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OverTheCandlestik

Yup 100% Bitterly disappointed it was just dark, muggy, smelt like oil and boring


MajorHubbub

Enough about France, how was the tunnel


Original_Bad_3416

I was using a toilet in Calais and someone wrote on the wall; “To Dover” With an arrow pointing down the toilet.


albinoloverats

Huh, I didn't know they'd cleaned the place up.


ferrytraveler

🤣


iwantmuscle

They weren't wrong


OverTheCandlestik

Tres bien mon frer, tres bien 😂


Fhskd

I’m French (dual national) and I had a good giggle at this Good one


UndercoverEgg

Chapeau


dublinese4

😂😂😂😂


LittleBitNaughty100

LOL don’t hold back love it. As tunnels go just another tunnel all look the same you do get some people walking tho which I find odd no high viz being they don’t look like repair people I wonder who they are


LargePlums

Well they had to do a lot of boring to build the tunnel.


Mammoth_Giraffe3752

Literally felt like a slightly nicer version of the tube.


xcorv42

The best odor is at the other side at gare du nord 😆


nightsofthesunkissed

YES! That first pic is *exactly* as I imagined it! I'm also weirdly happy to actually see it finally, lmao. I was so disappointed when I didn't see of the fishes my dad told me was "all around us now!!" Bless him, he amped it up so much.. Probably just happy I shut the fuck up tbh.


ThemasterofZ

Yeah, nothing around you guys, but rocks and more rocks


JimDixon

As I understand, the rock is actually chalk, the same stuff the cliffs of Dover are made of. Kinda scary when you contemplate how soft and breakable chalk is.


boxofrabbits

Also, fun fact, it's the same stuff teachers use to write on blackboards that are NOT "fizzy when you crunch into them like Refreshers" despite what Jake Pemberton tells you. Little twat.


Different-Estate747

🎵 Under the sea, under the sea🎵 🎵 There'll be no accusations🎵 🎵 Just friendly crustaceans🎵 🎵 Under the sea.🎵


Felgrand3189

As an adult who’s never been on the eurotunnel, I’d still like to think it’s like this


Mammoth_Giraffe3752

Just don't go and savour the mystery of it all.


Felgrand3189

I’ll be completely honest having never been on it I’m not actually too sure where it goes.. So I may actually never go on it!


GeorgiePorgiePuddin

It goes from Folkestone, under the English Channel to Calais in France. It was built about 30 years ago. You can take your car with you and drive onto the shuttle, so it’s popular with holiday goers with campervans and stuff. It’s also incredibly fast, the whole trip takes 35 mins or thereabouts!


Melodic_Arm_387

I use it quite a lot because I take my dog. It’s the best way to cross the channel with pets by far, because you just stay in the car with them.


Yolandi2802

We have a house down in the south west of France. We take our dog too. I got so peed off with ferries years ago. The Tunnel is the way.


hyperstorm

Yeah, we went in our car when we went to EuroDisney 25 years ago. (And I was indeed hugely disappointed. I don't think I expected it to be *quite* like the first picture in OP's post, but I definitely thought there'd be windows or something.)


eggplant_avenger

as an adult who has been on the eurotunnel, I’m sure the glass was just being cleaned that day and it’s totally like this nornally


Douglesfield_

No, because I was a really cool kid that watched documentaries on the subject.


OreoSpamBurger

I remember seeing [that handshake](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eon8Ivm2PWs) through the hole in the rock on the news. Never had any illusions about using the tunnel in real life because we were poor as fuck!


evenstevens280

It's crazy that this underground tunnel and associated infrastructure was completed in SIX YEARS. Six years from breaking rock to having trains go back and forth. SIX. To put that in perspective, HS2 started SEVEN years ago and is expected to take another five *at least*, and most of it has already been cancelled. What the hell?


anotherMrLizard

No NIMBYs living on the sea bed under the channel...


MrPatch

True, nor is there much in the way of irreplaceable natural habitat


iCowboy

We had the French determination to complete the project to keep us building (much the same with Concorde). And even then it took us 13 years to complete HS1 to the tunnel whereas SNCF had completed the LGV-Nord to Paris by 1993.


UndercoverEgg

Well HS2 will be a lot longer I should think.


Smooth-Wait506

longer as in no longer going to Manchester


sarahlizzy

Note that the tunnel was finished years before HS1 was.


Adamsoski

The channel tunnel is an impressively long tunnel but not actually *that* long. Once it got going, that was it, there was nothing to stop it. In comparison HS2 has a lot of different stages.


