My dream has come true. Today I stepped onto French soil. Arriving in Calais and getting off at the port I had quite a sense of achievement. Voila, I have arrived.
The day started very early so sadly this has meant most of the passengers today were very sleepy. Much evidenced by our very humorous tour director waking us all up with a cheery " Ding dong! Wakey, wakey. Cuckoo, cuckoo" as we arrived in Brussels. I had remained awake long enough for the 20 minute journey through France before we crossed over into Belgium. There was no evidence of this change of country. In fact there has been no checking of passports at all. One wonders how these countries know who has entered and left. Apart from a token random selection of 6 suitcases by the French police before getting on the ferry, this has been the only check thus far.
When we got on the bus and prepared to start our journey to Brussels, we were assured by Peter the tour director before we all fell asleep that the countryside was pretty boring and would become pretty spectacular in due course, which is just as well considering the sleepy people on board.
On arrival to Brussels we were taken straight to the Park Inn Hotel for our one night here. We had just enough time to check in and have a freshen up before taking an optional tour through the city, which we decided to do. With the mandatory reminders to be aware of pickpockets given by our tour director duly conveyed, a local tour guide, Natalia joined us on board and we then proceeded to drive by many historic absolutely beautiful buildings. I keep feeling like all I say is how spectacular everything is and it really is.
We went to the Grand Place with it's 17th century Guild houses before being taken to a traditional pub for a glass of locally brewed beer.
Following that we had a chance to view and have our photo taken with Mannequin Pis. This is a small statue of a boy peeing.
There are several stories about it's origins so no one really knows what is true.
We finished the night off with a quick bite to eat and a traditional Belgium specialty - a waffle!
We are both pretty much exhausted now, so off to bed ready for a big day tomorrow. A long journey on the German Autobahn - another of Colin's bucket list items about to be taken care of.
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