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Rome | |
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Brussels |
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| I have no idea where I get my ideas from. Logically I know, Brussels is a city. |
| In my silly mind, I honestly thought we would land at the airport and go to a train station. Once arriving at the train station, it would look like something out of an old Disney movie. Everything would be in bright colors and as the choo-choo pulls away, you would see a nice old lady selling bouquets of flowers as you walk down the little dirt road to see the town. Reality set in fast. Brussels is a city. It’s big. We arrived at Noon. It was very overcast and cool outside. I believe it was about 62 degrees. I was glad I wore my Capri sweater. I was somewhat disappointed because it wasn’t that little town with bright colors, I set out to make the best of it. I was very homesick by this time as well. I missed my cats Jack and Puck and wanted to place a call home to see how everything was going. | ||
| We found our way to a metro that took us to the train station. Hauling the luggage around wasn’t much fun. We had nearly 200 pounds between the two of us. Once we got to the train station, I sat with the bags and Dave went in search of somewhere to check in for the train and where the lockers were to store our luggage. While he was away, I sat and watched the people pass by. There was a very diverse group around. I did see a woman selling flowers, but unfortunately not exactly what I had envisioned. She was in a store. I watched as people went in and looked around. They would go to the counter and then you would see her picking out flowers. She wrapped them in the green tissue like we use here, but the tissue paper she folded into a big paper flower and in the center she placed the beautiful stems. Once she had chosen the right arrangement she wrapped the entire thing in clear cellophane. It was just beautiful. I know this wasn’t something special, because I watched her repeat the process several time with new people who came into the shop. Why don’t they do things like this at home, I wondered. Dave returned soon. He bought me a coke, he's an angel. He had found where we should meet the train and where the lockers were located. We gathered our things and locked it all safely away. We had about 4 hours before we needed to be back here to catch the train. We caught the metro train and made our way into the city. |
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The train was crowed and noisy. The metro
was different than at home. I t looked much older and it was very dirty.
The cars looked like mini buses that traveled on tracks. When we walked
out of the station, we decided to grab a bite to eat. I spotted a McDonalds.
It was really different than the McDonalds at home. There were clocks
inside that had the time all over the world. It had banisters and seats
made of wood. Much fancier than anything I have seen back home. After
lunch Dave and I walked around some. We bought a phone card and placed
a call back home. Dave's mom told us everything was fine. Jack and Puck
missed us, but they were doing great. I was relieved to hear this news.
We strolled around a little more. I found several great shops that sold
beautiful lace. I bought a few more scarves. I also found pretty book
marks and handkerchiefs to take home as gifts. |
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We found this great place. It was called the Grand Square. It looked like a cathedral, but instead it was a hotel. All the buildings around here had similar architecture, but they were stores. |
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Back at the train station, we wrestled with the luggage
and some how manage to get all 200 pounds loaded on the train. The train
left the station at 5:00. We would be in London at 8. A family came and
sat in front of us. They had 3 children and another one on the way. At
first, I thought the kids were cute. They had British accents and it was
fun listening to them. We soon discovered these were the loudest children
we had heard. Non-stop for 3 hours, the cried, screamed and chattered.
The parents were oblivious to it all. We traveled through the countryside.
Beautiful green fields and farms everywhere. |
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Rome | |