Belgium: Our First Day

We awoke at 3:45am. We quickly raced to get our last minute packing done. I went downstairs and made some tea and coffee, and our car arrived at 4:15, right on schedule. Luckily, it was pretty mild out, and for once wasn't raining, although that wouldn't last.

Our driver took us on a very leisurely ride all the way to London Waterloo East station, which is where the Eurostar departs from. We arrived at about 5:20. Everything was closed, except for Bagel Factory, so we grabbed a filled bagel each for the journey. We went through customs fairly quickly, although the French Police thought Christian's camera tripod was a weapon. Kelly was actually surprised, because last year when she took the Eurostar to Paris they totally gave her the third degree, being American. This time we were waived through.

The journey was a lot faster than we thought. Being beyond exhausted I was out before the train left the station, leaving Christian to watch Thunderbirds by himself on his portable media thingamajiggy. Before we knew it we had passed through the Chunnel and were speeding at 200 miles an hour (no, I don't know what that is in kilometers and I don't wanna know) through the French countryside. We stopped briefly in Lille, France, to drop off some passengers, and made it to Brussels by around 9:20 local time (they are one hour ahead of London).

We knew we were not in France anymore when the signs we saw weren't in French, and they weren't in German. In fact, Belgians kinda write in Text Message, or so it seems.

Once in Brussels Midi station, we had little problem finding our train, which departed at10:10 local time, towards Bruges. We had a little time, so we walked through the food court, just looking at all the waffles and cuissants and sausages. In addition,the people were just so...European. I cannot describe it, but it definitely different than in London. I found it charming. I kept saying things like "Honey! Look at the little Dutch kid with the blond ringlets" or "honey, you ask them for directions, I don't speak French". Christian had to keep reminding me that we're NOT in Holland & we're not in France.

We decided to wait till we got to our final distination so that we can have a romantic meal, not something greasy at the train station, so we just got a diet coke. I'm so proud because I asked for it in the local language "Guten Tag, madamoiselle, May ich have einen diet coke, ces vous plait? Gracias"

Afterwards, we loaded onto the commuter train that is taking us to Bruges. It was pretty crowded so we're not sitting together, but back to back. Christian is amongst a gaggle of teenage girls from an interrnational school in Stockholm, while I typed this next to a Belgian businessman reading a funny paper written in their Germanofrenchified pseudospeak.

We arrived around 10:30am to a very cold and rainy Bruges. Regardless of the weather, nothing could detract from the unbelievable charm and beauty that this small city possesses. Refusing to use any public transport on this trip (although there isn't really any) we walked over cobblestoned streets past 17th century buildings and many horse drawn carriages. We traveled through a huge functioning abbey, however most of the nuns had the good sense to stay indoors.

We obtained a city map from another hotel and finally made our way to ours; by now very cold and very wet. We are staying at the Hotel de Barge, a converted boat permenantly docked on the canal. The sweet receptionist showed us to our room right away, her concern quite apparent as we did both resemble drowned rats at this time. Our adorable room is small, overlooking the canal with a marine décor. The walls are blue and white striped, and the mirror resembles a porthole.

It is very cute.

To warm up, we both took a shower, then I made the fatal mistake of getting into the bed. Christian had a really hard time getting me out. After dragging myself out of a very fluffy bed (it was only midday after all) our receptionist gave us a citymap and highlighted all the areas of interest (museums, the central Markt, and whatnot). Map in hand and jackets still wet, we set off back into the city.

To leave our hotel, we hang a right under an overpass, cross a street, go up a flight of stairs, then find ourselves on a really funky red bridge. The architechure of this city is amazing. The bridge takes you along a charming tree covered path that leads to another bridge, crossing the Lake of Love. Over that bridge, you hang another right and pass Begijnhof abbey and a pretty pond covered in white swans. Since the prices are in Euros and double digits, we have to keep converting in our heads to Sterling. The receptionist had mentioned an enormous fair across town on its last day, so we decided to get lunch there. Enroute, we passed amazing restaurants with gorgeous pastries and waffles in the windows, tea houses, and most importantly,Belgian chocolatiers. While passing the huge Cathedrel Saint-Saveur we saw a little mediterranean deli that had the most delectable things in the window, and bought one foccacia bread to share for 80 Euro cents. It was outstanding. By the time we made it to the fair (disappointingly realizing it was an actual funfair with rides and gamestalls with greasy yucky food) we decided to head back to Pasta Maria and have more of the great things we saw in the window. I had pizza and Christian had pasta, and although it isn't exactly Belgian fare, it
was just what we needed.

We walked around the town a lot more, taking in the sights, no camera in hand today. As I do on every trip, we stopped especially for a few postcards for my family, and found a lovely tea room outside the market square. We ordered two Belgian hot chocolates and a raspberry tart to share, and I wrote them of our time so far. By now we wanted to head back to the hotel, as we'd been out now on our feet about 5 hours. I bought myself a lovely colored scarf as a treat, while Christian desperately tried to send the first part of this missive to our blog at a WiFi hotspot (to no avail...yet), and we made it back here by 6. Dinner wasn't in our cards tonight, as we actually fell asleep within 10 minutes, and as I write this, it is 11:47pm, and we're hoping we can sneak a full nights sleep in still.