Paris back to Brussels

Trip Start Aug 08, 2007
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Trip End Sep 05, 2007


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Tuesday, September 4, 2007

This morning we checked out of our hotel around 9:30 and grabbed breakfast before meeting up with our 11:00am tour at Saint Michel fountain. We decided to go through FreeEurope tour, a free tip-based tour company which we also used for a walking city tour in Berlin The weather was freezing and kind if rainy but the group of 10 or 15 of us plugged on. Our tour guide Karen was really great- energetic and knowledgeable. She took us for views of the Eiffel and Arc du Triumph, the Neuf Bridge, the Louvre, Napoleon's tomb, the Grand and Petit Palaces and more. The tour was a little over two hours. After the tour we walked on our own to get a better view of the Arc du Triumph before heading up to Monmartre for some food and to see the Basilica there: Sacre Cour. When we got off the train at Pigalle we walked through the old red light district for a few minutes and snapped the obligatory picture of the Moulin Rouge windmill before walking uphill a bit to the Basilica. You can take a funicular tram to get up to the basilica but we were hungry and decided to admire it from below and then find a café for dinner. After a nice meal in Monmartre it was already time to get back to the hotel and get our bags to catch our evening train to Brussels! We had to return to Brussels tonight in order to go from Brussels to London in the morning because it is much much cheaper to book a round trip ticket between Brussels and London than to book a one way from London to Brussels at the beginning of the trip and then a one way from Paris to London at the end. (Because London is not on the Eurail we had to pay for these tickets). When we got to the station we decided to check to see if reservations were mandatory on this short train ride and to our surprise they were: $25 euro per reservation! From what we understood the most you should ever have to pay for a reservation fee on Eurail is $15 euro for a very long train ride so we couldn't really understand this. When we got onto our train it was amazingly luxurious- complete with a full free meal and beverage service on an hour and a half train ride! Unfortunately we had already eaten and we couldn't figure out why we had to take this expensive luxury train- perhaps t was the time slot we chose. Anyway it was quite nice. When we checked  back into the 2Go4 Hostel in Brussels it was a great relief- brand new with sparkling clean private bathrooms just like we remembered it from out first stay here- and no bunk beds in this room either! When we got to the room Chris discovered that he had left his book- with our Eurorail tickets tucked inside- on the train! Luckily that was the LAST train ride during which he would have to use them! He didn't get to finish his book though. After a refreshing shower we wandered out to the little nightlife area nearby. Chris was hungry again so we stopped for some food which was horrendous- we haven't really found good cuisine in Brussels so far aside from the waffles and Belgian beer. I think we have been eating in tourist traps though- the area looks kind of like Little Italy. After that we went back to our favorite Delirium bar from last time for some people watching before retiring somewhat early for our early train tomorrow.
 
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