Tuesday
Gary woke up early Tuesday morning in order to catch his flight back to Paris to meet up with Kathy.
Grant and I slept in a little bit, then got up, finished packing and cleaning up the houseboat, and then departing Amsterdam. We caught the 11:56 train to Brussles, which had us arriving at about 2:30. We had to make one quick connection in Brussles to get to our stop - Brussles-Luxemburg. We wexited the train station into the courtyard of the European Union!
Our hotel is right across the street. We checked in at the Renaissance, even though we were staying next door at the Marriott executive apartments. Apparently, all of the one bedrooms were filled (or not ready when we checked in,) because we have a huge two bedroom suite. It has a big sitting area and dining area, and a nice sized kitchen. Down the hall on the right are two bedrooms, one with a flat screen tv. The bedrooms are kind of small, but with the sitting room it doesn't much matter. On the left of the hall is a small room with a toilet, and at the end of the hall is the bathroom with two sinks and a shower/tub (with the half glass, as is standard here!) Also, by the door there is another small room with a toilet.
The Internet situation works like this - high speed is ridiculously expensive, but they do have dial-up/modem for free. However, we found a nice signal from a nearby neighbor that we can get fairly well if we sit out on the balcony, so that is what we've been using.
That evening, we headed into downtown Brussles. Our guidebook says that you can see a large portion of it in jst three hours as a stop over on a train, and we did just that. We went to the Grand Place, which is a huge square surrounded by these incredible buildings. The tourist information is here, and lot of people just come here to talk, rest, socialize, and soak in the atmosphere. At various times throughout the day and year you can find stalls with stuff for sale, musicians, etc.
We walked through an outdoor mall, past St. Nikolas church and the ruins of an old convent, and pass the Mannekin Pis, a cute little statue of a young boy taking an eternal piss. This little statue is one of the biggest draws in Brussles, and he actually has something like over 700 outfits that have been presented to him from visiting dignitaries and guests of different countries. When we saw him, though, he was not wearing any of his outfits - just his birthday suit. Nudie-Patootie!
We had a waffle with chocolate that was incredible filling, and Grant had some ice cream. We found a grocery store to get some beverages and , of course, some chocolate, and then headed back towards home.
With one minor delay - we got on the wrong train. The good news? Thanks to the conductor, we founf out when we were only a few stops out. The bad news? The stop we got off at only had a train that picked up there every hour - and it wasn't due to arrive for 40 minutes. Plus, it was 20 minutes late!
We did, eventually make it home, about an hour later than we planned!
Tomorrow - mini Europe!
Gary woke up early Tuesday morning in order to catch his flight back to Paris to meet up with Kathy.
Grant and I slept in a little bit, then got up, finished packing and cleaning up the houseboat, and then departing Amsterdam. We caught the 11:56 train to Brussles, which had us arriving at about 2:30. We had to make one quick connection in Brussles to get to our stop - Brussles-Luxemburg. We wexited the train station into the courtyard of the European Union!
Our hotel is right across the street. We checked in at the Renaissance, even though we were staying next door at the Marriott executive apartments. Apparently, all of the one bedrooms were filled (or not ready when we checked in,) because we have a huge two bedroom suite. It has a big sitting area and dining area, and a nice sized kitchen. Down the hall on the right are two bedrooms, one with a flat screen tv. The bedrooms are kind of small, but with the sitting room it doesn't much matter. On the left of the hall is a small room with a toilet, and at the end of the hall is the bathroom with two sinks and a shower/tub (with the half glass, as is standard here!) Also, by the door there is another small room with a toilet.
The Internet situation works like this - high speed is ridiculously expensive, but they do have dial-up/modem for free. However, we found a nice signal from a nearby neighbor that we can get fairly well if we sit out on the balcony, so that is what we've been using.
That evening, we headed into downtown Brussles. Our guidebook says that you can see a large portion of it in jst three hours as a stop over on a train, and we did just that. We went to the Grand Place, which is a huge square surrounded by these incredible buildings. The tourist information is here, and lot of people just come here to talk, rest, socialize, and soak in the atmosphere. At various times throughout the day and year you can find stalls with stuff for sale, musicians, etc.
We walked through an outdoor mall, past St. Nikolas church and the ruins of an old convent, and pass the Mannekin Pis, a cute little statue of a young boy taking an eternal piss. This little statue is one of the biggest draws in Brussles, and he actually has something like over 700 outfits that have been presented to him from visiting dignitaries and guests of different countries. When we saw him, though, he was not wearing any of his outfits - just his birthday suit. Nudie-Patootie!
We had a waffle with chocolate that was incredible filling, and Grant had some ice cream. We found a grocery store to get some beverages and , of course, some chocolate, and then headed back towards home.
With one minor delay - we got on the wrong train. The good news? Thanks to the conductor, we founf out when we were only a few stops out. The bad news? The stop we got off at only had a train that picked up there every hour - and it wasn't due to arrive for 40 minutes. Plus, it was 20 minutes late!
We did, eventually make it home, about an hour later than we planned!
Tomorrow - mini Europe!
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