Nemo 33 Brussels August 2008

The idea was to dive Europe's deepest swimming pool and this is located in Brussels, plus try a few Belgian beers along the way.

The trip started with an early morning  taxi ride to Leeds City Station as we were going to take the Eurostar from St.Pancras and the easiest way to get to London without a car is the train, however it is not the cheapest.  There were four of us Keith, James, Mitch and Donna.  We plonked ourselves down on the National Express train to Kings Cross which seemed surprisingly empty for a weekday morning, but it was clean and set off in good time.  On deciding to try the buffet on board the train  we found that the train was being run by a family of Australians who lived in Leeds but worked on the trains, the father being the driver, the daughter being the buffet car person and the mother being the trolley dolly going up and down the train serving drinks.  The trip was uneventful and arrived in Kings Cross on schedule, we then had to walk across the road to St Pancras next door. I had allocated a one and a half hour stopover before the Eurostar was going to depart to ensure we had enough time to sort out tickets , go through customs etc. I typed in the code on the machine and out popped the tickets we passed through customs and the usual searches as per an airport but were through in 20 minutes. and sat waiting for the Eurostar. St Pancras has been heavily renovated for Eurostar use and is a fantastic station.

The train set off on time and we were in Brussels approximately 2 hours later without any incident, we seemed to have been lucky as two weeks layer there was a fire in one of the tunnels which seriously disrupted services.  Therefore leaving home at around 0615 we were in Brussels having a beer at midday...brilliant.

We then had a short walk to the hotel with was about 10 minutes from the Station du Midi.

The pool Nemo33 was a short taxi ride from the Hotel, we had brought masks and fins but later we found out that all we really needed was our diving qualifications. These were checked and we paid our fees ready for the diving. Diving starts on the hour every hour, we were given a briefing by the pool instructors and there was then 10 minutes of free diving to explore one side of the pool, the other side of the pool was off limits at this time as that is where the 34m deep shaft was. The pool consists of different levels, a shallow 1-2m part then a 6m level , a 10m level then the shaft down to 34m, also within the pool are 2 'caves' which are at the 6 m level where you can stand up into an air pocket, one is done like a cavern and the other like a submarine. So after the briefing and free dive session we allowed to don scuba gear and go diving, fins bcds and masks are all supplied so all you need is a computer.  Its a bit of a strange feeling not kitting up with weights and just the cylinder, but also quite liberating as the water temperature was around 30 deg C.  Looking over the drop for the first time from 10m and looking down the last 25m , it seemed a long way down.  Once underway though it was OK, there is a ladder up the side of the shaft so you could control your descent and more importantly your ascent.

This is looking up from the bottom.

My computer read approximately 34m at the bottom and we had a few minutes before going into deco, which we were told not to do as part of   the briefing.

We then ascended and had a play around at the 10m mark in the caves until the time was almost up.

After the diving we decided to go back in after a two hour surface interval, so what could we do in that time, I know have a Chinese meal, Nemo 33 is fully equipped with its own Chinese restaurant so that was the order of the day, chicken and pineapple with rice served on a fresh half pineapple ....brilliant .After the two hour surface interval we duly arrive back at the briefing and the guide looked at us and grinned, "OK off you go, same as before" and we repeated the first dive....fantastic.

    View to the shaft    Safety stop time at the 6m mark

Nightlife in Brussels is fantastic with plenty of bars and restaurants to go at, there is a street with numerous sea food restaurants, so if you are not into sea food and especially mussels you can always get a decent steak.

The day after we decided to have a look around Bruges which was only a 30 minute train ride from Brussels and only £12 return. what a fantastic city again with plenty of places that served mussels but more importantly waffles, beer and chocolate.There are two ways of getting around Bruges, by boat or by horse drawn carriage.

Bruges tower.

Looking over Bruges from the tower.

All in all a fantastic trip, brilliant weather , brilliant diving, good food and great beer.

James