Completing the "8"

This morning I awoke to a nice cool, dreay, misty morning. Bet you guys in Dallas would kill for that!!! Time to head down to breakfast, then back to the room and check carry on luggage restrictions out of Heathrow. I also had to check again on how to get to the hotel in London. All that done, to the showers to get ready for check out and head on out to the Brussels Midi train station and hopefully change my reservations from the 2:58 train to the 12:30...might as well get on to London so I can rearrange all the luggage, hopefully get a piece of dry ice for the chocolate, and settle in for the last two nights in Europe.

Made it to the Midi station and checked in at Eurostar...can you believe it, the 12:30 train is SOLD OUT, so here I sit in the lounge till 2:58. Oh well, I stopped by a Belgian hot spot...Hagn Daz and had a...yep...Belgian Waffel, still trying to spend that last 5 euro. I thought the kid said 5.50 so said OK...well it was 3.50 with coffee, so still have 2 euro in my pocket. I figured I'd take this extra time in the lounge to update the blog a bit and put all my euro in one pocket and break out the left over pounds from the fanny pack and put them in the other pocket so I'd be ready for Waterloo!! ;-)

When the driver let us off at this station I thought..."hmmm, really nice station", I walked in and people everywhere. Three rows of shops up and down the esplanade with escalators up and down from either side of the main pedestrian walkway. I spotted the Eurostar area right off then visited the rest of the terminal...plenty of time you know. So I decided to walk all the way to the other end and see what was there..w e l l....what a difference a door makes. The city of Brussels should close the other end's exit to tourists. That is the end I went out when I got here...I was in this SAME station and had NO idea. Out that end the street is dirty, buildings run down, panhandlers sitting on the street...no wonder I had a hard time finding a taxi...finally in a tunnel, and the only one there.

On THIS end there is a nice plaze out the door, new office building across the plaza, "Taxi Stewards" directing taxis in a circular drive and people lined up to get a taxi. I tell you what, depends on what directions you take in life as to what your destination looks like!!!

Ok, well more later after I get to London, just sitting here and wanted to pass all this along. I'm not sure we got a picture of Eurostar when we arrived but will make sure I get one from this side of the tunnel.

Well when we first got on Eurostar I thought it was great, but to tell the truth, after riding all the other Euro trains (well except for Trans Balkan Express) the eurostar is the bottom of the barrel, except maybe for speed and going UNDER the channel. But DAMN it is crowded. Small seats compared to the leather recliners you get on the ICE trains and most of the other Euro trains. It was packed thought…elbow to elbow, but finally made it to Waterloo…then went to ask a taxi the fare to Heathrow….50 euro…that is $100, well I went to the underground and asked for directions to Heathrow and for 5 euro I took the Jubilee line to Green Station and connected with Piccadilly to Heathrow…from there got the Hoppa bus to the hotel for 4 E…total of 9 euro. But was 7 pm by the time I got here…so to the bar for a beer. I looked at their menu…10 euro for a small pizza ($20)…so I took off walking.

About six blocks down the street I found a little place called The White Horse…a little pub built In the 1500’s. The windows have all been bricked in because from the 1600’s to sometime in 1800 (1851 I think) there was a “window” tax, so they bricked’em in!!!! ;-)

Anyway, sure wish I’d taken my camera. The ceilings were about 5’10” high, the door about the same. I ordered fish’n chips…was great. Chatted with a guy named Brian that seemed to be “THE” guy in the bar. He knew everyone that came in. He said he stayed at the same hotel I’m at (Thistle) a couple of years ago and also stumbled onto The White Horse…now He’s paying a mortgage down the street and his girlfriend Kathrine (I met her too) lived right on the corner. Very nice people and made the dinner and beer very enjoyable.

After that…headed back to the hotel..watching all the people drive on the wrong side of the road!!! Gonna have a cup of coffee and hit the sack. Traveling makes you sleepy…sometime!!!