Brussels, Belgium
We both woke up around 1:15AM to a loud car outside out window who got trapped outside in the little outside walkway. We didn't know how she got there, but she meowed for like 45 minutes. Our room was very stuffy (couldn't control the temperature so we opened the window but that made the cat louder and Danielle all stuffed up. But then when we closed the window, Alex was terribly warm. We finally fell back asleep and got up at 6:35AM. We got dressed, went to breakfast (supplied by the hotel) and then off the other train. The breakfast had a lot of choices-bread for sandwiches with 3 meat options (salami, ham, and pepperoni), cereals, milk (4 kinds- strawberry milk, chocolate milk, white milk, and one that was orangish), tea/coffee, hazelnut spread which Danielle made a sandwich with, jams, hard boiled eggs, cheese, cucumbers. We both had our fill! The train station was about 3 min away, just over the river so it was a super easy walk. Got on the train and were off to Brussels, this ride would be about 3 hours and 10 min).
On the train we met a mother and young cute daughter that liked to play peek-a-boo with us! The mother actually met her husband while studying abroad in Amsterdam and they hit it off. He is originally from Amsterdam and her Seattle. They met in a club and moved to Seattle for awhile, but then he was offered a good job with the Netherlands Military and they moved back to Amsterdam. They were traveling to southern Holland to visit his parents. The mother and child were bilingual and the mother would talk a bit in English and then in Dutch and keep going back and forth-which was really neat. The little girl smiled a ton, such a happy toddler.
This train compared to all the others was fairly dingy, least nice out of all the trains we had taken. We both slept and read and were in Brussels in no time. We decided to not get off at the stop we were told but get off one stop ahead to be closer to the center of the city and it worked out marvelously! The weather was 60 and cloudy!
Once we arrived, we walked to the Royal Park and saw the Royal Palace-not as nice, pretty dead area. Then we moved on to see some churches, Grand Plaza-lots of stores, places to eat, typical street performers/vendors (music, paintings, drawings going on), people begging for money.
We had lunch at a busy place called Panos (grab and go). We got a Belgium waffle which was to die for! It is like a funnel cake and donut in one that melts in your mouth and has sugar on top of it. Alex took one bite and fell in love! We also got a Chicken Cajun panizza (panini) which was also good.
One thing we noticed, there are no coins anywhere on the ground! No one ever drops and leaves coins on the ground like in the U.S.
After lunch, we walked up to a lovely garden which had at the top of the hill we climbed had a fabulous view of the city. We walked through all these fancy chocolate shops, some of the chocolate had gold colored specs on them, fancy fancy! We stopped in one place called Neuhaus and they had mousse which the woman let us try. Wow it was phenomenal-air-filled deliciousness! We tried the dark chocolate, hazelnut, and white chocolate-which tastes more like vanilla. Yum Yum Yum!!! Then we went back to the Grand Plaza and people watched for a bit. We got through the city faster than we thought so we relaxed in the plaza for an hour. We had to get another waffle before we left so we got one and headed to the train. We had to go to a farther train station so it took us about 35ish min or so. The location of this train was a very nasty part of the city. Smelled like a port-a-john. We were early for the train so we just hung out in the dining section just talking. Then once our train platform was up we had to wait in a really long international line. We had to get out tickets scanned, scan our bags, check the passports, then board the train. Because the lines were so long, the train had to be delayed in leaving, but only 20 min.
First Impressions:
Clean, fairly crowded in certain areas and open in others. Fairly small in comparison to others we had visited, similar to Basel in size. It was very laid back, people smile more at us, dress is casual. Most people spoke English, lots of zig-zag streets that change names as you walk down them. Mostly pedestrians and most places took cards or cash. There were a good amount of smokers, a lot of homeless people here, and people were of normal/large size. Also, which Danielle hated, there were a lot of pigeons and they had no boundaries because they are used to being fed by people so they got really close.
This train was much more crammed than the others, many more people so seats were more crammed and more uncomfortable. Luckily this train was only an hour and 10 min. This train would take us back to France and then into the underground France to England water passage way. It was very dark in the tunnel so we napped a bit and ate our snacks. Quick trip so we were there shortly and yeah, all English!!!
