Travelogue, Day 15, Part II: Brussels

Much later (and shamelessly copied, in part, from the e-mail I sent Christian):

Got in to Brussels fine, got drenched in a couple of wonderfully cold rain
showers, walked around a lot, experienced a great deal of the wonders of Brussels public transit (which is actually pretty good).

I apologize to the people of Brussels for this, but…

I think I’ve determined Brussels is sort of a half-French Amsterdam that I’m unfamiliar with and without the character. Cars everywhere, and the city just doesn’t really do it for me. I’m sure there’s something I’m missing, but given that I’m only here for a day, I’m not all that stressed about not seeing much. I walked around and saw some sights, but didn’t take pictures because it just didn’t interest me all that much. Of course, it doesn’t help that the languages are driving my brain *nuts* (ok, in bad French mode now…. waaaaait, I understood that, was it some Flemish speakers? No, German tourists… Aaaaack. And now some Dutch speakers. And the receptionist is speaking Spanish to someone. HELP!!!!). If I explode, I’ll have them cover the remains in Belgian chocolate, but I sort of doubt that will comfort my husband and son much.

Anyhow, I’m enjoying some fine beer and planning tomorrow’s trip in some more detail – I should note that it’s hard to know what language is acceptable where here, in that one walks by restaurants where everything is written in Dutch, and yet the bartender where I am now (a French guy) actually corrected my Dutch pronunciation of a Flemish beer name into the Anglicized form. Bizarre. I don’t even want to think about the politics involved, quite frankly, so I have utilized some of my bad French here, a lot more English, and some Spanish with my hostel roommates, because they’re from Mexico and Spain. Sort of a shame – I love speaking Dutch, and I speak it much better than I speak French – but the only place I’ve used it at all was to buy an all-day transit ticket. (Note: I didn’t really expect to come here and speak Dutch, but still…)

For anyone who really wanted to hear about Brussels, I’m sorry – since I was rather unimpressed and uninterested in starting a grueling schedule in a place I wasn’t all that keen on, I’ve used my hours here mostly for downtime and relaxation, and I’m totally unashamed.

Tomorrow it’s off to London, and I don’t know how much posting will get done, since I do have a full schedule there (with good reason) and will be writing other stuff while I’m there.

Hopefully, if there aren’t many posts, there’ll at least be an executive summary at the end.