Finally had a decent night sleep. It was a tad cooler in Paris so I was able to close the windows and my leg wasn't hurting so much after I took an Advil. Yeah. It is bad enough with the time difference but all these other factors - well it is a pain to get some sleep.
Today was a travel day. darn - we were getting kind of comfy in our hotel, but time to move on. I snuck out and did one more geocache before we left. It took me a long time to fine this one. First my GPS was bouncing all over the place and then finally settled in on a small park. I was initially looking for something magnetic, but it ended up being a film canister. Bottom line - I found it!!!!!
After checking out of our hotel - we headed to the metro which took us to Gare du Nord. The train station where we would catch a train to our next destination. After several attempts to buy tickets from the machine which was telling us that the only time available was 6:30 PM. Wait a minute - it is not even NOON. Yikes - so into a line up of people where we met up with an American couple who boat each year in Salt Spring Island and I happened to be wearing my Salt Spring Island jacket!!!! How cool is that. Anyway - they had also tried the machines and it wouldn't work for them either.
Bought tickets for 12:30 PM and we were set. Then M needed to buy lunch and although we didn't just about miss the train - we did NOT have many minutes to spare. Kids just don't seem to understand the importance of getting to places a FEW MINUTES before the train leaves. LIke it would be nice to have time to get ourselves at the right car and get our luggage stowed, etc. Well we did have time for all that, but I like a bit more leeway. I ended up having a crappy hot dog on the train - oh fun!!!! And it cost 5 E to boot. Not a good deal!!!!
Our train took us to Bruxelles in Belgium where we switched from the comfy train to the less comfy train and two stops (one hour) later - we had arrived at our destination - Brugges (one of four major cities in Belgium).
Oh yes - let me tell you the bathroom experience in the train station. A lot of public places charge you to use the loo. Hey - I don't mind if it is going to be clean. Depends, but we have paid 40 or 50 cents for the privilege. Today - as I was standing in the line to use the women's washroom, I looked up and there is the mens - door wide open and the line of urinals right there!!!!! Poor guys - on display doing their business. And the women's - well - we had a cleaning lady in the ladys who checked each stall after it was used to make sure it was clean. I definitely got my money this time!!!! I think she gave each seat a quick wipe - how is that for service!!!!
Then it was time to locate our hotel. Now here is teh deal - in Paris - there was the Metro and the fact that all the street signs and maps were in English. Here - everything is in DUTCH. Yikes!!!! I did have directions to the hotel and we started along with our suitcases along the cobblestones - making a ton of noise!!!!! AFter consulting the map MANY times - we knew we were close. Found the street - but where was the hotel. We turned around and M spotted it. Between the two of us - we have done very well on directions.
I bet you are wondering why we are in Brugges. Me too!!!!! In early June, the Globe had an article about Brugges in the travel section which Marian gave to me. Since Brugges is sort of on our way to our next destination and is well known for CHOCOLATES and lace - we decided - why NOT!!!!!! And here we are!!!
AFter we checked in and unloaded our luggage - we headed out to tour the area. It is Monday and that is FLEA MARKET day on one of the streets and we wondered along that. Tons of people - but NOT like Paris. And every sort of language you can imagine - Italian, English, French, Dutch, Spanish!!!! We found several treasures - a couple of old toy tractors which the vendor let me take a picture of - my uncle collects them and not sure these are valuable so we didn't buy for him, but got all the info. We saw the Bernina store - no fabric though. And we came across a cross stitch store that had tons and tons of kits and tons and tons of floss and HUGE skeins of DMC perle cotton. Wow - they also had a few American fabric panels, but we didn't buy any of that.
Oh - the first thing we did buy - some chocolate and we ate most of it. At one of the candy stores - we saw them make candy. We need to go back because I am not sure what kind of candy they were making, but it looking like a rope candy and was quite fascinating!!!!!
At last - off to find a restaurant for dinner. It had been sketchy for meals for me today. M gets to review the menu to see if there is anything she would eat. I would rather NOT buy if she won't eat. We settled on a nice place and she had steak, a salad, fries and a sauce for her steak. Can you believe she actually ate most of the salad and had the sauce with her steak. Does this mean she is changing????? Is there hope for her??????? Well I am keeping my fingers crossed and we still have a few days for a miracle to happen. I had a most delicious meal of salmon and fresh potatoes. It was delicious
Then we walked around a bit and decided it was getting a tad chilly so we headed to the hotel and here we are. I don't think there is too much night life around here - it seems pretty quiet and while our hotel is on one of the main streets - well at the end of one) - there is no one much around. Oh yes - BUT our room door is RIGHT beside the desk and the front door. I hope that doesn't mean it will be noisy!!!!!!!
Time to go and relax. We both have free internet on our computers so we don't have to fight over that. Yeah!!!!!!
And we got a huge bathroom by European standards - maybe this was the only room that had a private bath - many of them do not!!!!
Have a great day!!!!!
Ciao!!!!!!
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