Brussels

Leaving UK was pretty painless, the eurail was like sitting in a plane and we had a light meal during the trip.  Scenery was fleeting, very flat and we had no photos for you.  We arrived in Brussels Midi Station at 6pm and BAM chaos - people everywhere and no english!!  We stood totally bemused and Ray was anxious to find an ATM we might not have enough euro for the cab?  Errols Garmon was showing a 40 min walk to our hotel that would be 1 hour for me!!

Thommo went for walk and had no luck with ATM found 2 both out of order - Sunday?  We eventually asked a taxi how much for our fare & we had enough -phew!  Thommo has done marvels with our accommodation, our hotel is gorgeous and it was a relief to flop and have a cuppa.  Thommo went looking for an ATM but I snuggled in ready to attack the streets tomorrow.

Morning, and Yippee we found our little cafe just down the cobbled road, in Luxemburg Square which was a busy hub of students, business suits and taxis.  We waited out a couple of heavy showers and then hopped onto the tour bus for the innercity circuit, which confirmed that Brussels is the business centre of Europe.  I am sure 22 million live here, and they run everywhere, and smoke!!

Hopefully we have some  photos to show how busy this place is, the buildings are so dense it is almost impossible to get a photo of them or the sculptures they have, both historic and new.  We hopped onto the 2nd circuit which went through the older part of the city, and the apartments were more colourful and the older style trams ran through the middle of the roads surrounded by trees.

We had our tea back at our cafe, it was an easy walk and had pleasant staff.  Panic this morning, I had set our alarm alright, but our phone was on UK time, 1 hour behind!  We did record time getting ready and made it safely to the station.  Then it was looking for our train?!  Had to ask porters who seemed to find it amusing?  We found our train in plenty of time, and here we are almost in Amsterdam. 

We have arrived, it is amazing - people, cyclists, trams and taxis and those amazing canals, there is water everywhere!!  We stepped outside the Central Amsterdam and Thommo immediately saw our hotel the Victoria, how good is that?  Just a walk across the roads of tram lines, cycle/scooter lanes and pedestrians - absolutely scarey!!  We have photos, and we checked in our luggage into the hotel and our next mission was lunch.  Ah a decent cuppa too.  Then we went over to book our bus/canal tickets, we are really keen to get onto the  canal bus because the sun is shining.  We hopped on the Red line and the tour through the canals was wonderful, although the housebouts did not look so romantic close up!  16th century bridges, warehouses (which are now converted to luxury apartments).  Rather difficult to get the top of these lovely tall buildings sitting in the canal bus.  Thommo is still shaking his head at the crazy traffic, there is so much of it and add millions of pedestrians.  Bicyles here leave Japan for dead, it is so flat and parking stations are huge apart from around all the bridges!

I have more badges at last, they are so hard to source.  Time to re-group and get  this one away for you all.  School holidays again, Kizza having fun?  Did Noah go over to Sean & Aodhan's, and trust Fergus is not missing his school routine?  Bye for now xoxoxo