We walked to the airbnb which was about 20 min away. The area which is Camden is a very busy part of town, lots of pubs, lots of college kids drinking and partying. Our place was right off the beaten path (which meant noise at night, but close to transit). It was a very small and crammed place. We had a bunkbed, but the bottom was a queen so we slept there together. This was probably our least favorite place tied with Amsterdam--two not so good in a row! The place had 3 other bedrooms, only 2 were rented though, 2 German girls in one and 2 American girls in the other, a bathroom for us all to share (tiny shower and toilet), and a small kitchen (only plates, cups, and knives were in the cabinets).
We decided we would have some oatmeal for dinner to keep it simple and get to bed early. We showered and Alex started our laundry and then went to sleep.
On the train we met a mother and young cute daughter that liked to play peek-a-boo with us! The mother actually met her husband while studying abroad in Amsterdam and they hit it off. He is originally from Amsterdam and her Seattle. They met in a club and moved to Seattle for awhile, but then he was offered a good job with the Netherlands Military and they moved back to Amsterdam. They were traveling to southern Holland to visit his parents. The mother and child were bilingual and the mother would talk a bit in English and then in Dutch and keep going back and forth-which was really neat. The little girl smiled a ton, such a happy toddler.
This train compared to all the others was fairly dingy, least nice out of all the trains we had taken. We both slept and read and were in Brussels in no time. We decided to not get off at the stop we were told but get off one stop ahead to be closer to the center of the city and it worked out marvelously! The weather was 60 and cloudy!
Once we arrived, we walked to the Royal Park and saw the Royal Palace-not as nice, pretty dead area. Then we moved on to see some churches, Grand Plaza-lots of stores, places to eat, typical street performers/vendors (music, paintings, drawings going on), people begging for money.
We had lunch at a busy place called Panos (grab and go). We got a Belgium waffle which was to die for! It is like a funnel cake and donut in one that melts in your mouth and has sugar on top of it. Alex took one bite and fell in love! We also got a Chicken Cajun panizza (panini) which was also good.
One thing we noticed, there are no coins anywhere on the ground! No one ever drops and leaves coins on the ground like in the U.S.
After lunch, we walked up to a lovely garden which had at the top of the hill we climbed had a fabulous view of the city. We walked through all these fancy chocolate shops, some of the chocolate had gold colored specs on them, fancy fancy! We stopped in one place called Neuhaus and they had mousse which the woman let us try. Wow it was phenomenal-air-filled deliciousness! We tried the dark chocolate, hazelnut, and white chocolate-which tastes more like vanilla. Yum Yum Yum!!! Then we went back to the Grand Plaza and people watched for a bit. We got through the city faster than we thought so we relaxed in the plaza for an hour. We had to get another waffle before we left so we got one and headed to the train. We had to go to a farther train station so it took us about 35ish min or so. The location of this train was a very nasty part of the city. Smelled like a port-a-john. We were early for the train so we just hung out in the dining section just talking. Then once our train platform was up we had to wait in a really long international line. We had to get out tickets scanned, scan our bags, check the passports, then board the train. Because the lines were so long, the train had to be delayed in leaving, but only 20 min.
First Impressions:
Clean, fairly crowded in certain areas and open in others. Fairly small in comparison to others we had visited, similar to Basel in size. It was very laid back, people smile more at us, dress is casual. Most people spoke English, lots of zig-zag streets that change names as you walk down them. Mostly pedestrians and most places took cards or cash. There were a good amount of smokers, a lot of homeless people here, and people were of normal/large size. Also, which Danielle hated, there were a lot of pigeons and they had no boundaries because they are used to being fed by people so they got really close.
This train was much more crammed than the others, many more people so seats were more crammed and more uncomfortable. Luckily this train was only an hour and 10 min. This train would take us back to France and then into the underground France to England water passage way. It was very dark in the tunnel so we napped a bit and ate our snacks. Quick trip so we were there shortly and yeah, all English!!!
We walked to the airbnb which was about 20 min away. The area which is Camden is a very busy part of town, lots of pubs, lots of college kids drinking and partying. Our place was right off the beaten path (which meant noise at night, but close to transit). It was a very small and crammed place. We had a bunkbed, but the bottom was a queen so we slept there together. This was probably our least favorite place tied with Amsterdam--two not so good in a row! The place had 3 other bedrooms, only 2 were rented though, 2 German girls in one and 2 American girls in the other, a bathroom for us all to share (tiny shower and toilet), and a small kitchen (only plates, cups, and knives were in the cabinets).
We decided we would have some oatmeal for dinner to keep it simple and get to bed early. We showered and Alex started our laundry and then went to sleep.
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