We travelled from Münchberg to Düsseldorf overnight as well, so arrived with eyes already red.
Spent the day exploring Düsseldorf, as the coach to London was not leaving until 10 pm. Visited a fabulous market in the 'Altstadt' and soon realised that products sold in Peruvian markets for sheer survival, were dressed up & sanitised to appeal to the trendy, gourmet cooks; the world-economy is grossly imbalanced.
Back to our 'Red-eye' experiment - it all started well enough however after hour 3 or 4 the seats became increasingly uncomfortable. We also learned that long-distance coaches are the preferred choice of travel for the unfortunate and some very shady characters indeed, as security scanning of luggage does not happen for coaches. This meant that the passport controls on the Belgian and UK borders can only be described as midnight cattle musters. They did however weed out some suspect travellers who were refused entry into the UK.
ALSO - the driver stopped just before the borders and police and some very vicious-looking police dogs descended on the coach. It seems that at an earlier stop a stow-away snuck into the luggage compartment of the coach, hoping to get into the UK without papers. It is confronting to experience the desperate wretchedness of people face-to-face. All was sorted by the security system and we eventually arrived at Victoria Station around 7:30am.
Are we too old for the 'Red-Eye' experience?...me thinks so and we're unlikely to do it again. Looking forward to our lovely little hire car for the next 2 weeks 🚗🚙🚗🚙
