, and we had very interesting chats about our families and a shared interest in environmental issues. Hooray, a new friend!

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