Brussels

Wednesday July 4 Happy Birthday America!  Brussels is much more modern than I thought it would be. Every other city has seemed so old. Brussels has a square with majestic old buildings, but most of it is very modern and feels like any city in America. So today I was excited to meet up with Emily again. We got up and went to breakfast at  La Brouette, our server was very funny, he had lived on a ranch in Nevada for 8 months when he had run out of money while touring the states. We had a traditional Belgian breakfast. Croissants , ham and cheese. I had a waffle and Robbie and Jill had an omelet. Robbie and I got in trouble from another waiter for moving our cups off the little serving tray. " it is really much better if you leave this here" said in a snotty French accent. Oh well, the other guy was nice enough that it made up for it.  We then shopped around a bit, there are so many Belgium chocolate shops, it's crazy. Robbie and I drove to the bus station to pick up Emily, and driving in Brussels is crazy! We get there , finally get of hold of her only to learn is bus is still far away stuck in traffic. We told her to take a cab so we could ho check out of our hotel.  Jill had been saying she wanted to drink some beer all morning so that was next up on our list. I had my first beer in the beer Capitol of the world. Jill had a cherry or kriek beer In Brugge that I had liked, so I got one. Robbie and Jill were taking bets on whether or not I would drink it.  I did, it wasn't bad if I had peanuts with it.  Emily finally arrived and met us at the bar. I was getting worried about her, Jill said to give her until 3. She arrived at 2:58. Emily's friend Sandra from Spain came along with Emily to help her with her luggage, what a sweetheart.  It is fun to ask her about cultural differences.  We rode the metro to see the Belgium Parliament  buildings.  Brussels is the capital of the EU. We then went and got checked into our hotel. I think I'm getting the hang of driving in Brussels and all of the round a bouts. I would rather drive in the city, it makes Robbie grumpy.  We went to dinner at a tavern by Emily and Sandra 's hotel. I had some pretty good pasta. I was hoping for a really cool last dinner in Europe night together but we were all so tired and hungry by 9 when we finally ate. It was fine, just not as I had hoped. We dropped the girls back at their hotel. ( the Marriott it was not) . We then went back to our hotel to play musical luggage and try to get the bags under 50 lbs each. We bought some stuff and Emily has a lot. Now if we can just navigate the London tube with all of this!