Our Travels: Travel and Arrival to Europe

After planes, trains, automobiles and buses, we finally arrived safely at our Brussels B&B. We drove to LAX from Karen's Mom's place in Orange County and flew KLM straight to Amsterdam nonstop. We paid a little extra to get the equivalent of "ecomomy plus" and it was well worth it. More legroom and the seats reclined a lot more. The flight was about 9.5 hours long and it went smoothly and we left and arrived on time. We all got varying amounts of rest/sleep during the flight. We left at 1:45pm and landed at 9am Amsterdam time -- which felt like midnight our time. Josh didn't feel tired until about 2-3 hours prior to landing so he likely had the least amount of rest. The Amsterdam Airport reminds me of Frankfurt in that it is old, completely torn apart and under construction. At least Amsterdam is only a fraction of the size of Frankfurt. We got our luggage and headed out to (try to) catch the fast train to Brussels where we would be spending the first 3 nights of the trip.

I'm not sure why I expected anything less, but of course there was an issue with the train when we got there. Apparently, that faster train to Brussels almost always sells out at least a day ahead of time. Not to mention Saturday mornings. And I didn't think to reserve it ahead of time. So we could either wait 6 hours to catch the next faster/nicer train (arriving at 6pm) or we could take the slower (insert your favorite adjective here that rhymes with pity) route and get there at 1:30pm. Notice I didn't use the word "train" there. That's because the journey was not just by train. We were told that we needed to take a 1 hour train to a previously unheard-of town named Breda (Is that Brenda without the N?) and because it was our lucky weekend, they were doing construction on the tracks. So that meant we had to get off the train and catch a bus to the next station. Then continue for 20 minutes to Antwerp on another train. Then connect to yet another 50 minute train into Brussels. For a grand total of 3.5 hours of train+bus rides -- all with our large bags. Hey, it wouldn't be Europe without a train adventure to start things off. Not only that, but because Josh was tired, he didn't realize he needed to take one of the bags off one of the trains and left it on the previous train! Which we didn't realize until about 5 minutes later -- but thankfully we ran back to the earlier train and it was still there where we left it! Oh boy. Minor panic attack there. But in the end, we made it to Brussels and walked the final 10-15 minutes to our B&B. The weather was party cloudy when we arrived (and in the upper 60s) but it cleared up later into the lower 70s later.

The B&B is fantastic. It's fairly cheap (120 Euros/night) and the room is very large as well as the bathroom. It has a second bed for Josh and is a 3 minute walk to the main central square of town in Brussels. The owner is nice and told us what to go do and where to eat. (obviously the main concern of ours)

We head out to finally get lunch (since we didn't get any chance to eat during our 3.5 hour train/bus adventure during the 10am-1:30pm timeframe) at 2:30pm. So for those of you who have traveled to Europe, what is the next problem we have? Yes, places are no longer serving lunch at 2:30pm and won't serve food again until 6pm! Great. And of course we couldn't quickly find the part of town where there are speedy takeout bites. It wasn't until about 3:30pm that we were able to find the "Waffle House" for some great savory waffles. (ham and cheese)

We didn't realize it but the town is known for its love of comic strips. So there are comic strip murals all around town. Josh thought it was really cool. We saw some sights (there aren't a ton in this city) and ended up at a rooftop festival event that our B&B owner told us about. Every Sat during the summer, they open up the rooftop floor of one of the parking lots and lay out a lot of fake grass, some lawn chairs and serve some snacks and drinks (yes, alcoholic drinks too). It had a great view of the city and we had some much needed drinks while we relaxed in the sun for a bit. Of course, we are somewhat jetlagged so Josh is soon passed out and I'm in the middle of the best nap of my life when Karen rudely wakes us both. Sheesh.

We finished off the evening with a very good dinner at a restaurant near the B&B. I had meat loaf (a known specialty of here) and it was outstanding. Karen got cheese croquettes and Josh had Salsbury steak. And again some good drinks. (sense a theme with today's events?) Suffice it to say, there was no searching for the gym or pool for extra exercise today.

So in the first day in Europe, Josh got to experience all of the pitfalls that we joke about with Europe travels-- something screwed up with the trains, luggage safety issues at train stations, and the endless search for food at the wrong time of day. Now that we got those out of the way, we can get down to business!

Surprisingly, we were able to stay up tonight! It helps that the sun doesn't set until almost 10pm. (it's 9pm now)

Tomorrow, we do a day trip to Bruges, one of our favorite cities. We'll likely have more of the same (yawn) -- Belgian chocolate, Belgian Waffles and Belgian French Fries. Maybe we'll be adventurous and try out a bike ride in the countryside.

I uploaded more photos than normal below.. in case people wanted to see more pics. If not I can post fewer.. And this blog doesn't let me easily reorder them.. so today they are in random chronological order.