{"id":2060,"date":"2009-10-05T15:04:50","date_gmt":"2009-10-05T19:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/?p=2060"},"modified":"2014-04-14T15:11:33","modified_gmt":"2014-04-14T19:11:33","slug":"brussekls-sunday-october-4-and-monday-october-5-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/?p=2060","title":{"rendered":"Brussels, Sunday October 4 and Monday October 5 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"

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All US flights were on time and connections made without a hitch.\u00c2\u00a0 When we landed in Philadelphia, we raced to the shuttle to take us from F Terminal to A Terminal, found the shuttle waiting for us and off we went.\u00c2\u00a0 We arrived at our gate in Terminal A way before boarding (despite having only a 1 hour scheduled layover) and settled in.<\/p>\n

Divorce time almost occurred when we found our seats \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we were in 22 A & B, right before a lavatory and our seats did not recline very far.\u00c2\u00a0 Future travelers beware!\u00c2\u00a0 Perhaps most frightening, directly in front of us were a group of very lively and hard of hearing (as indicated by the volume of their conversations) travelers going to Paris together.\u00c2\u00a0 We learned far more about their ailments than we ever wanted to know until our sleeping pills kicked in.\u00c2\u00a0 We were awakened occasionally when the lavatory was flushed right behind our heads.<\/p>\n

Arrival in Paris a little ahead of schedule, passed through immigration and collected our bags.\u00c2\u00a0 The new Eagle Creek bags are lighter than our old ones and we squeaked through with our bags weighing only 35 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 37 pounds.<\/p>\n

Our train to Brussels left several hours after our arrival at Charles de Gaulle.\u00c2\u00a0 We made our way to the TGV station at CDG and picked up lunch to eat on our train. Salad and water for me, quiche and water for Mike.\u00c2\u00a0 When our train showed up on the schedule board, we were a little surprised to find it also had an Air France flight number.\u00c2\u00a0 So, we dutifully lined up 45 minutes before departure to check in.\u00c2\u00a0 When it came our turn, the Air France agent told us we were not Air France passengers, we were simply TGV passengers but that our train would leave from Voie 5 the north access definitely.\u00c2\u00a0 We decided to wait and see; we have been in a situation before where they changed the track number at the last minute.\u00c2\u00a0 10 minutes before departure, the schedule board declared that our train was leaving from track 3 south access.\u00c2\u00a0 By this time, the Air France agents had taken all the passengers down to track 5 north access and loaded up their baggage on a caged baggage cart.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 We scooted down to the south gates found track 3 and waited.\u00c2\u00a0 We found a display that showed that our car (car #6) would stop by embarquing point D. We found it and waited.\u00c2\u00a0 Shortly, the Air France agents and baggage cart came running up the loading platform herding all their passengers.\u00c2\u00a0 Naturally, we felt very smug\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.<\/p>\n

The TGV ride was great except for the Italian teenagers right behind us who thought everyone in the car should enjoy their conversations.\u00c2\u00a0 The countryside was lush, green and fairly flat.\u00c2\u00a0 We ate our lunch and arrived in Brussels about 3 PM.\u00c2\u00a0 It took us a few minutes to navigate Brussels\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Metro system.\u00c2\u00a0 Interestingly, two or more people can use one fare pass as long as it has enough trips on it.\u00c2\u00a0 Our hotel NH Atlanta is just a half a block away from the DeBrouckere Metro stop on Boulevard Adolphe Max 7.\u00c2\u00a0 I was quite surprised to see that Mike had upscaled us to a 4-Star. \u00c2\u00a0We checked in and a very accommodating bellhop showed us to our room.\u00c2\u00a0 Even though we requested a non-smoking room, we had been given a smoking room and it smelled like a cigar left five minutes ago.\u00c2\u00a0 Our bellhop called the front desk and interceded for us.<\/p>\n

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View from the NH Atlanta in Brussels<\/p><\/div>\n

As a result we ended up with a room with a balcony, a sitting room, a bedroom, and a bathroom!\u00c2\u00a0 Quite an upgrade.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0However, internet access was 18.75 euros a day, needless to say, we did not sign up! We showered to refresh ourselves and went out for a stroll.\u00c2\u00a0 We found, after a diversion through the shops at Passage du Nord, a shopping arcade built in 1882, a commercial pedestrian shopping area, the Rue Neuve, and the sprinkles started.\u00c2\u00a0 We went back to the hotel and found our umbrellas and headed out in the opposite direction.\u00c2\u00a0 We found a huge statue in the process of being dismantled (Three-legged Buddha by China\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s foremost artist Zhang Huan) in front of the neo-classical opera house (the Theatre Royal de Monnaie in the Place de Monnaie.\u00c2\u00a0 A little farther on we found Rue des Bouchers and strolled down this pedestrian avenue filled with restaurants.\u00c2\u00a0 But, it was too early to eat!\u00c2\u00a0 We strolled around and found the Opera Pub and shared some Beaujolais.
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About 7, we were fading fast and found our way to Le Bourgeois, a seafood restaurant on the corner of Rue des Bouchers and Petit Rue des Bouchers .\u00c2\u00a0 I had a great lobster bisque and sole meuniere.\u00c2\u00a0 Mike had escargots and grilled mixed seafood platter.\u00c2\u00a0 We shared a small bottle of cote de provence rose \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I guess they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t realize summer was over.\u00c2\u00a0 Mike said his was the best seafood ever, and we have a hard time topping the food and the service (and embroidered napkins) for 96 euros.\u00c2\u00a0,\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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rue Des Bouchres<\/p><\/div>\n

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rue des Bouchres<\/p><\/div>\n

They wanted to give us free coffees but we said we had to pass; so we could get back to the hotel and get some sleep.\u00c2\u00a0 When we got back and checked the weather, we discovered rain for most of the rest of the week. But \u00e2\u20ac\u201c at least, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s raining in Paris, too.<\/p>\n

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Brussels offers its citizens a great way to get around town \u00e2\u20ac\u201c bicycles.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All US flights were on time and connections made without a hitch.\u00c2\u00a0 When we landed in Philadelphia, we raced to the shuttle to take us from F Terminal to A Terminal, found the shuttle waiting for us and off we … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,25,11],"tags":[699],"class_list":["post-2060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brussels","category-paris","category-tgv","tag-hotel-nh-atlanta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2060\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}