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| Bryan prepared for Paris with a French Vanilla coffee, and then oversaw the prep of the plane through the window. |
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| The United employee who took our picture thought we were on our honeymoon. |
We had a couple of hours in Chicago, so we purused a Sunglasses Hut, ate, and played lots of cards (Rummy)...and to Bryan's dismay, I began my win-streak. Then it was time for our overnight flight to Brussels, which was fun...what's not to love about trying to sleep sitting up in a small seat, surrounded by hundreds of people? We watched a couple movies, poked at the stellar airplane food, and caught a very few winks. But then we arrived in Europe!!
After a painless customs process, we pulled out the Eurorail pass and hopped on a quick train to Brussels Centraal, from where we discovered Cathedral S.S. Michaelis et Gudelae Bruxellis. The cathedral was enormous - taaallll ceilings and lots of big stained glass windows. Churches like that make me want to sit and reflect. I feel a touch of awe and reverence. So much work went into it.
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| Wish we could have heard this playing! |
Next we walked over to the Grand Place - a downtown square of sorts, with cool old buildings and outdoor cafes. We found a spot for lunch here, and indulged in a bit of Belgian chocolate.
After hurrying back to get our bags out of the locker at the Centraal train station and take the short ride to Midi, I remembered long lead times are not required for trains like they are for airports...but we finally got settled on our high speed train to Paris (the nicest train of our whole trip) where the jet lag caught up with us. Once we figured out which way our Paris map was and that street names are on the sides of buildings we managed to make it to our hotel and then went back out to get water before we crashed. Since we were in a cute neighborhood with restaurants and shops near the Eiffel tower we thought we could surely find a market by wandering around. Which we eventually did, it just took an awful lot of wandering. But once we realized there was a grocery store RIGHT beside our metro stop, we were set water-wise for the rest of our Parisan stay. Nevermind dinner that night or the fact that our hotel room did not quite live up to the website pictures...we crashed out!
