The countryside was beautiful reminding me of the Oregon countryside. Each section of land was divided by trees, still richly green, and bright with sunshine.
One of Chris' European coworkers grew up in Bruges and worked with his wife to create three walking tours of Bruges for us to follow. We set off from the train station, following the river through the park, toward the Ten Wijngaerde' Beguinage. A home for religious, single, and widowed women still used today. These women chose a life a poverty and fidelity but did not wish to commit fully to a religious order. The scenery was idyllic here as well but so many tourists. We walked through their courtyard, looked at the church, and went past the horse and buggies. The sound of the horse hooves clopping on the cobbles echoed through the streets.
Stopping for a mid morning snack in one of the squares at a food truck, Chris purchased apple beignets. We did not expect that they would be four LARGE beignets sprinkled with powdered sugar, but ohhh, they were delicious.
We continue on our walking tour toward the windmills, past the church where Guy (Chris' work friend) got married, taking pictures all along the way.
The path to the windmills was nice because the people were more scarce. We had a funny encounter with a couple English-speaking tourists on bikes. We were sitting in a relaxation park and they drove up on their bikes. One of the girls was quite loud and her bike mates were telling her to be quiet because it was a relaxation park! "Oh damnation!" She responded. Then she proceeded to check for her phone tucked neatly in to her bra. "This phone gives me pointy boobs," where at this moment Chris decided to chime in with, "That's because it is cold." She was so shocked that we understood her because she had been talking around us thinking we were French or some other language. "Hah," she laughed, "Cold." And somewhat embarrased, raced away on her bike continuing to laugh.
We made our way back in to the heart of Bruges, now teaming with even more tourists, and stopped at a Tea Room for a snack. We left after I couldn't handle the smoking all around me. The non-stop smoking, blow it in your face kind of smoke. Ugh. And the table next to us just laughed as I tried to wave the smoke away with my hand. At least we got to use the WC before being seated.
I spotted a quaint little restaurant called "t Zand 27. They advertised soup for 5 Euros. Their offerings included Tomato and Pumpkin. Chris stuck with the Tomato while I chose Pumpkin. We face timed the girls and they were just getting ready for church. Proud of my girls. They had a great time at their Homecoming dance the night before. We didn't talk long so they wouldn't be late for church.
We worked our way back to the train station for our evening trip to Paris. Paris. Yep. We retrieved our luggage from the lockers in the train station and then walked quickly to our train.
We didn't have a long time to wait, but then, neither did the many other people waiting. The train at our end was so packed that Chris and I both sat on the stairs by the door. As we drove back to Ghent, our station agent finally made it to us in the last car to collect our tickets. He said that the first two cars of the train were mostly empty. We asked if we would have enough time to reach the front of the train in the short time that we were stopped. He said he hoped so.
Chris and I took off at a fast clip walking then running to reach the front of the train. It was indeed empty. We had a nice ride to Brussels for the next hour and some. The countryside continued to be beautiful.
Our arrival in Brussels gave us about two hours until our final train of the day to Paris. Once again our luggage went in to storage and we headed off to the center of Brussels and the Palace Square. Chris used the Google Map app, but unfortunately it doesn't have a "this is the skanky part of the city" feature. We walked fast. Finally reached the Center Plaza when the sun was almost set, but were amazed at the architecture of the palace.
We weren't sure if the lights were supposed to come on at a certain time of the night, but after waiting for a bit and not having them come on, we decided to move on and find some food. Chris used Yelp once again which helped us find Plakas, a Mediterranean restaurant. It was packed. We climbed three flights of stairs to the top floor before finding an open table.
The waiters amazed us as they raced up and down those stairs with plates of food resting solidly on their arms the whole time. Chris ordered a beef gyro, and I got a falafel pita. Yummy with great sauce. Our waiter was a little slow in getting to us, but when he realized we had to be back to the train station, he worked to bring our food quickly.
We tentatively made our way back down the narrow stairs and went in search of a taxi. We found one down at the end of the next street. We appreciated his honesty in telling us that because of the distance to get out of the square, it would be 15 euro to get to the train station. If we headed back up the street and then two blocks further, we could find another taxi that could took us 8,30 euro.
I was glad to have Chris to navigate through the maze of the train station, finding our luggage lockers, and then our train platform. It was dark now, so there was no countryside to enjoy as we traveled for the next hour or so to Paris. We did have wifi, and I could text with the girls. We tried facetime, but the connection wasn't that great.
Chris said to me, "Look French." I'm sure I pulled it off.
Our arrival at Gare du Nord was kind of surreal. I was in Paris. France. Even the air smelled great. We left the train platform where we exited the train and walked to the station pulling our luggage and hefting our backpacks.
Chris tried to purchase a pack of ten subway tickets before leaving the station. Each of the kiosks were down that we tried. We finally found an agent in a booth to purchase the tickets, and all of a sudden my husband was speaking French with her. He seemed to think it wasn't such a big deal, but I was suitably impressed. We got the tickets and found the subway to Sainte-Lazare station. Chris was careful to tell me that IF I were to get lost, I should remember Sainte-Lazare to find my way back to the hotel. We were staying at the Hilton de L'Opera. Very swankified. Our room, 275, was at the corner of the building overlooking the street. The noise was a little much, but the location... The bathroom had a heated floor. If I had tried to imagine a hotel in Paris, this would be it.
We unpacked what we could as our luggage was on our way up with the bell hops. Pretty sneaky how they take your luggage from your hands as you walk in the door. Chris and I were both exhausted after a long day of touristing and traveling. After our luggage was returned to us, we unpacked a bit, and got ready for the next day. We had to meet up with our tour group in the morning at 8:15 by Notre Dame. It made for a quicker morning to lay stuff out and unpack a bit. We had three nights in this hotel.