Saturday, September 18, 2010
Leiden to Brussels
Tonight I am so tired I can barely keep my eyes open! And it is only 8:30. Sad. Hopefully we'll get a good night's sleep tonight and be done with the jet lag.
This morning we were both wide awake at around 3:30am, so we went down to the hotel restaurant with our computers until around 5. David got a little more sleep after that, but I wasn't able to go back to sleep at all, so I've been a zombie most of the afternoon.
We had an excellent breakfast at a fun little place David had discovered called "Bagels & Beans" - I had a multigrain bagel with honey and walnut cream cheese and David had an everything bagel and fresh mint tea.
David in Leiden this morning
After breakfast I made a quick visit to the National Museum of Antiquities, arriving right as it opened at 10am. I was the only visitor and had a wonderful time taking better pictures of my favorite artifacts - I've been there before so didn't take long.
At around 10:30 we checked out, lugged our stuff back to the train station and, after some complications, got on an 11:16 train for Brussels. We changed trains in The Hague and the whole journey took just under three hours.
Train station in The Hague
Nice doggy on the train
Our hotel in Brussels is just down the road from the station, which is awesome. And then it's only one more block in the other direction to the Grand Place, the main square known for its pretty Gothic buildings.
View from hotel room
After checking in, we visited the Grand Place and the cathedral, then had an early lunch in the hotel restaurant. Today is our 6th wedding anniversary and it wasn't much of a celebration, but we were too tired to do anything else. We'll have a special dinner (or several) sometime later.
Then we resisted the siren call of the bed and went out for a longer walk in the evening, visiting a couple churches and some cute streets and markets. We both think Brussels is OK, but not worth going out of your way for.
Building on the Grand Place
Nave of the cathedral
Notre Dame de Sablon church
Belgian waffles
Chefs at a food market
View from our hotel tonight.
Tommorrow: England! We are planning to catch a train to the port at Calais (France) at 9:16am.
This morning we were both wide awake at around 3:30am, so we went down to the hotel restaurant with our computers until around 5. David got a little more sleep after that, but I wasn't able to go back to sleep at all, so I've been a zombie most of the afternoon.
We had an excellent breakfast at a fun little place David had discovered called "Bagels & Beans" - I had a multigrain bagel with honey and walnut cream cheese and David had an everything bagel and fresh mint tea.
David in Leiden this morning
After breakfast I made a quick visit to the National Museum of Antiquities, arriving right as it opened at 10am. I was the only visitor and had a wonderful time taking better pictures of my favorite artifacts - I've been there before so didn't take long.
At around 10:30 we checked out, lugged our stuff back to the train station and, after some complications, got on an 11:16 train for Brussels. We changed trains in The Hague and the whole journey took just under three hours.
Train station in The Hague
Nice doggy on the train
Our hotel in Brussels is just down the road from the station, which is awesome. And then it's only one more block in the other direction to the Grand Place, the main square known for its pretty Gothic buildings.
View from hotel room
After checking in, we visited the Grand Place and the cathedral, then had an early lunch in the hotel restaurant. Today is our 6th wedding anniversary and it wasn't much of a celebration, but we were too tired to do anything else. We'll have a special dinner (or several) sometime later.
Then we resisted the siren call of the bed and went out for a longer walk in the evening, visiting a couple churches and some cute streets and markets. We both think Brussels is OK, but not worth going out of your way for.
Building on the Grand Place
Nave of the cathedral
Notre Dame de Sablon church
Belgian waffles
Chefs at a food market
View from our hotel tonight.
Tommorrow: England! We are planning to catch a train to the port at Calais (France) at 9:16am.
Labels: belgium, brussels, leiden, netherlands
posted by Holly @ 12:00 PM
by the same author.
