OUR MINI EUROPEAN TOUR – PHASE ONE

Saturday the 20th saw us as we say in our family “Off on the road with Dwarves.” We have both been  feeling very Tookish lately and have been  feeling the need to explore pastures new. This year it will be Luxembourg then on to Koblenz  and Berlin. After Berlin we will take a well deserved stop in Lenzen, Germany  for a 4 night stay at the Ahead Hotel, a fully plant based hotel, for complete chill out time before our final destination, Brussels for 2 nights before our trip home.

We wanted our travel to be sustainable and are trying to be  mindful of the impact  of our journey on the planet, so we chose to travel by train. The benefits of travelling this way are not only do you cut down on the carbon emissions by taking the train, (Eurostar and most train companies have carbon emission calculators on their websites), but you get to see so much more of the countries you visit.

DAY ONE

Leaving Bedford early morning we took a train to St. Pancras to catch the 13:01 Eurostar to Brussels but before that we had a cheeky little stop at Mildreds near Kings Cross for brunch courtesy of our daughter Alex.

Mildreds was amazing and is definitely up there on my list of favourite restaurants.
Philip had the Charmoulah brunch – scrambled tofu, roast pepper, tomato charmoulah, sausage, rainbow pickles, (I had a little taste of these, delicious) fried aubergine, za’atar, tahini and flatbread.

I went on the more traditional route opting for a classic big brunch. A delicious offering of scrambled tofu, sausage, home fries, roast tomatoes maple baked beans, (these were out of this world in a rich tomatoey smokey sauce. Never will I be able to look at a can of baked beans in the same way again), roast flat mushrooms and foccacia.We both had juices of pineapple, ginger and turmeric, very refreshing, as well as coffee.

If you’re in London Mildreds should definitely be on your list of plantastic eateries to try. The meal we had kept us going until late afternoon.

Having arrived in Brussels it was an easy transfer to the train to Luxembourg, we managed to grab a window seat with a little table and watch the beautiful scenery as the flatness of Belgium turned into the rolling hills and trees of Luxembourg.  There are no catering facilities on the regional trains to Luxembourg but as we’d checked this out in advance it wasn’t a problem as I’d pre packed a picnic tea, much I think to the amusement of some of the other passengers, we enjoyed it though and they probably sat there thinking “mad English”.

It was a long travel day and we were glad to get to our hotel. We are looking forward to our brief stay in Luxembourg and all it has to offer.

Mildreds London

I hope you enjoyed reading this post and I look forward  to  you dropping  back in to see how we enjoyed our time in Luxembourg city. I have put in a link to Mildreds above should you wish to take a look.

With love

Sharon

The lady eats plants.