Chapter Two: Underrated & Underappreciated Brussels
November 1, 2024Mai Tai Tom Stays On Track Through Belgium, Paris and Strasbourg
Prologue:
Another trip is in the books, and we successfully navigated throughout Belgium and France without many mishaps. Just like the great American folk singer Woody Guthrie (albeit we traveled on much nicer trains), Tracy, Kim, Mary and I rode the rails to:
Brussels and Bruges …
Ghent and Antwerp …
Paris and Strasbourg …
… plus a town I owe a big apology to for maligning it the past four decades.
My long-time friend Tim has told me, on more than one occasion, that I tend to look back on all our trips with rose-colored glasses, but in my defense, that’s because on our dozens of journeys I have had very little to complain about, and, outside of my own stupidity, nothing has bothered me all that much. On our recent trip, however, my rose-colored glasses picked up a few thorns along the way. There weren’t enough to dampen what was another interesting and enjoyable trip, but enough to give me pause and reason to reflect. But no time to pause now, let’s get on with the trip!
Chapter One: If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium
Day One – Air France Lets Us Down (Twice), I’m Your Biggest Fan, Spill The Wine, Seeing Red, Where Are All The People?, An Earlier Train To Brussels, Where’s The Sauna?, They’re “BELGIAN” Frites!, The Frite Guy, It “IS” A Belgian Beer and Mussels In Brussels
In attempting to decide on a destination for our late summer/early autumn 2024 sojourn, I sent Tracy, Kim and Mary numerous emails detailing a multitude of possible itineraries, but in all honesty, none really thrilled me. Then one day Kim responded that he had heard friends raving about Belgium. Belgium? It hadn’t been on my radar, but suddenly my interest was piqued. I started researching, and the more I read about Belgium, the more I liked. There would be no more waffling, we would start our latest adventure in Brussels!
I considered an open-jaw ticket to Brussels with a return from Paris, however after I found a huge sale from Air France, I decided we could fly round trip from LAX to Paris, and take a train from CDG to Brussels upon arrival. The flight would land at 9 a.m., we could catch the 11:50 or 1:05 direct train to Brussels from Terminal 2 at CDG and … Ah, the best laid plans.
I was about to book online the 1:05 train, which would give us plenty of time as it was located in the same terminal as Air France, however the airline emailed that our flight had been changed, and we would now arrive at 11:15. The last time we were at CDG it took at least two hours to clear immigration, so, in an abundance of caution, I booked a later train. Well, at least we were able to retain our Premium Economy flight tickets.
Then two weeks before our flight, another email from AF arrived announcing that the type of aircraft was changing. Fortunately for Kim and Mary, they were home when the email arrived and they were able to keep one Premium Economy and pay to have Kim bumped up to Business. Unfortunately, neither Tracy or I was home, so after reading the email later that day and calling AF I found, to our dismay, that they had changed our seats to the rear of the aircraft. With some finessing, I was able to obtain economy seats with a little extra leg room, but they were not the seats we had originally purchased.
Even though she has been off the “TSA Naughty List” for a few years (see her story on getting a redress number), after going through security at LAX, Tracy, who sleeps on top of the covers while I am under two blankets, was sweating bullets. But there, like an oasis in the desert, stood a giant industrial fan that seemingly could cool the Sahara and, fortunately, my lovely wife.
It came in handy for Mary, too, who couldn’t find her global traveler number (foreshadowing alert), and had to go through the longer security line. The two ultimately basked in coolness, drawing quizzical looks from bemused travelers, and then we were on our way.
As we crawled our way to our seats in the back of the plane, we passed by Kim who was sipping champagne and hobnobbing with passengers in Business Class. He nodded his head quickly at us, not wanting the others to know he associated with such riffraff.
A little further, we passed Mary sitting adjacent to an empty seat in Premium Economy. Nobody could sit next to Mary on this flight, not because of anything she said, but because the seat was “broken.” As we were to find out, that wasn’t the only seat on the plane with difficulties.
Tracy and I had aisle seats adjacent to one another. Shortly after buckling in, the guy next to the window in the row in front of me slammed his seat into the woman behind him in my row. I thought how rude he was, as we hadn’t even taxied, but then I realized his seat was “broken,” too. Although my seat was technically ok, every time I leaned back it made a loud squeak like a badly oiled door opening and closing. We were off to a rocky start.
Luckily, there was only one incident on the flight that I know of, but unluckily it involved me. About two hours in, I ordered a white wine, but the flight attendant brought red. Not to worry, I told her, I am an equal opportunity drinker.
As I relaxed in my noisy seat, and just as Cary Grant was about to be sprayed by a crop duster in North By Northwest, the person in front of me reclined his seat backward like a rocket launch, and my cup with red wine took an unexpected journey toward my lap. With my catlike reflexes (ok, I was really lucky), I was able to grab the cup before it tumbled into my lap. I looked down, and since I was wearing dark blue pants and a blue sweater, the wine stain was hardly noticeable. “Phew,” I thought, “that could have been embarrassing.”
However, the gentleman sitting next to me had made a rather unfortunate wardrobe choice on this day. His clean, white pants were now an interesting shade of red. Thankfully, he was a very nice guy, who just smiled and said, “Not to worry, my mom will wash these when I get to her house in Paris.” International incident averted.
When we disembarked in Paris on this Tuesday morning, we encountered quite a big (and pleasant) surprise. Arriving at Passport Control we were stunned to find the area virtually empty. It took us 30 seconds to have our picture taken and passport stamped and then all our bags popped up quickly. It was about a ten-minute walk to where the trains are located, and looking at my phone, I was shocked to see it had taken just a little more than half an hour to disembark, go through customs and be at the TGV-RER station at CDG. My first thought? What the hell are we going to do for the next four hours?