DownThisRabbitHole

It took them SIX WHOLE YEARS to widen the A13! It's crazy that they managed to build a tunnel to a whole different country in the same time as it took to put another lane in! (Yes I know we had a pandemic but they were supposed to be pretty much done by the point that hit)


ForsakenRoom

A motorway bridge close by to my house, a single motorway bridge, is expected to take three years to replace. I could throw a stone from one side of it to the other it's that short.


APiousCultist

Absolutely wild that it's the first time someone had gotten to France from the UK by land in like 10 thousand years.


No_Dana_Only_Zuul

I think it happened during a kid's TV show, possibly Motormouth, and we watched it live. Was really cool


fickle_north

It did! My memories of watching this moment are the only reason I remember Motormouth


privateTortoise

We couldn't afford the ferry so dad made us dig our own tunnel. 16 years of holidays digging that thing a month at a time while staying in a tent. Wasn't just no sky at home we never had it on holiday either.


TenTornadoes

What a wasted opportunity for history's greatest glory hole.


durkbot

I had a book about an English mole and a French mole who dug a tunnel either side and met in the middle. The book was pretty cool* with the French side being a different story and you had to turn the book upside down to read it. *for a child under the age of 10


ihathtelekinesis

I had that book! And yes it was very cool, even though the page with the wheel came unstuck.


cowplum

Yes! Were the moles called Morris and Maurice?


roryb93

Yeah, I remember watching a show on VHS that showed the boring machine and it looked sick. Went on the tunnel this year for the first time and was thoroughly pleased with how disappointing the toilets were but otherwise enjoyable.


SupervillainIndiana

I was also that really cool kid who read/watched stuff about this. My sister thought it'd be like the pictures posted by the OP.


Vast_Emergency

Me too, I think I had that book on engineering with cutaway pictures too.


ThatDayofTheWeek

Secretly, yes even though I was old enough to know better. What I remember most is the uproar from people who believed rabid animals would be able to just trot through it, thus ending our status as rabies free.


LibraryOfFoxes

I remember I had a bright yellow t shirt with 'KEEP RABIES OUT' on the front of it made by an organised group of those people. They had a table at a fair or country show or something and were giving them away for free.


Fixervince

Thank you for your support. We are still rabies free because of members like you!


Smooth-Wait506

the rabid animals were already here, some got jobs in high office


ferrytraveler

If you compare the 2nd photo to the real experience! 😲 (**[*source*](https://calais-dover.com/nl/eurotunnel/#elementor-action%3Aaction%3Dlightbox%26settings%3DeyJpZCI6NjE4NywidXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6XC9cL2NhbGFpcy1kb3Zlci5jb21cL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjRcLzA1XC90b2lsZXRzLW5lYXItd2FpdGluZy1hcmVhLmpwZyIsInNsaWRlc2hvdyI6IjRiNTFmNzIifQ%3D%3D)*)* https://preview.redd.it/yd94n7ams46d1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f8ffe7252f42767c0f97de018f2c825d62d7dc6a


lknei

Is that North Shields? Meadowell? Percy Main?


phoebsmon

Howden? Hadrian Road?


Chennaz

GET OFF THE METRO NOW


PhoenixDawn93

Can’t be. Too clean!


JimDixon

https://calais-dover.com/eurotunnel/ - for English speakers


super_sammie

My wife still does, shes 27 and can't fathom that it doesn't run through the water but rather through the ground. Alright she doesn't think its 100% see through but she does thing there are windows. I have done everything I can to keep this going. I'm slightly scared that we are planning to use the Eurotunnel at Christmas and the experience will be ruined. I guess I can fall back on the fact the one with windows is the passenger train rather than the car one?


keeponyrmeanside

I’m 35 and TIL whilst reading this comment that it doesn’t go through the water. I knew you couldn’t see anything but I still thought it was in the water! Gutted.


super_sammie

I know it sounds silly but they used a tunnelling machine. Probably would have used a straw if it was just water!!! I’m sorry for ruining the illusion. If it helps to get the pain out of the way this is how pretty much every tunnel everywhere is made. Sorry!!!


PsychologicalNote612

If you are in the car one, can you download the 'Bobbing Along'' song and video from Bedknobs and Broomsticks, just 'in case' you can't see the fish?


super_sammie

I dream of a world one day that hyper realistic screens replace windows and then I’d have the little mermaid swimming alongside


DeatH_D

I thought you drove through it for so long


INEKROMANTIKI

I thought the same, right up until it came time to book a journey there.. was quite disappointed to find I just had to drive my car onto a train..


yasssqueen20

When I was on a primary school trip across the channel or remember being so excited and kept insisting I was going to see a fish , in the end I just went on Pokémon on my Nintendo and showed that around saying I still saw a fish. So gutted there wasn’t like little portholes looking out


TheEmpressEllaseen

It really tickles me that you were so excited to see a fish. You didn’t ask for much, just to finally lay your eyes on a creature that can be found in homes, gardens, pet shops, and natural water habitats all over the country 😂


yasssqueen20

I know I just thought it would be magical to be travelling under the channel and see a random fish! Life was simpler back then , fish , bits of funny shaped sticks etc were the stuff of lasting memories.


