Friday, 4 August, 2017 – weather: grey and then slow improvement to a very good day

We get up early today as we have a 8:52 train to Amsterdam. There is a taxi stand nearby but it may be that the taxis would all be in use given that it is rush hour on a workday.

We have our usual fried sandwiches with our leftovers. Then it is finish packing the bags and out the door. It looked like it was drizzling but when we get outside it is just overcast. We get to the taxi stand and there are two there. We hop in and the traffic is not bad so we get there in 5 minutes or so. We have a longish wait at the station but that is OK, we did not want to miss the train.

Julie finds out which platform we will be on and we go up there. We manage to get some of the few seats available. There is a train there but it is going the other way to Paris. Eventually it leaves and then ours arrives. We wait in line and a group from the sub-continent (wearing turbans) get on before us and they have so much luggage that they take up all the luggage space in our carriage. We make do by putting ours on top of theirs. This is the only problem with train travel, finding space for your luggage especially with big logs like we have.

We have reserved seats and we are in first class so there is food and drink service once we get going. Julie has coffee, water and orange juice and I have a ham sandwich and orange juice. Service is pretty good. Along the way, one of the curry munchers rearranges the luggage by dumping any that is not theirs into the passageway, nice. Fortunately, a good guy in the row behind us helps us out by lifting my suitcase onto an overhead rack and we arrange the rest.

The trip is around two hours. When we reach Amsterdam, the guy behind us kindly lifts my suit case down. We get off and are in a huge Amsterdam Central station. The station is on an island and it is a little bit tricky finding our way over the canals and through a huge number of people. We are in a very touristy area of Amsterdam.

We drag our suitcases over cobblestone / brick footpaths and roads being careful to dodge trams and other moving obstacles. Google maps said 6 minutes, it was more like 15 when we find our Hotel. When we arrive at the Hotel, we are informed that our room is not ready and may not be ready for another 4 hours. Yuk. We put our bags into the Hotel porter’s storage.

Julie in fact has a business meeting elsewhere. Apparently it is quite a train trip to the meeting. She goes off pretty much straightaway. A few photos from her.

In the mean time, I am stuck in the Hotel lounge waiting for our room to become available. It is really not that bad, probably better than our actual room in many ways, but I still hate it. After a couple of hours, I have had enough so go out to get some lunch and a look around.

When I finished I went back to the Hotel and our room was ready at last. I drag the luggage out of storage and up to the room which is small and somewhat disappointing after the fine Airbnbs we had been having. I then decide to have a look around the area, checking out possible restaurants for tonight.

David had warned me that the cyclists were very dangerous and he was right as they would appear out of nowhere at very high speeds coming close to knocking me down on a few occasions.

I have had enough so go back to the Hotel. I have a brief nap to freshen up. Julie had said that she thought she would be back by 6:00 so around 5:45 I go down to the lounge to wait for her because, of course, she had left before we had room keys / allocation. I had just ordered a G&T when Julie comes in very tired and ravenously hungry. It is as if I do not have time to finish my G&T, I did anyway, but I have to move quickly.

There are several restaurants around the hotel with outdoor areas in the street in front. I had looked at some of them earlier and they are all mostly the same, but I had decided one of them would be reasonable. Julie agrees with the choice. We talk with the waiter outside and he indicates there is an indoor area too across the way. We settle in to the place which has some Mexican food on the menu.

Not surprisingly Julie wants to go to bed early after a very long day.

Wednesday, 2 August, 2017 – weather: grey then lots of rain

Our plan today is to visit the Wednesday market which is supposed to be something special. Here is the hype:

Wednesdays are for the Chatelain market – at least in my books!

The real attraction however takes place towards its closing when people make their way to the Chatelain market for after-work drinks (or an “apéro”, as the locals call it). The whole area comes alive as buzzing crowds gather on the square sipping wine or beer, tasting fresh oysters or nibbles from the various food stands and catching up with old and new friends. The party continues long after the market is officially closed in the nearby bars, especially during summer time. So, next Wednesday don’t make any other plans – head straight to the Chatelain market and enjoy!

We have breakfast at home again although Julie has to go out and get some supplies. Her hip / leg is acting up badly so she has organised a visit to a:

Julie returns after 4:00 and says that it is raining quite heavily outside. This puts a dampener, pun intended, on our plans to go to the market. Eventually, when the rain slows down, we decide we will go suitably rugged up. Google says that it is a 23 minute walk, more like 35 with my slowness, the rain and wrong direction decisions. Turns out it is very close to Julie’s Osteo visit.

As the rain continues, we make a very good decision not to get food from within the market as the best in terms of seating is small tables with rickety stools or milk cartons to sit on. That was the good news. The bad news is that we decided to pick a restaurant next to the market and, what’s worse, not a very good one.

