WC_EEND

Trying not to drift too much offtopic here, but I have to agree with you about the stations (and I'd personally like to add Gent-Sint-Pieters to that as well).

That said, Thalys is actually a sort of joint venture (much like Eurostar) between the SNCB (Belgian railways), SCNF (French railways) and Deutsche Bahn. While the high speed trains are indeed nice, the customer service and normal trains (and those old rickety commuter trains that date back to the early 1950's which Kevin mentioned in specific) of the SNCB are less so.

Kevincm

Thanks UA_Flyer. I'm slowly working on improving my narrative whilst not overbearing people with photos. That's why photoblog exists

Glad you enjoyed! Your trips are as usual - excellent.

Thanks econometrics! If I counted the time to put one of these together... well. A good few days beforehand, a lot of photography and then a week pulling it all together after a trip. I still find writing these TR's very enjoyable, and until it gets a burden, I'll write away

Glad you enjoy the Niagara Falls pics. Put it like this: I glad I had the Weatherproof Lens and Camera Body that day!

Thanks

No Problem Moobma. I must have the sort of face that makes Canadian Immigration come out in rashes I suppose. Or something like that (as the legendary eightblack would say).

I must admit, I enjoyed my time in that end of town. Not as busy as the centre, but still close to everything. And Koreatown was just down the road - always a bonus


Hold it.. we're talking about trains again. Are we in the BMI Diamond Club Forum? .

I've got to admit, I haven't explored much of Belgium in my older age (I did enough of it in my younger days thanks to study visits), so I've skipped past these wonderful structures.

Now if someone could do something about Brussels-Noord, I'd be grateful

mkjr

another great TR.

it is ashame they go to Peller Estates. there are some many great places to taste rather than this marginal facility. the proximinty to Lailey is such that you could have just walked over there. i suspect larger groups have more limited reception at smaller wineries....even then, Stratus could accomodate, however, there is probably some sort of deal struct with the tour company you used.

i hate to say it but when you travelled to YVR in January, when CBS located “adult” images on your lap top, they almost invariably flagged your passport as a potential high risk visitor.

those images, in combination with your short duration trip are probably features of some more nefarious visitors to Canada that exchange images with one another.

i do not begrudge our border officials for doing their job, however, it is unfortunate that your travel pattern and previous images will result in difficulty entering Canada for many more years.

as a person with a family member with CBS, passports are flagged for much less and are flagged for a long time.

i think you allude to the "clean" lap to this time but some visitors might be mislead that CBS are generally tough on visitors, when in fact, your own facts lead them to be tough on you...whether justified or not.

in any case, always nice to see TR's from my neck of the woods...flying out of BUF as much as i do, i try to check out the falls every once and a while.

Bretteee

I can't stand those cookies. That's not a proper desert. However at least AC don't insult you with lettuce as a starter like US airlines.

AC lost my suitcase and never found it again. Customer service after the suitcase was lost was appalling.