Lux-Bru Journey

Luxembourg Rail Station.

I wasn’t going to write this till I got to my hotel in Brussels, or at least until dinner, but circumstances forced my hand.

This afternoon after a wonderful lunch, all the while being doted on by a very sweet waiter who said my accent was "lovely", I took a walk to the Luxembourg Stock Exchange to ensure I would get there on time for my 3pm meeting. I had some difficulty finding it, but ultimately, it is a 3 minute walk from the square and a 5 minute walk from the office. I went back to the office, changed again into appropriate attire, and headed back out into the unforgiving heat.
My meeting finished after about an hour, at which point I raced back to the office, changed my shirt right there at the computer (no bothering with going into the meeting room) and headed out to the train station. Christian had researched the directions perfectly, so it was just under one mile to walk. As usual, I didn’t bother with a taxi. Couldn’t find one anyway.
I got to the station at 4:15, and saw the next train to Brussels was at 4:24, not leaving a lot of time. I waited in line to buy my ticket, but they don’t take Amex. I had to use some of my Euros, so my EU70 is now EU12.40. I’ve only spent cash so far on the taxi to the Lux hotel, the train ticket, and a 2 euro bottle of diet coke. It goes fast.
I made it to the train by 4:23, but I neednt have run, because it left 20 minutes late. There is no business class, and there is no air conditioning, but I was grateful that the car I was in was pretty empty. My contentment wouldn’t last long though. Within the first hour the stifling heat began to overwhelm, and halfway to Brussels a guy came on and for whatever reason insisted on sitting across from me, even though the train was empty and there were dozens of areas he could sit. He reminded me of a yodeler, for that’s what he looked like. He spent the trip speaking to himself whilst playing Soduko, and breathing funnily. In between, he would stare at me. He obviously wanted to say something to me because he tried to begin a conversation after one of the announcements. Since this announcement was in German as well as French, I understood it anyway. In the end, I took out my pocket pc and keyboard so that he would stop talking to me.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiicolaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Will this journey ever end? It is now 7:50 as per my watch and I just want to get off this horrible train. I feel as if I’ve been on it for days, and I’m sweating in places I didn’t know I had.