Sunday July 28

Move to Brussels, Anniversary Dinner

Well we had another fun hiccup on European trains today. Not a terrible 'stuck on an airplane' experience, but enough to make one realize they're not quite as fully reliable as advertised.  We got to Amsterdam Centraal with lots of time to spare, and were up on our platform with 45 minutes to go.  Then all the trains leaving the Netherlands started to flash 'cancelled'.  There was apparently a power failure somewhere throwing everything off.

We were directed to go to another platform and hop a train going to Rotterdam, where we would meet up with our train to Brussels.  Of course, everybody was doing that, so there was a bit of chaos and crowding on this train.  We had our suitcases in the standing area, and then we saw a large and rambunctious set of young Spanish women get on board, and one hopped right up onto my suitcase.  I had to go rescue it as my CPAP and laptop were in there!

We made it to Rotterdam, and then there was a wait for this train to leave.  They were trying to get everybody to the right place I think.  Nevertheless we had the misery of watching disappointed people miss trains with each departure today.  Now we were running late.  I started to try to catch free WiFi at the stations so I could message the apartment host in Brussels.  I had told him we would be there at 3, and it was obvious we would be late.  When I finally got hold it was tense-he thought we were to be there at 2:30 and had the cleaning person waiting to let us in.  I looked back and my message clearly said 3:00.  Anyways, we got to the apartment right at 3:40 and she had been leaving but saw us coming, so we were shown in with no problem (and gave a tip to try and mollify).

Then we went out for a walk to pick up some groceries, and out again to scope out restaurants.  We had a decent to good 29th Anniversary dinner at a restaurant just down the street.  Now we are sitting on the porch enjoying a cool evening, the likes of which we haven't had in weeks, in Brussels!  We've booked the hop-on, hop-off bus to go in in the morning!

Feeling cocky at Centraal Moments Before the Train is Cancelled

Sitting on Our Porch in Brussels

Walking today=10.26 km.