BEHIND THE BOOKCASE .... attic living in HEIDELBERG

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Christmas Vacation, 2009 - Day Six

Day Six was a travel day from London England to Brussels Belgium. We started waaay early in the morning and were at the train station before 7am. Too early in fact for public transportation; we had to arrange for a taxi large enough for all of us plus our backpacks.

We had quite a lovely two-course breakfast on the Eurostar for our return trip - complete with steamed washcloths when we were done.

Knowing we wouldn't be in Belgium very long, we didn't make too many plans. And that was a good thing. As it turned out ... the folks in Brussels were not as friendly as folks in other places. That was sad and disappointing and unfortunately consistent everywhere we went... buying metro cards, hotel, restaurants, etc. On the plus side, we did not start an international incident on the metro back to our hotel after an afternoon of site seeing.

Bright Spot! The Atomium was constructed as part of the 1958 World's Fair. It was very cutting edge for the day and quite futuristic (remembering that Sputnik was launched in Oct 1957). This is the single largest attraction in all of Belgium - and just plan fun. Folks can walk up just so far and then wait in line to take an elevator to the top.

Additionally, there is a retro museum at the base of the Atomium as well as inside several of the spheres... it covers 1955 to 1963. This was super fun to walk around.

Afterwards, we found a Mexican restaurant. The food wasn't so bad, but the company was better. Fortunately, we didn't have anything else on itinerary, so we could take as much time sitting and talking as we wanted to. Good times for sure. Our hotel rooms were nice and we stayed up watching something captioned on television.


Arrived at St. Pancras to take the Eurostar to Belgium - looking very bright eyed.


Hot Chocolate Marie and Where Are My Gloves Joe.


Relaxing on the Eurostar before getting underway.


Most of the backpacks.


Flower and Joe - you can just see John's shoulder on the left.


Mural down the block from out hotel in Brussels.


Found this sweet carousel.


The Atomium


That small cluster of people at the bottom, in the middle of the picture is my family.


Inside the Atomium at the base level.


Flower, John, Marie, Joe, Jack


Living in Germany, traveled to Paris, London, & Brussels to eat a Mexican dinner inside an American Conestoga wagon. Priceless.


Burritos, fajitas, tacos, and sparkling water with my people is where it's at.

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