Heading over to Belgium, Tuesday

We had thunderstorms all night last night...with thunder so loud that it woke us up. You could hear it for 30 seconds or more as it reverberated off of the canal houses. Some of the rain carried over into today.

Caught a 12pm train for Brussels, kinda sad leaving Amsterdam, I really enjoyed the atmosphere. Plus it marks the end of our first leg of the trip. Thankfully there are plenty more to come!

We went to the main square in Brussels, which was really fantastic. The architecture is so incredibly detailed, particularly the Town Hall and the King's House. There must be hundreds of statues ringing the Town Hall, each different from the next. Unfortunately we decided to eat along the square, and the service was terrible. We sat down, waited about 5 mins to order drinks, which was OK, but then no one stopped by our table for at least half an hour to 40 minutes...when we had been planning on ordering food. We decided to just get out of there, but it sort of soured our experience. We understand that service is slower here, but this was just ridiculous. Especially since there were really only 3 or 4 tables when we first arrived. Anyway. We jetted and headed off for the Mannekin de Pis, a statue of a small naked boy peeing, which was completely underwhelming. I don't know why they market it so much. Apparently on some occasions they dress him up. We ended up grabbing a bite to eat right near the train station at a Belgian equivalent to Denny's, except the food was better. Immediate service, and food came out no more than 2 minutes after we ordered. I don't know what was up with the other place. Probably too French. Ha.

We just missed a 5 pm train leaving for Bruges...we actually had made it to the platform just as the doors were about to close, but we weren't 100% sure it was the right train. Hesitation cost us about 40mins while we took a connector to another station and then moved on from there to Bruges. They say its the journey, not the destination--I guess this time they will both be quite memorable. :)


We've decided to use the yellow smiley ball that Sara packed in our "emergency kit" as our Wilson for the trip. You'll probably see him popping up here and there in pictures. We decided to let you guys name him... we'll pick from your comments. And no, we're not going crazy. Well, maybe a little....