2 Days; 2 Countries

Trinity and I had a bit of a rough start with our Belgium trip. We went to get the rental car on Friday afternoon and after staying up all day after working and finally filling out all the paperwork around 3pm, we got the car loaded up with our things and ready to hit the road......almost. When I sat down in the car; I immediately realized that it didn't have air!! F>(k THIS! I went back into the rental office and point blank told them that I didn't want it without air....

Well, the car that has air is 'on it's way here'. If we wanted to wait, we could. I told them to call me when the car was back, cleaned and ready and Trinity and I headed home. I wasn't home for 5 minutes and they called me....seems that they thought I was going to Prague and there's something to do with lack of insurance for Prague and Poland. I need to find out if this is true with all rental agencies or just this one....

So, we made plans for me to pick up the car in the morning; postponing our departure. Not really a problem as at this point Trinity and I are both exhausted!

Saturday morning; we picked up the rental car and headed out to Brussels. Our to-do list included; Belgian chocolate; beer; fries; waffles and the Mannequin de pis and his (much less known) female counterpart. As an add-on we decided to go see the atomium. Can you believe that there were people zip-lining from it...crazy is all I can say!!

This was all accomplished by around 5pm...including drive time.

It's interesting that the more we travel the less impressed we are with things like the Grand Place Grote Market. As beautiful as it is, there is not the 'wow' factor that there once was....it's almost sad.

We had planned to stop back at the hotel for a quick nap then out to dinner and sample a few more Belgian beers....we woke up at 2330!! So much for dinner....neither of us felt like 'fixing up' for the weekend crowds at the bars so after a quick walk with Aco, we were back to bed. I blame it on the wonderfully soft beds at the NewHotel.

Sunday morning we decided to make our way to Luxembourg on the way home. We took the CitySightSeeing Hop On Hop Off bus and made our tour of the small city. Everything was closed (Sunday's !!!) so we grabbed a quick bite to eat then decided to head back home to Germany.

We found our way easily enough back to the parking garage where the car was parked only to find it totally locked down....seems it closes early on Sundays as well. After traipsing around the building several times looking like we were trying to break into the place; we decided that we were NOT getting in. Next stop...tourist info at Central Station across the street. The man at the tourist office was kind and helpful and tried to call the number that we had gotten off the garage security window to no avail...there was no answer! Once more around the parking building just to make sure that there wasn't some hidden door that we didn't see before then our final stop...the police station!!

I wasn't allowed into the building; had to push a button outside and try to explain my situation from the speaker. Finally a kind (and cute) policeman appeared at the door. He offered to call the owner and see if he would come out to open it for us and suggested that we wait by the garage; which we did. We sat at the garage like vagrants for about 20 minutes; I was resigned to the fact that we just needed to get a hotel room and stay the night and get the car when the garage opened in the morning. Trinity was not as resigned as I was....

Then a man emerged from the garage and opened the gate to let us in.....YEAH...SUCCESS! Off we went...

It was a swift visit to Belgium and Luxembourg. Much more to see and do another time but a fun way to spend the weekend. Now I really need to get the Ireland trip booked.....

More Photos Here