A Cut Above the Rest !

12:03pm Monday 26th November 2007

I couldn't put it off any longer -I was starting to resemble Captain Caveman -yes a trip to the hairdressers required .I am however a reluctant visitor to any salon since a rather dodgy perm in 1986 - I was tempted to trim it myself with a pair of scissors and some masking tape as a guide (it worked fairly well last time!) but decided to book myself in instead.

I don't know about you but sometimes I feel a bit inadequate in hairdressers - after they have picked themselves off the floor and stopped laughing at my attempts to maintain the style' they then turn to the QUESTIONS part of the appointment-I dread this normally"no I'm not going anywhere exciting this evening""no, I haven't got plans at the weekend unless you include kids swimming lessons, homework and cleaning out the filthy fish tank as there clearly is no more dissolved oxygen in there judging by the way the fish have developed limbs and lungs purely to get out and breathe like the rest of us!"

But then came the HOLIDAYS' question!!! Well I was ready and couldn't wait to answer -you see, we have just had ourselves a little adventure.

Recently some friends moved to Luxembourg and we were due to visit them, however I was loathe to fly having made much more effort this year to recycle, walk and generally try to reduce our energy use -to me it would be a travesty to nullify all that on a quickie flight to Europe. So I persuaded my husband and three children that it would be a good idea to go by train -a little experiment!

We began the journey by taxi from Grappenhall to Warrington Bank Quay and took the Virgin Pendolino down to Euston (-one advantage already was the fact that you don't have to pay for children under 5years), and enjoyed a comfortable trip down.

We stayed overnight in London and set off the next day -a squeeze on the Underground to Waterloo in the rush hour was interesting with apparently the only children in London -where are the rest of them? My three didn't seem to mind being herded along with the wave of hastening adults in fact quite enjoyed being part of it and were always given a seat when we boarded -thank you for that!

We checked in for the Eurostar -you only need to be there 30 minutes before departure so had plenty of time and before we knew it we were through the tunnel and on the way to Brussels - my boys were fully expecting to see sharks and fish swimming by the windows as we went under the sea so alas were a little disappointed!

Then we decided to take advantage of our new found travelling freedom and stayed in Brussels overnight and had a look around the city -a real bonus!

The next day we took our connection to Luxembourg (again Rowan was free) and then met our friends and got the bus to their house!

On the way back we did it all in one day -3 kids, 3 capitals, and 3 countries -not bad at all!

Benefits? So many - all the trains were on-time, we had more space for the children to play and walk around, people on the train chatted to us in French as they went about their daily activities, I Spy wasn't limited to C for clouds' and it was very interesting looking in peoples' back gardens !

It wasn't more expensive for us and the environmental savings are even more valuable. In 2005, 4/5 of all visits abroad made by UK residents were to Europe -if we continue as a nation to fly this much then we will be unable to meet our targets for cutting CO2 emissions- it really is time to change the way we think about travelling.

And as for my hairdresser? Well, he really isn't the cliché I described and to my delight had even more travelling tales to tell and has ventured even further by train...Rome,...Spain,... and agreed - taking the train is part of the adventure and is a real, romantic and enjoyable experience.

A cut above the rest!