The plane ride from Zurich to Brussels wasn’t too tedious, but the lobby before gettng on the plane was overwhelming. It didn’t look like there were anymore than two people of any nationality in the lobby. Additionally, the previous flight to Brussels had been cancelled, so the plane was overflowing with travelers. We had traditional African dresses, sweatsuits from Russia, tie-dye from Germany, turbans and sari’s from India, covered heads from Iran and business suits from everywhere. The passport check was set up two feet away from the check-in counter and two feet across from a set of vending machines. The concept of personal space disappears during these times. You find you have feet and possibly balance, everything else you have to jettison.
Our train ride from the airport to our hotel was amusing. We buy our tickets and rush to get on the train (which is posted to leave in 2 minutes)… and we sit. Y’know, should train cars have lights on within them? Y’know, all the other passengers are now looking at their watches, shouldn’t we have left about 5 minutes ago? Ah-ha, this train car has a problem (said in Dutch.. we watched the reaction on those that could speak the language). Okay, unload the luggage move onto the next train car. (Think lots of people with lots of jet lag.) Hmm, we are still sitting, the train isn’t moving. Uh-oh, another conductor.. time to move to another track. Let’s follow the locals that spoke the language, everyone else looks more lost than us. Off to the next track… and after a long sit we are off only 40 minutes off schedule with only the locals looking disturbed.
Our walk to the hotel from the train station was uneventful, but I don’t think a car running me over would have phased me too much given the jet lag. We checked our bags at Hotel de la Madeline. Nothing remarkable about the hotel except the location. Really, nothing remarkable.
We took the afternoon (geesh, jet lag) to walk around the city center and downed a traditional lambic and trappist ale. We saw gypsy women pan-handling more aggressively than Santa Cruz. Found a great cafe to people watch around the Grand Place.
I thought the architecture on the Grand Place was hiddeous. They had rebuilt the square within 7 years of an army on-slaught that took down 4000 wooden buildings. When they rebuild they did it in 1698 in stone with ornate architecture that I just don’t have an eye for… gaudy and unbalanced. Looks like most of the rest of the tourists thought it was great, though.
We found restaurant row for dinner and I had Mussels in Brussels. No, seriously, this is a seafood town. They were good. Derrell had a salmon that he said was the best he’d ever had. It could have been the herb butter.
Not many Americans here, but not many locals in the tourist section either.
We finally got our room at the hotel and blew the room’s fuse when using our hairdryer. Hmm, I wonder if the wattage-amperage-voltage-americana is going to work in Europe? (Yes, I did switch it to 240.. even with jet lag.)
