BELGIUM - PART 1

Our friend, Karen, a former business associate of David, was in Paris a few days last week,  and we spent some time together.  Her Paris stop was only part of a 4-week-long trip she's taking in Europe.  Her next stop after Paris was Belgium, and she invited us to join her at the 3-bedroom house she was renting for two weeks.  We jumped at the chance to visit a new country...and for free (more or less!!!).  We are retired after all!!!!!😉

We left by train to Brussels on Thursday, July 5, and less than two hours later arrived in Brussels.  From the train station we walked (BIG mistake!!!!!!) to the City Center.  It was the worst walk ever!!!    First of all, it was a long walk and secondly, it was through a questionable area of town.  We were about ready to try and catch a taxi (if one was to be had) when we were there.  It was hot, I was tired and David was in deep "you know what"!!!!  Later, Karen said she read on Trip Advisor many reviews saying how terrible and long the walk from the train station to City Center was...I felt redeemed!!!!

We always enjoy a train ride!

Luckily for him the City Center was beautiful and full of cafes and shops, in addition to magnificent buildings surrounding the Plaza area.

The first item (no not shopping!) was getting lunch.  There were cafes on all sides and most, if not all, had outside dining so we just picked a cute little place and ordered.  Oh my gosh!!!!  It was dinner for  lunch!!!  I ordered Flemish Beef Stew which, of course, came with fries...delicious but way too much food for me.

In Belgium they dip the fries in mayonnaise then dip it again in the stew sauce-yummy!!

Lunch revived me and improved my spirits so....let's hit the shops!!!  There were chocolate shops EVERYWHERE!!!!!!  So all we could do was choose one and go in.  We picked up a box for Karen as a hostess gift and got a sample too!!!  Then we stopped at a lace shop where I got a tapestry pillow cover.  And that's all we bought.  We've discovered it's a little difficult shopping for the apartment since we know we're just temporary and we don't want to spend much money on things that will not come back with us.  So we're very careful with our purchases.

Lace shops abounded too!

After walking the "terrible trek" back to the train station, we caught a smaller train for the 30-minute ride to the little town where Karen would meet us.

A nice little Belgian town

I can't tell you how many times the phrase "we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto" came out of my mouth.  The City Mouse had come to the country!!!  Braine-L'Alleud was a nice, little town that was clean and pretty quiet.  The house Karen was renting was out a little...she said in the country but it wasn't as far "in the country" as I was imagining.

This does look like the country though!

The house where we stayed was very roomy, and we had our own bathroom.  Of course, no a-c but big windows throughout the house that we tried to keep open...at least in the bedrooms and kitchen.  It sits on quite a piece of land and there's a koi pond, henhouse with five hens (that's where their eggs come from-a neighbor tended them while the owner was gone), a rabbit pen (again the neighbor's job!), a garden and fruit trees.  It had the potential to be beautiful but was very overgrown and needed some TLC, I thought.

But in the mornings, we would sit at the kitchen table with the large window and door open eating our French breakfast and it was quiet except for the sound of the water in the koi pond and the birds singing.  Several mornings I was up alone (David had already gone out for our croissants and Karen hadn't come down yet), and I sat with a cup of hot tea listening to the quiet and taking in the natural beauty of all the flowers and trees.  You can't really get that in the city.  It was a nice change.

Fresh and Fabulous!!

This was our typical breakfast while we were at Karen's.  She and David always had coffee and I drank hot tea or water.  I also had boiled eggs several mornings--I don't know how the French (or in this case the Belgians) last till lunch with no protein.  I'm such an American!!!!!!😊. But everything was fresh that David had picked up at an outdoor market while he was getting the croissants.  Best cherries I've had in a while!!


After catching up with Karen and a light dinner, we all hit the sack to get rested up for the next day and our road trip to Brugge.....