We made our way to the bottom level (level -1) of the airport to the train station. Since the airport was a $60 cab ride from center city Brussels, our best bet was to take a train to the station we would later on be leaving from in order to take advantage of train station lockers and not be carrying our bags all day. Woah what an adventure. The train ride itself went smoothly since people were able to tell us which train to get on and we were able to understand enough to get off. But the lockers were a whole mother story! This is where the 3 blondes in Brussels tag line started. We packed our locker then didn't have euros. Then couldn't figure out how to close the locker. Then decided we needed some things out of our bags before. Then, oops, we need to use the restroom first. By the way, that costs money over here. Need to go back and get more exact change. It was a mess! An hour later, we finally were on our way out of the train station. We picked the first place we saw outside to have lunch and a couple beers. We all ended up ordering different variations on ham and cheese sandwiches. Aunt Lanie's was plain, Mom's had egg on top, and I of course picked the one with pineapple on top. We chatted for a while about what we wanted our revised plan to be now that we were later than expected in arriving to Brussels. We only had about 5 hours to sight see as our train for Amsterdam was leaving at 6:52 that evening.
Unfortunately, Mom wasn't feeling that well, and was hesitant to even venture from the train station with us. Thank goodness the medicine she had taken before lunch kicked in a little bit, and she was feeling well enough by the end of lunch to come with us! Since we were leaving from Bruxelles-MIDI train station (note, if you are sightseeing, always pick Bruxelles-Central train station), that's where we had dropped off the bags, but this meant either a 30 minute walk or short taxi ride into the city center to see the sights. We opted for the taxi ride because we didn't have much time and because Mom wasn't feeling fantastic. Our first stop was Manneken Pis, or the peeing boy statue. Wow. We were all shocked at how small the actual statue was, maybe all of 1.5 feet. But we snapped some shots of the statue, and were all glad we walked down to see him. Right next to the attraction was exactly what Aunt Lanie and I had been looking for - a Belgium waffle stand! Yay! We waited in line for the 1 euro waffle, and both opted for the powdered sugar version. It was AMAZING! Most delicious waffle I have ever tasted in my life. I really think I will never eat another Belgium waffle at home because it couldn't come close to comparing to this thing. Wow, all I can say is wow.
Anyways, then covered in powdered sugar we continued to sight see. A couple blocks down was the Royal square - which is where the flower carpet would be - the one sight I wanted to see while in Brussels. And we could t find it...we found the square. Standing in the middle of the square, I was confused and started to go ask one of the artists selling Brussels paintings where the carpet was located. Taking a look at his paintings and comparing the buildings surrounding us, I should have been standing in the middle of the flower carpet. Oh no! I guess this is only a once a year set up, and the flower carpet is not a constant attraction in Brussels - so disappointing. We had decided to play a little game since the restrooms were costing money. Anytime, someone had to go to the restroom, we would stop for a beer and instead of paying for the bathroom, they would pay for the round of drinks! I knew I could beat these two old ladies in this game. Well, this game lasted all of one bar. We stopped at the first place we saw with one available outdoor table. We started with a round of beers, just asking for 3 different beers of the waiters choice. Passing them all around, we all had a favorite and stuck with that one. There was a large group of men sitting next to us, all with accents but speaking English. Eventually, we started speaking with them about where they were from, and what brought them to Brussels. This is what ended up keeping us at this bar for the rest of our day in Brussels almost. We had a great time! They were 35-45 year olds, a group of about 15 men from England and Scotland, and were there celebrating a friends retirement from this English military. Lots of jokes and stories, and eventually we had joined in their circle and they were buying rounds of drinks for us - of course we weren't going to leave at this point. At some point, my wild nickname - Shania - got extended by these guys into Shania Danger, explosive ranger. The danger was added on just for effect by Stewart, the man sitting next to me. I also suddenly got an ex-husband, Ed Danger - he took my name. One of the men there worked on explosives for a living, and I told him he should get me a job in England, which is where the explosive ranger part came from. Aunt Lanie also got a nickname that afternoon, Lola, or "Lay Low", a Vegas show girl on vacation right now, so she couldn't perform any dances while away. And Mom's name was #, or hashtag - not sure where that one came from!
After a few rounds of beers and delicious mojitos, we decided it was time to sneak away. We only had about 2 hours before our train would be leaving for Amsterdam and knew we needed to have plenty of time to figure our getting our bags out of lockers in the train station. We stopped in a classic tourist shop and bought a thimble for Aunt Kim, Lanie and Mom's older sister who collects thimbles. We just had to get one more waffle before heading back, so we made that stop before hopping in a cab to get back to the train station. We grabbed a slice of pizza before getting on the Thayls fast train from Brussels to Amsterdam. At this point, we have all been up for almost 48 hours, with little sleep on the plane, so were being pretty silly but making the most of the train ride. We were sitting in the middle of the cabin, so facing each other with a table in between. We would be sleeping for 10-15 minutes, then wake up and be silly. I'm sure the woman at the four seater table wasn't very amused by us, as she didn't seem very happy in general. We were getting a kick out of this app my mom had downloaded where you take a picture and it places a random, sometimes inappropriate caption onto the picture. Our favorite was when we snuck a picture of the woman across from us and up came the caption "Mud Butt", we were all crying we were laughing so much.
The train ride was about 2 hours, so we arrived in Amsterdam around 8:45, and we were shocked it was still so light outside. It was a 20 mine walk from the train station, but we choose to taxi since we had our bags. Upon arrival, we texted Romy and Jesse, the couple we were renting our apartment from to let them know were on our way. Our first attempt at a taxi failed when the driver told us this would be a 2 minute walk. Now we were very confused because we had been told by Romy that it would be over 20 minutes. Finally, we went back and said we didn't care how far it was but we wanted to taxi ride. When he put it in his GPS, he said we were right, it was way further. Us - 1. Amsterdam taxi driver - 0. We got to the apartment, walked up the 3 very steep sets of stairs to meet Jesse. The apartment is adorable, a small place but a quaint view and plenty of space for a couple days. There is one bedroom with a king bed and an Ikea couch that folds out into beds. We all thought about walking over the park nearby, but as soon as we sat down and took a load off, we were done for. The beds were calling our names, so after a few more laughs, we got ready and came to bed. Time for me to sleep now, but I can't wait to explore Amsterdam tomorrow. Only a few hours here, and I think I am already in love with this city!
Glad you're having a great time! Be safe!
ReplyDelete