We’ve Musseled Our Way in

The payoff after a 24 hour journey that felt more like a week! Travel would be so great if you only didn’t have to, well…travel! Let me just say, it never gets old, as most of you know. No boring details, just delayed flights with contradictory update communication, six hour airport wait, missed connection, missing boarding pass, security body searches in Frankfort, disgusting airplane food, delayed baggage retrieval….

But, made it to Brussels just a couple of hours late, and all’s smooth from there.

The Wiltcher’s Steigenberger hotel is a spectacular 150 year old hotel in the center of Brussels with spacious, comfortable rooms with their own patios…more like gardens.

We wandered the area in a state of serious jet lag scoping out the restaurant scene, the fancy shopping area, the uh oh pastry shops, and of course, the wonderful chocolate purveyors.

The decision was made to eat dinner at 3 pm since we wanted to avoid a later drowning by head drop into a bowl of soup. Thus the enormous pile of mussels in white wine and butter with perfect Pom frittes and glasses of brut cava and delicious Belgian beer.

More preventative walking and shopping (dark chocolate pralines). Back to the hotel at 8, trying desperately to remain upright until 10. Tomorrow, a morning organized tour of the city and an afternoon of exploring while awake with a long-time, dear friend of Bonnie’s who makes Brussels her home.

Amazing, we just found the live semi-finals of the European Football Tournament (UEFA) between England and the Netherlands on TV. If the Netherlands wins, we’ll be in the country for the final. We’ll see how it will affect our visit schedule? We’ll probably be asleep by halftime, so see you tomorrow!