Erin: Day 2: Leaving Paris and Brussels, Belgium

October 5, 2008 – 6:09 PM Europe Time

I’m sitting here now at the hotel in Brussels – we checked into the Sheraton at 3pm today after a wonderful morning.  Let me recap that first and then I’ll share with you the Brussels experience.

Leaving Paris, France…

We woke up around 9:30am and got packed up and ready to go.  We left the hotel, walked toward the Champs de Elysses and stopped at a cafe called Le Belle Ferroniere and had a croissant and a cafe au lait.  A perfect Parisian breakfast!  It was nice too because we got to see the Arc de Triomphe a bit closer too!

One of the things Paris is famous for - Cafe au Lait

The Arc de Triomphe off of the Champs de Elysses

After we had some breakfast, we headed back onto the street and decided that the Gare du Nord, from where we were, was insanely far away so we grabbed a cab instead.  The taxi dropped us off and we headed inside and to the train ticket counter.  The train was leaving in 20 minutes which was perfect timing so we grabbed our tickets, headed to the platform and boarded the Thalys train to Brussels, Belgium.  Our ticket, being last minute, did cost us 80 Euros so we learned our lesson and will be booking the train tickets for the night before…

Trina and I with our backpacks waiting in line at the train station.

On the train with our waters… Somewhere between Paris and Brussels.

The train ride was nice… Pretty countryside dotted with small villages.  It was an hour and a half which was nice – not a long train ride and we were able to take some photos, some video of the countryside and share some really good laughs…

Arriving in Brussels…

We arrived in Brussels and headed out of the train station in search of a tram, a taxi or some form of transportation to Rogier Place.  We found a tram that only cost 2.6 Euros so we grabbed that and headed toward the Sheraton.  The ride was relatively quick and we were definitely feeling the culture shock here…  The language was so different and in France, we were able to pick up a bit of the French language but here… Well, it’s entirely different.

A sign in the Brussels train station.

Not long after, we came up out of the Rogier Place metro station (passing a large group of homeless men which we glanced at and quickly walked by… Ok, so it was almost like a sprint… haha) and when we surfaced to the main ground, we realized we were RIGHT at the Sheraton :)  How lucky!

Checked into our room and noticed some differences right away…  The light switches are SO weird!  They are these big, flat panels that you push down on and they are so different then back at home.

Brussels, Belgium…

It didn’t take us long to decide to jet out of the hotel and hit the Brussels streets.  It was overcast when we left but not raining so we bundled up, grabbed our money belts (remember, security is important!) and headed toward the Grand Place.  Along the way, we soaked up the sights and sounds and smells of Brussels.  Some of my observations:

(1) Brussels smells like chocolate and waffles…  Everywhere.

(2) Brussels is fairly dirty…  That was a disappointing feature – there is garbage everywhere and the garbage cans are overflowing.  People also don’t pick up their dogs droppings so if you visit here, look down!

(3) Brussels is breathtakingly beautiful in terms of its architecture.  Cobblestone streets nearly everywhere, the buildings are so ornate and the gardens are fabulous.

When we walked into the square at Grand Place, we were both taken aback.  Let me tell you something about us coming to Brussels – we weren’t overly excited… Not like we were about Paris and are about Rome and Venice and the Swiss Alps.  We didn’t have expectations and we were going here because Belgium is someplace we wanted to visit (and we both wanted Belgian chocolate… haha)  So, standing smack dab in the center of Grand Place brought me to tears – literally.  Trina told me that I shouldn’t be crying over buildings but I think somewhere deep inside, she was crying too… :)  The photos do not do it justice at all but here are a few anyway.

After the Grand Place, we went in search of a chocolate shop and found ourselves a Belgian waffle covered in Belgian chocolate.  Can you say delicious?!

Belgian waffle covered in Belgian chocolate… Need I say more?!

We devoured the waffle and headed next to the Royal Palace.  It took us awhile to find but once we did, it was gorgeous and we soaked it all in…

The Royal Palace

Now, let me tell you about the weather.  As I mentioned, when we left the hotel it was overcast but not yet raining…  Well, as we walked, the weather got progressively worse.  Neither of us cared because really, we’re in Belgium and on this trip, NOTHING will stop us free seeing the sights and taking it all in so we braved the winds and the rain and kept going.  We stopped at one point to buy an umbrella for 5 Euros which ended up making our “Worst Ideas List” (we’ll be posting this at the end of the trip along with humorous photos) because the umbrella ended up breaking and we trashed them both about 45 minutes after we purchased it.

Trina dealing with our el-cheapo 5 Euro umbrella… haha

Other notables… We walked through the Galerie de la Reine which is a closed in marketplace that still feels very open.  It has cafes that spill onto the cobblestone “streets” and lots of shops with really cool European fashions, chocolate and other trinkets.

Galerie de la Reine

So, all in all Brussels is an amazing place.  It really is giving us the “I’m overseas in Europe” feel and absorbing the culture here is phenomenal.  Our time here is short but I’m so glad that we made this our next stop!  Our train ride to Amsterdam tomorrow is short and we plan on getting up really early to be in Amsterdam early.  We’re hoping to have nice weather tomorrow but you know, even if we don’t, it won’t stop us from seeing the sights.

Me saying hello to Europe in my lovely, ugly, functional  hat and my 7 for All Mankind legging pants!

For those of you following along… It’s Amsterdam tomorrow, then Berlin, onto Poland (either Warsaw or Krakow), Budapest the day after that, Vienna (Austria) afterward, then onto Zurich (Switzerland),  onto the Czech Republic (Prague), Munich and then into Italy.  So… we should be in Italy by the 13th of October or so.

Technorati Tags: Erin Blaskie, virtual assistant, virtual assistance, Brussels, Belgium, Paris, France, Thalys, Sheraton Brussels, Royal Palace, Palais Royal, Grand Place, Belgian Waffle, Belgian chocolate