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Then there was the trip:
Belgium and the Netherlands
Jerry Frankhouser
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WE WENT TO BELGIUM AND THE NETHERLANDS FOR SPRING BREAK, Anne, Jerry and granddaughter
Chrissy. We flew from Tampa to Chicago and then to Brussels. all of the flights were late starting in Tampa, due to bad weather in Chicago. The plane that we were to use to fly to Brussels was in Miami waiting
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like we were. The 4:05 pm flight did not leave until 6:45pm, the 8:50pm flight out of Chicago did not leave until 10:00pm. so we got to Brussels at 2:30pm instead of 12:05pm the next afternoon. We got there safe and that was the good thing. We took the train from the airport to the south station, then took a cab to the hotel. After getting settled we ventured out. As we walked through the
__neighborhood, we found a nice restaurant.
We had dinner, Anne had a great fish soup, Chrissy had salmon for the first time, and I had chicken. Then we got on the tram (a great way to get around the city) for a visit to the Grand Plaza. After walking past a large church, then into one of the many arcades in Brussels, we came out at the Grand Plaza.
Saturday, after breakfast in the hotel, we set out again, this time to find the Royal Museum of Art.. great museum.. saw the Reuben room and the Brughel room. Then to the modern area. after the museum, we looked for the Grand Sablon, found the church of the Notre Dame du Sablon.
We thought we might like to go to this church on
Easter Sunday. So we checked the schedule with a nun selling religious items. Then we noticed an antique flea market on the street beside the church.We walked around the flea market, looking at the items for sale. We noticed a bunch of little sidewalk cafes, picked out one and had lunch.
Then, as it had started raining, we made our way back to the hotel. Anne and I relaxed in the hotel room, while Chrissy went to the weight room. After that, we got ready to go to a cybercafe, as there was one around the corner from the hotel. We found the cybercafe with only computers,no amenities. We checked our e-mail and sent some messages. The machine first cameup in Dutch an had to be changed to english. On the way back to the hotel we had the wonder of Belgium,"the belgian waffle". It is a regular waffle, about 4"x 6" and it is reheated with carmelized sugar on it. You eat it hot off the griddle, wrapped in a piece of paper. What a treat! As we were walking back to the hotel through this very neat indoor shopping area, we found another church. It was a Carmelite convent closer to the hotel, so we went there on Easter Sunday. The mass was in French and Latin; Anne enjoyed the nostalgia. After mass, we had breakfast at the hotel. Then packed our bags and took a cab to the train station for the trip to Den Haag, Netherlands.
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