London - Brussels

This could be short and sweet tonight because I was concentrating so hard on getting myself and the luggage to Brussels I forgot to take pics! I was going to take one of Kings Cross or St Pancras International but didn't get to do it!! Here's one from the other day when I did my practice run!

Kings Cross St Pancras

Have to admit I was a little worried about getting me and my luggage across town via the Tube, but doing that dry run the other day really helped. It was supposed to rain all day too, but luckily it was ok for the 300m or so that I needed to get to Earls Court station.

Then,  all the lifts worked, and the trains connected and I got through customs etc without a hitch. The only "gulp" moment came when I had to life my big suitcase onto the slidey thing where they scan your luggage. No hope!!!  So I looked around with my best pathetic look and sure enough my hero emerged again and gave the case a big lift and there it went! I have been so blessed with so many people who have been kind to me.

The Chunnel train was fine....  It was so easy compared with airports etc...

Not very good at selfies!

Unfortunately the wifi wasn't all that flash, especially on the English side of the Channel but my brother Jim and niece Aimee were sending me scores for the footy, so I managed to keep up with what was going on. And the mighty Hawks won, which always makes things better.

Had one little hitch when I arrived. I caught a taxi here from the station, and I showed him what I thought was the address from Tripit, but it just showed the brand name and not the actual address, so I had to go  digging in my back pack for the actual papers. Anyway we made it eventually - he was a very kind and patient taxi driver.

They didn't give us a coffee on the train, as the hot water boiler was broken, so I was well and truly ready for a coffee after I arrived and checked in. So I went for a little walk. Couldn't find a coffee shop anywhere...

Found a market

...and a Church

but no coffee shop.

Then just up the road...

Street in Brussels

I found a very posh hotel...

Cafe Metropole

... where they charged me €4.90  for a simple little coffee with a bit of milk in the top. Aaaah the joys of travel!

So you can see I've changed currency to Euros and the cars drive on the other side of the road - thank God I'm not driving here!!!

This tour goes for about 10 days (I think!) and we're meeting before tea to go and see the Grand Place and the Manikin Pis, both of which I have seen before.

I came to Belgium on my last trip so I will be repeating some bits, but I don't  mind. I loved Bruge and Ghent and they're both on the list, so I'm happy to go there again.

There are lots of other places we are visiting that make this tour worthwhile.

The interesting thing for me will be to see how I go with a group activities. I'm a bit used to just wandering at my own pace....

Could be an interesting week!!!

Just come back from meeting the group and having dinner together.

We were taken by our tour guide Nathalie to Le Grand Place and saw the square at the heart of Brussels.... Here's a few pics

Le Grand Place

Le Grand Place

Le Grand Place

And the one statue that Brussels is most famous for... Le Manikin Pis

A little boy weeing...

 The story goes something like he wee-ed on the fuse of a bomb that was going to blow up Brussels and somehow his wee blew the fuse and the bomb didn't go off..... There's always a story to these things!!!

Brussels has me one hour closer to Australia. I put my clock forward one hour after I left the Chunnel on the Belgium side.

So that's  it for the first day of the next chapter in Wattle's Wanderings....  I'll be interested to see what happens next. Let's wait for the next thrilling installment.

One more thing... you may have noticed the URL has changed to BE for Belgium. If you've bookmarked the old link, it should still work anyway, I think.