Day 1 and 2

Very little to report, so in travel speak, that is good.  The flight was a quick one from Montréal to Brussels and 2 movies later we are on the ground, roughly an hour early and luckily our adjoining group from Guelph was also an hour early so the concept of travel and “hurry up and wait” has been thrown to the wayside for now.

So parents I suppose you want to hear how each of your travelers are doing, other than a few upset stomachs they are great travelers to this point.  They look sharp in their red jackets and after a long day that will continue into the night I am impressed to say the least. 

After joining with Tom (our tour director) and Freck (our bus driver) we are off and running.  Our first stop was the Atomium, which is a pretty neat building that was built for the world’s fair in 1958(I think).  It now stands as a science center and is simply a photo op and a way to get out and stretch our limbs.

As we continue on we are lucky enough to get a tour of the city by bus.  Our hotel is in the city and Freck has kindly agreed to tour around before taking us there.  The afternoon is going to be a walking day around the city so this is a great start to our tour.

As we head into towards city center, we have had a chance to see the Royal Palace and the kids are getting some great photos already.  They have learned about the linguistic diversity of the country.  Even though I have told them about it, this type of learning always makes it more real.  Flemish, French, Dutch and German and the main languages and we find that the country has nearly split as recently as two years ago because of these language differences.

Off we head to the hotel.  You will happy to know that it is an old abandoned warehouse…nothing but the best for the TOSH travellers!!!  Actually, it has been renovated and opened in the last year and is really, really nice!!  We can’t check in just yet because it is only 11:30, but at least we can drop the bags and head out to explore Brussels on foot.  Yes after being up for almost 24 hours we are heading to explore by foot.  The kids are great and are not complaining one bit!

After a short walk across the Brussels canal we have about a 10-15 minute walk to the Grand Place.  The Grand Place is a large square in the middle of the retail core of the city so the kids get a chance to shop.  Most of the shopping is for waffles, which come as advertised, MAN OH MAN are they good!  The kids now have a couple of hours of free time before we continue to move and see the sights of the city, that I will share with you in a bit.

The city of Brussels is the capital of the European union and is quite busy with a population of about 1.9 million and like most European cities is not easy to get around on a bus, but as with most people, we are walking.

After cutting the shopping short, I know, we are off to see one of the most famous elements of the city of Brussels, “The Mannequin De Pis.”  The kids really think its funny that the most common symbol of the city in many of the store windows and chocolateries is the little fellow takin’ care of business…well his business anyways!

From there we head to St. Michael’s Cathedral, which is a gothic style Cathedral that was begun in 1200 and took over 300 years to complete.  It is considered to be the Royal Cathedral   When you enter an 800 year old building you come to realize just how young our country is.

where all marriages of the royal family and as well coronations take place.

We are finally off to dinner and then back to the hotel.  The kids eat a staple of salad, yes healthy choices, which some chose not to even look at…Belgian fries…yes that’s right Belgian fries(which predate the incorrect term French Fries) and roast chicken.

After supper we head back to the hotel and it is beginning to rain…..our sunny day has turned to rain and by the 10 minute mark of the 15 minute walk home…the rain is torrential and now it is beginning to hail!!!  We are soaked but all laughing about our first day in Europe.  Three Oaks kids were in bed by 7:30…you should all pay me to exhaust them everyday like this!!!  Haha  Take care all and I will hopefully pop back in tomorrow evening after we transfer to Lille after another day in city of Brussels….chocolate factory for breakfast!!!