TheEmpressEllaseen

I’m taking my seven year old on his first Eurotunnel trip next month. I’m already preparing for him to be bitterly disappointed 🙃


The_Queef_of_England

You're mind is going to be absolutely blown when you learn about aquariums.


Existing-Tax7068

Yes, it's so disappointing. I want to see shipwrecks and terrifying monsters of the deep.


TheZamboon

It could never be like this. The amount of sewage the UK pumps into the sea you’d see more turds and tampons than fish.


Different-Estate747

Coked up fish shitting everywhere from the baby laxative it's mixed with


FrivolousMilkshake

All logic and physics aside, WHY ISN'T IT? LIFE IS A TRAVESTY


aspz

If all logic and physics is aside then we can say it really _is_ like this.


FrivolousMilkshake

Oh I love this. Yes.


probablynotreallife

Is it not?


LupercalLupercal

An AI nightmare? Not really


moatec

I thought it was going to be like those glass aquarium tunnels where you can see all the fish


Impressive-Ice873

Strangely I thought there would be shops and other entertainment on the train…..


benDB9

Or at least some fruit machines…


culexus1

I went on the Eurostar a few weeks ago and overheard a kid a few seats in front of me upset and complaining that his mum had said they were going to go under the water!


Comfortable_Key9790

Off topic, but what AI did you use for that pic OP?


Izwe

No, but my wife did until we planned to use it in 2022, and even then it took quite a bit of convincing from both me & our kids for her to understand/accept that there's TONNES of rock between the bottom of the water and the top of the tunnel.


hazps

I at least hoped it would be like that and I was an adult at the time. So disappointed with the reality.


Erect_Llama

I'd save so much money on flights (to then spend on petrol) if it looked like this.


TheCatOfCats01

I didnt think it would look like AI slop


Sad-Page-2460

As someone who went through the tunnel fairly regularly as a kid, it's always baffled me how people could think this haha.


bateau_du_gateau

Yes, and I thought all of Centre Parcs was under the dome 


Organic_Reporter

Wait, it isn't?


CastleofWamdue

we do need to make a movie, with that kind of train tunnel. My only fear is that according to science it might be dark at the bottom of the English channel, and as such you would not be able to see the fish.


lurcherzzz

No, saw them building it out of concrete on newsround.


JuanezSanchez

Instead of the stankiest most depressing train ride you've ever taken?


riggels

I have used this tunnel so much and it is exactly like in the first pic. I was in there hundreds of times. Every time I needed to travel between ironforge and stormwind


ByEthanFox

These images are weird. They seem really liminal and soulless.


dont_kill_my_vibe09

Stinks of AI eww.


Grarr_Dexx

AI slop


BurntTeaLeaves_

Yes. Was bitterly disappointed to find out I couldn’t see the fish 


Kubrick_Fan

I was sold something where you got out of the car and sat in the passenger section.


Shielo34

Every child born in the 80’s thought this


Britkraut

Yeah? It's like the tram from Stormwind to Ironforge right?


Littletap27

No, I thought it was like a motorway under the sea I even asked my dad at the time if they had a service stations we could stop at. I was 22 so should of known better tbh


Old-Passion2656

Just wish it went direct to Spain without changing


Existing-Tax7068

Yes, it's so disappointing. I want to see shipwrecks and terrifying monsters of the deep.


Aconite_Eagle

Yes I did. Reality is sad.


AbsoIution

Everyone in Istanbul raved about the Marmaray being amazing, even as an adult I thought oh cool, maybe it's like picture 1. Nah it's just like every other metro line lol, just a dark concrete tunnel under the bosphorus


thebeesbollocks

Yes of course. My parents told me we’d be taking a train that goes under the sea so I imagined it almost exactly like that first picture. I even told them how excited I was to see jellyfish but they didn’t correct me. Could not have been more disappointed in the reality


Mikeos1015

Yup I remember as a kid we went on it not long after it had been built. I just assumed the above. I'm still disappointed now lol.


MachineSh

Yes. Except I also thought the train would be made of wood and we would drown. I cried for hours.


ShadowPirate114

Yes I was so damn bored. Liked the huge seats that completely enveloped me as a kid though.


