Thursday in Brussles (June 9)

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Thursday morning we took our time getting out of out of our Hotel, Rob said goodbye, as his flight was heading back home, and then Ruth and I took off again walking back down to the "Place Brussles" where we'd been the night before. We've enjoyed beautiful weather so far! no wind, not too hot, not too chilly although I was happy to have my very lightweight jacket or sweater along.  We enjoyed a very leisurely brunch at one of the outdoor restaurants  It can be a bit of a challenge sometimes guessing what some of the items on the menu are, or being able to understand our waiter, but that too is part of the adventure traveling in another country!

After we finished our brunch we headed back out, wandering down the streets, seeing the delightful sights.  Horse drawn carriage rides, sidewalk cafe's, Interesting shops, people walking, bike riders, narrow and winding streets.  We were impressed by the courteous drivers, always cautious of bikes and pedestrians in the crosswalks.  There's really not so many stop lights or signs, but it seems to work.  We were impressed by the lack of loud horns, mostly the horn was used as a quick beep for "be aware, I'm here" rather than a "get out of my way" or watch what where you're going"!  We decided to take a city bus tour, there were several routes to choose from, and it was interesting to ride on the top seats in the open air area.  We enjoyed taking a tour of "Little Europe", but unfortunately we really didn't allow ourselves enough time (We should have decided to do this earlier).  We had to catch the bus again in time to get back to the square so we could do our "waffle making class" we had signed up for.  Unfortunately our driver was about 20 minutes late returning to pick us up, which was making us panic a bit. The upside was, the bus had free WiFi, so Ruth could e-mail & contact our instructor to tell him we were unavoidably late.  We were told just to let him know when we got back, that the group would come back over to the square and pick us up.  We had a bit of a walk again when we got off the bus, but once again thanks to technology we followed the map guide on our phone to find our way.

 Of course the baby and toy shops always caught my eye!

 Our ride on the top level of the open air city tour bus

 One of the canals in town

 We arrived at our destination, "Little Europe"  This was major points in each country in Europe.  Really quite fun and interesting to see--and probably the only tour of Europe I will ever get!

 This is a major interest in Brussles.  I took it form a distance so I could get the whole thing in.  It is HUGE!  You can read about this here:  http://www.city-discovery.com/brussels/attraction-864-atomium

 Flanders Field-

 May be my only chance to have my photo in front of the Eiffel tower!

 The planes moved down the runways!

 A bull fighting rink!

 A piece of the Berlin wall.....

Our class was just a small group, just 5 of us.  We were told the history of "Belgium waffles" given a recipe and instructed how to make them and how to run the waffle iron.
We got to "decorate" and eat all of the waffles we made.  Probably the most notable lesson we learned, was where we had bought our waffles the night before was one of the worst places we could have chosen, and although they looked fantastic, they didn't taste anything close to as good as the ones we made!

After stuffing ourselves with Waffles & leaving our cooking class, we made our way back to the Hotel.  I'm not sure how far from the hotel it was, but all in all, we walked over 8 miles according to the step app on my phone.  It was something like 18234 steps, and I do hope it went a good way in burning off a good portion of those delicious waffles!

 We were amused at these delivery bikes, I had to take a picture of them for my girls--who love Sushi (and can't get me to go eat it with them!

 All the delights in the shop windows!

We were definitely ready to get off our feet for a while, so we had a rest, then headed back out walking, exploring some streets closer to the hotel.  Again we were feeling so fortunate for such beautiful weather! The architecture is so amazing and beautiful, and it's so interesting to see so many people walking & riding bikes--yet so many cars.  It gets dark pretty late here this time of year, so it's kind of startling to realize it's already 9:30 at night when it's still daylight.

 It's always interesting to see the new mixed right in with the old on the street!

 The Hotel--this is where we stayed.

 The narrow and winding streets just get me! And everything brick!

 We saw quite a few different places you could rent bikes, and they are used.  Many bikers and  pedestrians!

 The stairs to the underground train, that would have been fun to take, but we didn't have a reason to.

 High end shopping--a different view than from our walk into the tourist down town section of the square earlier.

 I loved the parking lots.  Lots of space, and shade!!

 More shopping!

As we were sitting in our Hotel room again, a knock sounded on our door, and Ruth wondered out loud who it might be, did I order room service, and did I want to answer it?   NO....... haha!  Well, she opened the door to the surprise she'd arranged for me, and here was Laura and Frederik!  They came over and spent the evening/night at the hotel, then to take Ruth & I sightseeing and back to their place on Friday!
Even tho I had heard a few things that did kind of make me wonder--I had put my suspicions to rest & ignored what I had heard.  It really was a fun surprise!

Next post, Friday and Heading to Laura's in Borne.