Our waitress was a nice person but must have been a total airhead. I ordered a bottle of Cotes du Rhone, she areed. Then she came back to the table seeking a confirmation from me – yes, it is the Cotes du Rhone. Then this is what we got:

The rain would come and go. It cleared for a while and the open air tables for this restaurant and the bar across the street were all filled up. Then a downpour came which drove all the people away from their tables to cover. We decide we will walk home in the rain which is consistent but not horrific. You should have seen the vultures rushing to grab our table.

We can’t say that we enjoyed the experience of the market, it was OK but not the extra special implied by the Internet article. And we certainly did not appreciate our chosen restaurant.

It is a 30 minute walk in the rain. Julie is still hungry, I did give her most of the soup, the vegies and several mussels, so we stop at a shop along the way to get more salmon etc. for a night meal, I don’t require any more food, vino yes. As well as smoked salmon on fried bread, Julie made herself an Irish coffee from our supplies at home.

Sunday, 30 July, 2017 – weather: improving

Today we will be leaving Lille and take trains to Brussels, Belgium. The weather starts with rain, somewhat heavy but it goes away before we go out for brekkie. We go to the area of Lille we found yesterday. The first look was in another in the Paul’s chain but decide on another chain that we have been to:

The menu is the same as the previous one and changes are not permitted. However, the manager works out a strategy for Julie so we stay there.

Not bad, Julie manages to eat all of the baguette. We go back to the apartment, finish packing and leave for the train station at around Noon.

We wait a while at the station and then the platform is announced. We have a First Class ticket but there does not appear to be any first class carriages. Never mind, up at the front of the train:

There are several stops along the way. Most of the stations, especially the platforms, are in various stages of disrepair. Our first destination is Tournai which is across the border in Belgium. We are to change trains there and that means a platform change. There is nothing resembling an elevator or escalator there so Julie has to carry our suitcases down and then up stairs. A nice young man helps carry the bags up the stairs. Then when we are to board the train it is quite steep, another young man carries the bags up for Julie.

This time we have found the first class carriage and to say that there was a big difference, not that I could notice. The last guy to help stays in our carriage and is a German named Chris. He is involved in electric cars mainly the charging part which has its own unique problems. I suppose it is not a surprise but Julie and Chris have a long discussion about electric and driverless vehicles on the trip to Brussels.

When we reach Brussels Midi station, Chris has to hurry to another platform but still carries both of our suitcases down the steep stairs of get off the train. Fortunately there are escalators within the station so no more stairs.

We have agreed to take a taxi to our apartment so go out and have difficulty finding them. We were told that Brussels is very poor for signage in general and that proved the case here. Eventually Julie finds them and we take the trip across town to our apartment. It was quite a ways, e10 taxi fare and walking would never have been on the cards.

We arrive at our narrow street Champ de Mars – actually it is not that narrow but cars are fully parked on both sides of the street which leaves it as narrow. I can see our Airbnb Host, Jean-Eric, on the balcony on the first floor and wave to him. He comes down and helps with the suitcases, carrying Julie’s load of bricks up the stairs. There is a quaint old elevator which I use to bring my suitcase up. It took some instructions on how to use it before I finally got there.

The apartment is huge, bigger in area than our house. It is old but tastefully renovated. After some of the small places we stayed in it seems like a mansion. Jean-Eric is a good buy and explains lots about the apartment and the surrounding areas including places not to go to because they are too touristy. A minor problem getting the internet going but that was quickly solved. So we settle in and spread out. I did not get around to taking any photos of the apartment but this link will show you all of the place as well as our rough area in Brussels.

Link to our Airbnb apartment description

It is after 4:00 but there is still time for Julie to go out and get some supplies and also scout out for restaurants. Jean-Eric had warned us that a lot of the restaurants would be closed given that it is a Sunday.

Julie is not gone too long and has done some scouting and brought back a few supplies. She indicates that she has found one of the restaurants recommended by Jean-Eric which we decide to go to.

We talked with the Owner, who was a very nice guy, and he said that the place had been opened for a bout a year. I asked how long were the Kips (chooks) cooked for and he said around 2 1/2 hours offline and then put on the rotisserie to warm up and crisp the skin. When Julie said I was doing a food blog he said “so you have come half way around the world to have chicken in apple sauce”. But he said that Kip was a Belgium national dish along with Moules and Frites.

When we first arrived there was only one other table. It did not get much fuller until Julie went off to the store to get more supplies. While she was away, people kept pouring in almost like a bus had delivered them there. When Julie returned 15 minutes later virtually every table was in use.

Julie had purchased ingredients to make her own Irish Coffee at home. We walk around the streets a bit and then she makes her Irish Coffee while I have some Australian wine that she had bought.