Bob in Europe

Having a Hoegaarden in Brussels

Hard to believe I left the house yesterday at 1pm, it's now 3:30pm the next day in Brusells and I still have traveling left to do.

Pretty smooth so far. Good flight to NYC, then the long overnight to Paris. Paris was damp and about 50 degrees when we landed, and Charles De Gaulle is one of the dumpier airports I've seen. Luckily, everything was pretty easy to find, as I had less than an hour from the time I landed before my train to Brussels left.

The high speed train I took to Brussels was comfy and quick - 170 mph according to the announcement. I had a 2nd class ticket, but it had more room than my coach seat on the flight over.

The French/Belgium countryside was very pretty - low, rolling hills of farmland that was in a similar stage of spring as Iowa. One difference I did notice was that the farmland and houses in general were much better maintained that in the US - everything was neat and tidy.

As we rolled to a stop in Brussels, I realized I handn't printed out any of my stuff for Brussels - no map, no points of interest, nothing, nada. Once off the train, I exchange 20 bucks for some Euros, since I couldn't find an ATM anywhere, stored my larger backpack in a locker, and went downstairs to the Metro. Since I only had a vague idea that I wanted to go to the center of town, I literally asked the guy behind the counter "I'd like to go to the center of town". Even his little English couldn't help me there. I finally just looked at the Metro map, found where I was, and bought a day pass for 5 Euros that would take me anywhere. I picked out the station that looked like it was in the middle of the city, and got on the subway.

Got lucky, as I found myself in downtown Brussels when I re-emerged to street level. As expected, lots of neat architecture around and quite a bit of folks out and about. Almost all of the shops were closed - is Monday a rest day in Belgium? Took a small stroll, then found a small pub with outdoor seating where I currently sit, using the Internet access of the Hotel Metropole across the street.

So far, I'm not running into tons of folks who speak English in Brussels. I had to resort to pointing at the menu at the pub I'm currently at. The fish they brought me was good, though.

I'll update from Amsterdam tonight.

posted by Bob @ 6:32 AM