Today was definitely a very late start day. The locals were eating when we went out, which hasn’t been the norm. Maybe we are learning to relax a bit? Heh.

We wound up at the Plaza Nueva, and enjoyed our coffees and choices of breakfast food. I’ve no clue what Dan had, but my croissant was so large he had to do me a favor and finish it for me. (But the angle from which this is taken makes his treat look rather small and it really wasn’t quite like that. Honest!)

We had asked the desk if we could have a late checkout due to our later, 16:55 flight, but that was denied, but they told us they could hold our luggage for us, so that worked too. Up to our room we went, and did a variety of wasting time kind of things, and packing (but hey, I had already done that … some other person had to do a lot more. Hah!) before we went downstairs prior the checkout time of noon. We got to the desk at 11:58. No one was there. Okay, can’t be our fault if it’s after noon, but yours truly always gets uptight about time. When someone finally showed up she immediately knew our room number. I have a feeling she had us pegged for annoying tourists or something, but who knows?

Then we took a walk in a direction we had yet to go, and ended up climbing up a hill for a pretty good view! We spotted the funicular we took the other day (final photo).

Then back to the hotel. We figured we could eat at the airport lounge, saving a bit of money as well. We collected our luggage, grabbed a taxi (not literally), and took a short but somewhat costly ride to the airport. (I do wonder if Uber would have been less, and we knew we could take a train and then a bus but we went for simple and easy.)

We checked our larger bags (required not only because of our trekking poles but because this plane said we wouldn’t be allowed as much carryon luggage), and went through security in pretty much no time, even while we had to take all electronic devices and cameras out of our bags and I had to remove my sweater and scarf. But hey, shoes could stay on.

Up to the lounge we went, and food was had. Even the lounge had 0.0% beer. It appears it’s everywhere.

We had gotten to the airport with a lot of time to spare, so that meant blogging, resting, and time for coffee and sweets too.

Finally on to the plane we went. And oh my, the woman to my left, who spoke English much better than we could speak French, had a long story to tell about her car rental and getting charged for damage. She was a character, for sure.

The flight was non-eventful, and since I was in the middle seat I didn’t get photos, aside from before the woman arrived and when she went back to talk to her partner.

We landed, got out of the plane, bought an expensive bottle over water (nearly $4!), and … hello Brussels! But not for long. We had a long walk to the baggage area, collected our bags eventually, and walked to the train we needed to take. With help from a very kind young man we got tickets, first to the south Brussels station and eventually to our next destination. Oh … and three of the photos below (the last three) are of bikes … like SO many bikes. I am not sure if you can see them, but I’m hoping you can make them out. This was at the train station in Ghent, I think.

Hello Bruges!

We took a cab to our hotel, and then … hooray … after getting to our room we met up with Jan and Greg (for those who don’t know, my sister-in-law and my brother). Let the fun begin! Sadly I didn’t even think to take a photo of them or our room, but after getting to our room, the “upgraded executive room” or so we were told, we went to theirs. Now wait a minute! Theirs is much, much larger than ours! What is it? The presidential room or something?! Hmmm.

We enjoyed glasses of wine, some chips, and devoured the remainder of Greg’s breakfast sweet since we hadn’t managed to get any dinner. (Thanks, Greg!)

Now, back in our room, it is late and we are ready for bed. We’ll see what tomorrow brings. (Internet is extremely sketchy here, so I can’t promise posts will get through … time will tell.)

Welterusten!