Luxembourg to Brussels

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Thoughts on countries so far:

Scotland - Cold, windy, beautiful! Drive on the wrong side. People are friendly. Galic is weird! Really like Irn Bru soda! Neil, our guide rocks!

Germany - Warmer, but windy on the Rhine. Enchanting towns. Everyone rides bicycles. Inexpensive for a tourist area. Dogs are everywhere... even restaurants, stores, and train stations!

Luxembourg - It may be the country with the highest income per capita in the world, but they don't keep their streets and public places very clean! Spend some money on public maintenance! Clothing... women's at least, is expensive! Lower Luxembourg City (Base?) is quite pretty.

Brussels - TBD, but so far interesting.

We took our time getting up since we had no set time to catch the train to Brussels, Belgium, and they leave fairly often. So, after another standard breakfast, we packed up, hiked up the hill to the bus stop (No. 14) and soon arrived at Gare Central to catch our train. Since the fare was going to be a bit and the ticket machines don't take bills larger than 20 Euros, we found the CFL (?) Information and Ticketing Office and inquired about the next train to Brussels. The clerk told us we could take the next train at 10:10 and sold us round-trip tickets for 66 Euros since two one-ways would have totaled 68! Our train turned out to be a bit late, but soon we were on our way. The train was pretty empty, so we were able to snag all four seats together, to store our bags and still be comfortable. We pulled into Brussels Midi Station around 2pm and started trying to follow the directions from the hostel's website. It took a lot of interpreting, some help from a transport office, and a bit of luck. First, we were supposed to take Tram 51, but couldn't find any "Tram" on the signs. We finally figured out it was T 51, with the T standing for Tram. Our next dilemma was that we were supposed to travel in the direction of Heysel, but couldn't find that name anywhere. We decided to ask at a ticket window, since we'd need tickets anyways, and the nice guy pointed us in the right direction and sold us two tickets. Arriving at the platform he pointed out, we still couldn't find an "Heysel" any where, plus to make things worse, there were a large group guys with T-shirts that said "International Drinking Team" or some such, whooping it up and actually dispensing beer from one of their suitcases! Oh well, we trusted we were in the right place and hopped on the next T 51 tram that came along... along with the group of drinkers! The tram was crowded and it was extremely difficult to see the signs at each stop when we got there, much less beforehand. Again, fortunately, I happened to lean down at just the right time and saw the stop we wanted, Ponte de Flandres. We pretty much pushed our way off... again along with the drinking group. After we crossed the canal bridge and turned left towards the hostel, we were relieved to see the group turn right. Short lived relief, since they'd apparently made a wrong turn and showed up at our hostel later.

Our hostel for the next three nights is the Meininger Hostel (actually Hotel on the outside), another fairly modern place, but this time with a communal kitchen, and an on-premise bar! We checked in and headed up (are we ever going to get ground-floor accommodations?) to our room, to discover we were the first people in the room. We grabbed the only side-by-side beds in the room, the rest being bunk beds, stowed our stuff and headed out. We did a little window-shopping, looking for a place to buy Belgian waffles for lunch, since again we hadn't eaten since breakfast. That is getting to be a bad habit! Along the way, we saw the world famous, pride of Brussels statue, Manneken Pis. In case you've never heard of it, it is a small statue of a little boy pissing into a fountain! Apparently, they like to dress him up in different outfits at different times of the year. Today was au natural, and seemed to always have a large crowd taking pictures. I'd heard of it, and seen photos, but didn't realize it was so small. Maybe the size of a toddler, and only took up a corner of the street. After taking the mandatory photos, we asked a souvenir shop lady where a good place was to get Belgian waffles and followed her directions. We spotted places along the way selling waffles for only 1 Euro, with about 80 cents for each topping, but found out when we got to our restaurant, Maison Dandoy, that theirs were 4.50 to 7 Euros, but liked sitting down in a nice place instead of standing up to eat a cheap one. I can't imagine the fast food variety could have been so good. These waffles were tasty and sooo light. Manoli got one with fruit sauce and I got one with fruit sauce and ice cream. Delicious!

After lunch, we wandered around some more, spending some time in the famous Grand Place, a very large square or plaza surrounded by beautiful buildings, and filled with tourists! By this time it was getting rather cloudy and looked like rain, so we weaved our way back to the hostel, shopping along the way. Of course, we had to make the mandatory stop at a supermarket for my wife to do her browsing ritual. Soon after we arrived at the hostel, it started raining, so we relaxed in the room until dinner time, then I went downstairs and bought a sandwich, salad, and a small plate of lasagna, all of which we ate in the room while we watched NetFlix.

Tomorrow we plan to either take a trip to see Waterloo, or maybe buy a Brussels Card (and cross our fingers that its worthwhile this time) and visit some museums, like Mini-Europe. By the way, we'll take a photo of the hostel tomorrow, since we forgot on the way out to eat and it was overcast on the way back.

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Photos

Manneken Pis
Manneken Pis

Our Belgian Waffles
Our Belgian Waffles at Maison Dandoy

One of the ornate buildings on the Grand Place
One of the ornate buildings on the Grand Place

Another awesome building on the Grand Place
Another awesome building on the Grand Place

One of the Belgian lace shops Manoli visited
One of the Belgian lace shops Manoli visited