12/6/13 Packed AGAIN!

Tonight will be the last of my 2 nights at the incredible Metropole in Brussels.  And Oh My Gosh, the beauty we’ve seen.  Went to Mechelen and to the Holocaust Memorial there.  An old WWI Belgian Army Barracks was turned into a Transit center by the Germans where 75,000 Jews and Gypsys were transferred to various death camps.  Only 1200 survived.  It was a nice memorial.  There is also a museum devoted to it and to all Human Rights, but we did not do the entire museum.  We did walk into town, had a fun and delicious meal and then got back on the train to get to Brussels before the students and the bus with all the luggage.  We checked into the Metropole which is just so beautiful!  We had delicious pots of tea until the bus arrived.  Then, the real treat.  Shortly after dark, we hiked to Grand Place’.  I couldn’t wait to see it again!  It was colder than it has been but still nothing like last year!  As we entered the Square, the music and lights started and it was such an intense and beautiful moment.  It was very windy and the huge Christmas Tree swayed and swayed.  It does take your breath away.  As we walked out of the square the music stopped!  As if it was playing just for us!  Truth is it comes on every 20 minutes or so for 10 minutes or so!!!!  We walked back toward the hotel via the Christmas Markets….so fun!  We stopped and had dinner at a place called the grill, passing stands of roasted chestnuts along the way.  Then we decided to give the casino a try!  It was kind of icky; but we were still glad we tried it.

Breakfast today and then a day full of frustration and futility for me; but nothing I can’t cope with!  I lost my Amex card and realized i can’t read our train tickets for the sleeper car train to Vienna so got myself a bit worked up about “what if they are wrong”…losing my Amex card made me lose confidence in myself I think.  My friend Pat is down with a horrible ‘travel cold’, so I suspect I’ll be next.  But for now I just hope she gets better soon as we are leaving in a few hours to catch a high speed train to PARIS for a day and half!