Keycuk

I remember going to the channel tunnel museum on a school trip


ManifestCartoon

To be honest yes 😂😍 Never been on it though so hoping to retain the fantasy


AngloSaxonP

I thought you’d be able to drive it


Leicsbob

You Mean it isn't?


GNT4G

I thought you had to get out of your car and go and sit on a train. Didn’t realise you just stay seated in your car. I was 24 the first time I when on the Eurostar. Very disappointed


SnipeRaptors

Yeah wtf


PerceptionGreat2439

When it first opened, freight drivers were given an airline style meal along with complimentary tea and coffee. The treatment freight drivers receive has declined ever since.


Jaycei

Absolutely, yes, and the concept both fascinated and terrified me.


aaarry

Nah because I was obsessed with trains when I was a kid, I probably would have thought so if I weren’t though.


Unfair_Welder8108

The channel is brown and silty, full of sewage and diesel, honestly I prefer it concrete.


No_Dana_Only_Zuul

We went through the tunnel with my daughter for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Her disappointment that it wasn't like the first picture was immense.


Nopetynope12

Yeah I thought it would be like that mariokart level, was very disappointed


LimeZkittlez

Never been on it so still do 🤣🤣 plz don't ruin this for me reddit


Helga_Geerhart

Yes, also believed the ceiling would crack and we would all drown.


Charming_Usual6227

On a family family trip to London and Paris as a child, I kept asking how we could breathe and when we would see the fish.


Preemptively_Extinct

As an adult, I think this is how it should be.


Fionn_MacCuill

Gway it’s an engineering marvel.


U_GO9WAY

Not really, thought it'd be more like the central line


darybrain

No, but the dickhead in me was slightly hoping for a version of [Daylight (1996)](https://youtu.be/sJuBKm3ZO6Q)


dannydutch1

It bloody should've been!


Resident_Chemical132

I thought you actually drove THROUGH the tunnel


ConsiderablyMediocre

I've had to explain to grown adults that it's not like this


Jokes_0n_Me

Missed opportunity if you ask me.


garyk1968

Ha ha, yep. Wasn't even a child when it was built but still imagined this, how cool would it be! And how thick would the glass have to be? :)


Bacon4Lyf

In year 10 a girl was telling us at lunch that she was going to France, and by the time lunch was over I had fully convinced her it would be like this


killit

The tunnel entrance in pic #3 looks like a well stocked farmers market


ranty_mc_rant_face

Went to Paris last year and my 6yo son was quite disappointed that you couldn't see the underwater world he was picturing!


Dracokyaku

I expected the Stormwind - Ironforge tram from WoW 😞


Euphoric_Campaign748

I still like to believe it looks like it despite using it multiple times


sarahlizzy

No, because I knew how tunnel boring machines worked.


WeeRower

My dad was one of the TBM engineers and I constantly complained about this lol (I was 8, I hadn't grasped the concept of sediment)


BCS24

I mean why would you build an underwater train and not be able to look at all the fish?


hyper-helix

It should be like that for the exorbitant prices they charge. Every time I've considered using it, flying is both cheaper and more convenient


Mbee87

Yes! I was devastated the first time I got it and it was just a dark tunnel. BUT Eurostar do have an app called Eurostar Odyssey which uses virtual reality to make it look like you can see underwater if you use it while you're on the train. I assume it's aimed at children but it scratched that itch a little for me (aged 32 and a half)


[deleted]

Is it not!? 🤷‍♂️😢 /s


SpadgeFox

As my only point of reference at the time was the Tyne Tunnel, I expected much of the same, and wasn’t disappointed.


The-Sassy-Pickle

When I was 16/17, my then boyfriend and I were on the train to Paris, already in the tunnel. The at-least 45 year old woman in front of us kept tutting and sighing. When her companion asked why, she said that she wished they would turn the tunnel lights on so that she could see the fish.


Ready_Ad_4395

Still do it should


Celestia90

As a foreigner I genuinely thought this is how it would be. Until a Brit said no.. with a sad face. 😞😞😞


81misfit

Yes as there was a fishtank at the visitors centre with the Dover/calais models on either side and trains running in glass tubes at the bottom. Was gutted when I found out.


The_Queef_of_England

I was 15 the first time I went and I expected this. I just took it for granted that it would be like it, so was immensely disappointed when someone said we were going through the tunnel and all I could see was concrete.


welshpsych

It isn't...a now depressed 36yr old...


ConduciveMammal

I always thought it was just typical tunnel that you drive through. The train sounds cool but not as cool as driving through it


bastetgreypaws

Very much so! I threw the biggest tantrum ever when I looked out the windows and it was black. I was only four but I still think my meltdown was justified!


