Belgium!

People were up late outside our window hollering. Party hardying in Amsterdam. Slept in till about 7:30! Had jam on my toast instead of chocolate spread. Packed up and hauled all our stuff downstairs and checked out. We caught the tram no problem and in no time at all we were waiting at Centraal Station for the train to Brussels.

We got to pick our own seats and nabbed some window ones. The train filled up as we stopped at more places. I think it might have even been overbooked because some people were just standing. About four different people sat next to us through the journey. Saw some windmills outside the window but most of the trip was spent with my nose in the new David Sedaris.

There are three station stops in Brussels; Noord, Centraal, and Midi. We could locate Noord and Midi on the map and we knew Centraal to be somewhere between the two so we got off there. We asked at one hotel where the tourist center was. It was in the Grand Place. We had some trouble locating that so we asked at another hotel. Had more trouble and asked again. Then we were told to go to the white tower and we found it. Our hotel is the Hotel du Congres. It is just a short walk up from a park and about ten minutes from Grand Place. The hotel is made up of a a few converted townhouses. We are on the second floor, have twin beds, a bathroom, soap, a tv, and a view of the courtyard and some close in buildings and trees. It is very quiet and removed from major traffic. I can get some sleep, at last.

Brussels has considerably more hills than Amsterdam but the buildings have more variety. Turn a corner and there are centuries old churches flanked by modern structures. I've already spied one comic mural on a wall. Grand Place is magnificent. I can't describe it, I'll have to put up photos when we take them. There is a lot of shopping and food around that area. We went into one comic shop but it was just translated American work. Belgian fries are delicious. Dad had some trouble with a Belgian waffle. We went into a center boasting 102 shops but none of the clothes in there grabbed me. Some guys tried to sell me some leather jackets but I already had one. You only need one.

At the Tintin Boutique I aquired a shirt featuring a large bold design of Thompson and Thompson. Hard choice. The store had lots of figurines, folders, pins, shirts, posters, comics, anything to do with Tintin! Really awesome. In one meander we found ourselves at the end of a long shopping structure. It was a three or so story covered path with shops of higher end wares. One book shop had indie comics in the shop so I went in. I had to go up two flights of winding stairs to get to the third floor comic section. And oh what a section it was! Such a beautiful array of art and genres. I wish I knew more of the language. I asked the guy tended the area what he would recommend that had a variety of art and wasn't really dependant on knowing the language. We chatted and I ended up buying a hefty anthology. Enough art in there to stun a cat; physically and mentally.

We had unremarkable sandwiches and then trekked back to our lovely hotel. We are here for five nights. I have a map with an Art Nouveau walk and a Comic Wall walk. There are museums to visit, churches to photograph, flea markets to scavenge, and a light sweater to buy because I only brought one.