Brussels
March 7, 2004
Dear Friends and Families,
We had stayed "in-country" since coming back from Christmas break so we decided to try a weekend drive outside Germany. That was the plan, but,we woke up Saturday morning to snow everywhere. While we have giant snow tires on our little car, it didn't seem like a fun way to spend a few hours so it was on to Plan B - the train.
We packed light and went straight to our neighborhood train station, the Sudbanhof. A few minutes later we were on our way to Brussels, definitely "out-of-country". The trip was boring (= peaceful, compared to driving in snow) and just what we wanted. As we headed west, the snow shifted to rain, not our favorite picture-taking weather but good enough.
In Brussels we checked into our small, centrally-located hotel (Hotel Floris) and hit the streets. In fact, all weekend we "hit the streets", mostly just walking, gawking, and window shopping. (Our train luggage capacity is even more limited than our two-trunk car's.) We managed a few meals, some chocolate samples and a couple famous Belgium beers. Our diets suffered this weekend, but what can you do in the home of such wonderful specialties.
By the time we headed home Sunday, we'd vowed to return to Brussels when we can spend at least a week, enough time to shop, eat, and exercise enough to start it all over again.
Below is a panorama of the square with it's famous 17th Century buildings and a link to a slide show. (These are new experiments so please tell me if these actually work!)
Best regards and, trust me, beer and chocolate isn't a bad combination.
John and Marianne
Websites:
Hotel: http://www.grouptorus.com/Pages/Welcome/wel_floris_grand_place.html
Atomium: http://www.atomium.be/HTMLsite/EN/Welcome/Welcome.html
tourism office: http://www.belgique-tourisme.net
US tourism office: http://www.visitbelgium.com
< Panorama 0f Grand Place >