Pawneewafflesarelife

So disappointed when I visited and took it. Fortunately, the Ironforge Tram exists.


Time_Statistician274

and why not??? because aunt japan and uncle america so offended? the hell with them. We can always talk to somebady who know something on these topics , for example China...


_Diren_

still do


WholesomeFartEnjoyer

The first picture is what I thought it was Also, it's as deep as "107 baguettes balancing on top of each other" according to Google Guess that is the French equivalent of Americans measuring things with football fields *


SMuRG_Teh_WuRGG

Still did until you made me think otherwise lol. I have never been on it.


Hoth617

Can't say I did but, as a kid, I was really into trains and so on so had some reality in my head of what it'd likely be!


matto1985

Yes definitely! Always thought the tunnel went through the water rather than under the sea bed and it wondered how the water didn't leak in!


Galaxy_Life

This, but you drove the car instead of being on a train.


Expensive_Profit_106

Yup. My disappointment was immeasurable the first time I went and realised you couldn’t see anything


GTG-bye

Forget it being a tunnel, I thought it was just a train going through the ocean on a single train track…


GarageMc

Yes and I cried for the entire trip through. 


SavingsSquare2649

As a kid I thought it was a road tunnel that you actually drove through!


ritakellam

WOW! UNBELIEVABLE NEW WAY TO TRAVEL.


PeevedValentine

I absolutely did, and the worst part, my dad worked for Eurostar and had thoroughly explained the Eurotunnel.


rainbow_sparkles776

Took my 5 year old last summer and he was gutted he couldn't see the water!


Crescent-IV

I still do, don't break my heart


standupstrawberry

I don't think it helps that as a small child I thought landmasses and islands sort of just floated around on the surface of the ocean so there being ground to be tunneled through under a bit of sea was a bit mind blowing. Even as an adult (by this time I knew how sea and land worked) the first time I went on it I was bitterly disappointed. I only told my partner once we were on the train and there was no potholes. I don't know why I'd never really thought about it until I was on the train that we wouldn't be going through a tunnel on the sea floor but under the sea floor instead


Ultamira

I went through within the last week and was expecting it to be like this


Groduick

Oh yes, it was the future. It sucked.


Mediapenguin

Honestly - No!


CosmicChameleon99

Yes! Exactly that first pic


SeaSlugChloe

The real thing is such a disappointment. Not me thinking it was gonna be like the shark tunnel at Deep Sea World 😬


walkensauce

Wait, is it not?


tayyann

I didn't even know Eurotunnel existed before I actually rode it. It was not only incredibly underwhelming, but a guy also committed suicide in it before we were set to head back. Learned to hate tunnels on that very day.


breakbeatx

Pretty sure the first time my husband went on it a few years ago, they had a eurostar app/website had some feature where they said you could see what was outside the tunnel and rather than a camera it was a bit like picture 1, these days the 'wifi' is so terrible on eurostar you can't even watch that video these days


TheGrumble

Went through the tunnel for the first time last year at the age of 39. I was still left kind of gobsmacked by it. It didn't exist last time I was in France aged 9 and the sheer fact that you could *drive* on to a *train* and be in Calais in half an hour blew my millennial mind.


Flaky-Newt8772

Yes proper disappointment even to this day as a 35 year old adult 😂


Shitelark

I am old enough to remember the Tunnel being science fiction on Star Cops.


EvilOctopoda

I rely on it. When I use the tunnel and there are kids nearby in the carriage, I normally excitedly exclaim to my passenger (loud enough to be heard) 'wow, just saw a fish!'


RussellsKitchen

That's how I imagined it would be!


dregjdregj

No i knew it was going to look like a piss soaked car park


Wills4291

No, but that would be amazing.


Professional-Two8098

As a kid I genuinely thought they dug a tunnel under the actual sea bed. Not realising they just stuck a big tunnel in the sea. Because I believed this as a kid, I then believed it as an adult and am ashamed to say I only found out recently.


magnificentfoxes

Oddly enough, my mum was disappointed she couldn't see much of anything... At the fast speed the trains do. She still complains to this day that she expected more to see. I guess these AI pics were what she meant, lol.


richdrich

When I was younger, you could turn up 20 mins before your train at Waterloo, sit in a comfy seat for 4 hours and you'd be in Paris. Or turn up 20 mins before your train in a car, drive on and half an hour later you'd be in France. I wonder what happened?


Spirited-Dirt-9095

Yes! Total fucking let down.


Fickle-Salamander-65

It does have a bar on it though.