Eurostar Deals to Ghent

As well as Brussels, Bruges and Antwerp in Belgium, you might want to consider Eurostar Deals to Ghent.

Ghent is a great city to visit – with interesting things to see both old and new, in the form of cathedrals, street art, and excellent museums – as well as a lovely ambience and bucket load of cool bars  that cater for the 50,000+ students in the south! However, arguably one of the best things about the city is its quality, and often quirky, restaurants.

There’s so many favourites to choose from, but one of them has got to be Mimosa, on the Kongostraat right next to the river. It’s a real Moroccan restaurant, run by real Moroccans and the food is authentic and real. In addition to this, the service is incredible and the waiters are personal and genuinely friendly – you almost feel like a guest within their home. You  can tell the staff what meat or vegetables you like and they’ll make delicious recommendations and as they’re brilliant English speakers, there’s no danger of the order getting lost in translation.

The tagines are both enormous and incredibly tasty – with meat marinated in spices and slow-cooked to absolute perfection. With couscous and salad as an accompaniment, the food is both healthy and delicious – although you may eat so much that it becomes a little unhealthy! With some nice beers or cider to go with the food, you really couldn’t want for any more.

The surroundings are also lovely – there are loads of blankets which are really cosy, and fairy lights on the window which build a lovely ambience. Best of all, upstairs there’s a nargila lounge with pipes to smoke and a bar – with a really homely feel, with comfortable sofas which you can sink right into.

In short, Mimosa encapsulates why Ghent is great – it’s comfortable, fun and friendly with everything packed in close together for tailoring the perfect days and evenings out… It really is a must visit!

Eurostar Track Takeover by German Insurer Allianz

German insurer Allianz is understood to be planning a £2bn bid to buy the high-speed rail link between London’s St Pancras station and the Channel Tunnel from the UK government, which owns it through London & Continental Railways.

The UK Government is selling off the 68-mile link as part of several privatisations to help cut the budget deficit.

How would the loss of UK ownership over the Eurostar track, the only high speed rail link in th UK, affect Eurostar Deals?

More Eurostar Breaks Next Year

I'm planning to take a few more Eurostar Breaks next year. A short break by Eurostar to Lille is definitely on the cards and we can't stay away from Paris much longer. The fact there are still £59 eurostar deals available helps to mitigate the exchange rate I suppose, but we also have plans to take the through ticketing TGV route - London to Orleans via Eurostar Paris, that sort of thing. Bruges too.

Eurostar Breaks

Longer Eurostar Breaks

On the subject of slightly longer Eurostar breaks, I thought I'd write about the time we decided to visit Orleans, in the Northwest of France. Having been on Eurostar breaks to Paris several times before, we wanted to see a bit more of the French countryside and in particular the Loire valley. I did a bit of research and discovered it was possible to book a through train ticket just like other Eurostar breaks, with the high speed TGV train to Orleans included.

Eurostar breaks to Orleans, France

The way it works is just like many other Eurostar deals. You get a set of tickets that cover the main Eurostar journey from London to Paris, and then the onward connection from Paris to Orleans. I think we were allowed about an hour and a half to get across Paris from teh Gare du Nord to Gare Montparnasse, which is more than enough really. Because Montparnasse isn't an international Station like St Pancras or gare du Nord in Paris, there's no need to turn up at least half an hour before the train departure time and check in a bit like at an airport. You just have to validate or "compost" your ticket, which is something that happens on french railways a lot. I don;t know why, I suppose it's a bit like clicking in with an Oystercard except that you've already paid for the exact journey at that time.

My research had shown that there was a nice place to stay down by the riverside just out of town at Orleans and I'd printed out the address to give to a taxi driver, never having visited that particular city before. It worked very well, and we had a lovely time walking back into the interesting historic city of Orleans along the riverbank several times during our break. Realistically you have to allow the best part of a day to travel from door to door, but it's not an unpleasant journey with an opportunity for a lunch break in Paris depending on what time you set out. I wouldn't try to do this for a weekend, that's better suited to short Paris breaks but for longer Eurostar breaks in France, Orleans is throughly recommended.