This time the visit felt both familiar and poignant… just the same, and yet not quite the same at all! Did I find myself looking around us as we waited to pass through customs and wondering 'I wonder what this will be like in 2 years' time?' Did I imagine the slightly down-beat and apologetic glances of the British tourists on the train? Did I detect the slightly pitying but still friendly tone of the staff at the Brussels museum when they realised we were British? Was this all the result of a vivid imagination?
Perhaps, but I certainly did discover that there was no merchandise bearing the EU flag at any of the shops in the St Pancras terminal next to the boarding gates (it became my mission to buy something.. anything… I failed!)

And I did feel strangely compelled to take Nick Clegg's book with me and read it ostentatiously in public places, as if to say… 'Don't blame me, I'm not one of those people, I voted Remain!' (It's an excellent book, by the way… I do recommend it!) And my husband and I did discuss at length how much money in Euros we wanted to be left with at the end of our trip… something we would not have done previously.

Eventually I came to the conclusion that, perhaps, nothing much had actually changed… at least, not yet. What had changed, was me. I now felt embarrassed and apologetic, as if I feared that all Belgians would somehow think less of us or treat us differently. Instead of enjoying the weekend for what it was, I unconsciously spent my time looking for proof that everything was different now that the decision had been taken in Parliament to trigger Article 50. It was so silly, and completely unnecessary.

Go to Brussels or Paris or Lille or anywhere else in the EU! Enjoy your time there! Things may well change in the coming days, but for now…. let's enjoy spending time with our European neighbours and friends! All is well!

Take care, and speak soon

Anita

PS: one thing that also hadn't changed was the fact that it took us nearly 3hrs to get back to Grantham from Kings Cross on Sunday night due to the weekend engineering works… but that is another story altogether! ;-)