Well, there was that 1:05 train, however the line at the desk was long and after about ten minutes we realized they were still talking with the same person.
Fortunately, we noticed an official looking man helping at one of the ticket machines. He said we could exchange our tickets, but we’d have to pay the difference in price. Not wanting to spend our first afternoon in Europe at the airport, we collectively agreed, “Let’s do it and get to Brussels earlier.” Soon, we were on our way, and I was hopeful we would actually have time to see a sight or two before dinner.
Halfway into the 2 1/2 hour ride to Brussels, as the group drifted into semi-unconsciousness, I could tell the only thing we would be seeing was an early dinner. At the almost exact time the train crossed from France into Belgium, I thought (since it actually was Tuesday) I could get a charge out of the gang by blurting out, “If it’s Tuesday, it must be Belgium!” The silence was deafening.
Arriving via taxi at the Thon Hotel Bristol Stephanie, Kim said, “Well, at least we can try the sauna.” Before leaving I had seen an online deal from the hotel that for an extra €18 per night we could be upgraded to a room with a sauna. Both couples took advantage of the offer.
Tracy and I walked into our room, and because we were so tired, we stumbled to the bed, took off our shoes and laid there for a few minutes. Wait, what about the sauna? It was nowhere to be found, although we did have a spacious room with a great shower. Kim and Mary didn’t have a sauna in their room either, but we were all too tired to go down to its colorful lobby and make a change (although I could have easily eaten ten of the treats they served to arriving guests), so we just made sure they didn’t charge extra for the room.
Thon Hotel Bristol Stephanie is located on the “trendy” Avenue Louise (about a half hour walk south of the Grand’Place), and I had read that the location around the hotel is situated in “one of the liveliest areas in Brussels” and caters to a “young, multi-cultural and artistic” crowd. Once again, our group seriously impacted the age demographic upwards.
Although there were no saunas in our rooms, the hotel does have a gym and sauna for guests, and also something even more important … a quiet, chic bar. After being awake for the past 24 hours, our chicness quotient was non-existent, but we ducked in anyway.
The four of us settled in for our traditional celebratory first cocktail of the trip. Tracy made a toast to the fact that over the past 24 years, we had spent 274 days traveling in the U.S. and Europe with Kim and Mary.
And they said it wouldn’t last! This is our motley group visiting Vernazza in the Cinque Terre way back in 2001 on our first trip.
I had made dinner reservations at the nearby Le Rendezvous-Vous des Artistes (Rue Dejoncker 24), which will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2025. The area certainly lived up to the “lively” moniker, and people seemed to be enjoying themselves at the various restaurants we passed throughout the district known as Saint Gilles.
This restaurant had an energetic vibe from the moment we entered. If we wanted a spot with great ambiance for our first night, Le Rendezvous-Vous des Artistes more than filled the bill.
The staff was outstanding and friendly. It billed itself as “Restaurant-Brasserie-Bar à Frites.” As you’ll read shortly, I should have paid more attention to that sign.
We started with Les Entreés, sharing the Croquettes aux fromages, and then it was on to the really good stuff. The restaurant prides itself on serving “authentic Belgian cuisine,” so I ordered the Carbonnades flamandes; Belgian Beef stew “Flemish style.” Then I made a terrible mistake when I asked the server (and I blame lack of sleep for this faux pas), “Does it come with French fries?”
He laughed (a least I think he was laughing) and rather sternly replied, “It comes with BELGIAN frites. They were invented here.” He then pointed to the window where the man I dubbed “the Frite Guy” was cooking up what looked like thousands of Belgian frites.
Both the frites and the stew were tremendous.
Luckily my error was quickly forgotten when Kim asked what kind of beer they had. “We have Stella,” our server replied. Kim said he would prefer a Belgian beer. By now our server was wondering who these two guys were sitting in his restaurant. “Stella is a Belgian beer,” he politely replied. Sleep deprivation is a terrible thing. Kim enjoyed his Stella along with a main course of Saumon grillé à la béarnaise, avec des legumes du jour et pommes de terre nature.
Hopefully our sleep deprived miscues were out of the way as Tracy and Mary were up next. Tracy’s Hangar steak with balsamic onions was very good, and she declared the frites the “as good as she has ever tasted.”
Finally, Mary lived up to her seafood devouring reputation by flexing her mussels and downing a pot of les moules au vin blanc.
Rendezvous-Vous des Artistes made for a terrific first night restaurant choice, and I would highly recommend it not only for the food, but for the fun, friendly service. We got quite a nice sendoff.
Thankfully, it was less than a ten-minute walk back to the hotel, and since we had hit the 30-hour mark of staying awake, all of us fell asleep quickly, which was good. We needed an early start to cram in as many Brussels sights as we could since this would be our only day here (major planning error on my part).
And, oh, the sights we would see: from a giant ferris wheel to a palais containing almost 300 rooms, two parks, one of the most famous squares in the world, one church, one cathedral, one basilica, a tour of Brussels historic Town Hall, a beautiful art gallery containing a painting by my favorite artist and, of course, the famous little guy peeing in the corner. Our first full day would definitely be quite a workout!
Next – Chapter Two: Underrated & Underappreciated Brussels
Day Two: Under Construction, Corner Park, Meeting Our Quotient, Fight Fight For Old Notre Dame, “Miraculous” Boat Ride, Missed Waffle Opportunity, Ain’t It Grand, A Port In The Storm, Flower Power, El Bosco, Soulless, Gotta Pis, Checking In With Mike (Again), Wrong Colonel and Butter Me Up!