Item 24: Eurostar - To Brussels, My Love

Location: London St Pancras International to Brussels Midi

Farewell to low cost airline terminals at airports located miles out of London. Hello Eurostar!

High Speed 1 rail services from St Pancras International provided us with nice and comfy seats direct to Brussels Midi within two hours. People were thinking when they designed this service.

Firstly, the station is accessible on the standard tube network. No need for special tickets on some capitalist train service aka Stansted/Gatwick Express! More importantly, immigration checks are performed as you pass through the gates in London so when you reach your destination you are right in the heart of the city. No more queues! All you need to do is grab your luggage (which travels with you in the carriage) and go!

A ticket to Brussels also allows you free travel via the train service to other destinations in Belgium. Fast and efficient. A change of platforms and you're off again!

This allowed us to also visit the cosmopolitan Antwerp for a touch of shopping during the afternoon of our arrival and an extended stay in the Venice of the North - Bruges. Feasting upon seafood, frites, waffles and Belgium's famous chocolates followed by some tasty beer, a trip on the Eurostar is a nice and easy getaway that begins right in the heart of London.

Item 24: Eurostar? CHECK!

Item 23: Berlin.. a bit of Ping-Pong

Location: Berlin, Germany

With thanks to New Berlin Tours, (which I highly recommend), I now know that the Berlin wall came down in 1989 making a visit today to the growing city comparable to hanging out with an eighteen year-old kid - testing the world's boundaries and finding its own sense of self. With a social atmosphere intertwined amongst history, of which you are reminded as you walk over the markings of the fallen wall on the streets and footpaths, there is more to plenty to be discovered.

After watching the Rough Guide's travel show, the one place I had to visit was Dr Pong's. Shaking off the fatigue that was trying to set in after yet another 6:30am flight from London, a day out at the Berlin Zoo, a stroll along the East Side Gallery and dinner, the crew made way on the local U-Bahn metro to Eberswalder Strasse station. Along a main street next to some funky shops, we saw the window with a masking taped sign 'DR PO00'.... We were there!

Unlike what I had perceived on tv, this bar had nothing to hide. No secret doors or dingy alleyway to the entrance, Dr Pongs was all in black in white. A bar with a ping-pong table.

Throughout the night steady games of "Around the World" were in progress. People were running around the table taking turns to have their hit, many making friends along the way. With a DJ, mini-Foosball table, cheap grog and a re-acquaintance with passive smoke Dr Pongs characterises the new Berlin, with plenty to offer. If only we were there for longer than a weekend!

Item 23: Berlin? CHECK!