Our First Houseguest!

My partner in crime, sorority sister, and truly dear friend Angie came to Brussels for a quick visit this past weekend, and we had SO much fun! She was our first official houseguest, and we really enjoyed getting to show her 'our Brussels', as she termed it. She works in the high-end audio business, and had a tradeshow in Amsterdam last week. So, she booked her ticket to fly into Amsterdam and out of Brussels, and took the train down to Brussels last Friday to spend the weekend with us.

Like an old-fashioned movie, I decided to "meet her at the station". Since Angie did not have a cell phone that works over here, our plan was to meet under one of the big Departure/Arrival boards in Brussels' Gare du Midi/Zuidstation. If we missed each other, she was to find a pay phone and call my mobile phone so that we could connect. Sounds foolproof, right? We each did our part of the plan, including the pay phone call, except for one tiny thing: Angie got off at the wrong train station. She 'debarked' at Gare Central/Centraal, which is one stop too early! (In her defense, it is an easy mistake to make as Gare Central is the first stop in Brussels and really, why is South Station known as Gare du Midi instead of Gare du Sud???)

Angie and I are largely cut from the same cloth and, both being Women of Action, we determined to Solve This Problem! By each setting out to Find the Other One! Which we discovered when Angie called me from Gare du Midi as I was on the Metro headed toward Gare Central. Oy veh! (In our mutual defense, we were communicating via a pay phone that kept eating up her money and cut her off at the critical part of her sentence, i.e. "I am jumping on the train to come to you".)

Eventually, we did end up in the same station (hooray!) and had a quick tram ride back to my house to begin our weekend. We did not do the super touristy-type activities during this trip as a) Angie has been to Brussels before, thus somewhat negating the need to sightsee, and b) she injured her foot in Amsterdam, thus rendering her a bit on the gimpy side. (She sprained/possibly-broke her foot in a run-in with a cyclist in Amsterdam. It was eerily reminiscent of when I broke my foot in the motorino incident in Rome, with a similar outcome. Yikes!)

So given these circumstances and being the thoughtful friends that we are, Troy and I arranged our outings around the really critical aspects of Belgium: waffles, hot chocolate, shopping, dining, and beer.


In post-waffle bliss, doing a little fresh-market shopping at Place Flagey.


Walking along the 'Ponds', Les Etangs d'Ixelles


Posing like the statue behind us in the Petit Sablon.


One of the lovely buildings off the Grand Sablon.


At the lace shop in the Galleries St. Hubert where we have both, on separate occasions, purchased each other the same lace bookmark!


The serious process of picking out chocolates at the original Neuhaus, the best chocolate shop in Brussels.


Having a beer 'fortifier' at Falstaff, near the Bourse.


Troy after tackling a gigantinormous shell fish platter at dinner at La Quincallerie.


Dinner at La Quincallerie. (That's the platter!)


Best friends in Brussels!