Over the ditch...

Here we are in Brussels, Belgium, famous for it’s lace, it’s chocolate, waffles and beer. Looked at the first, and tasted the other three so that’s a good effort, eh?

It is a pretty town, and gorgeous weather today (Tuesday), but streaming with people - mainly tourists by the look of it. The driving is erratic and they are forever honking impatiently.

We arrived at 1 pm local time (an hour ahead of England) by Eurostar. The train was comfortable and quick, not much different to a commuter train really. Our tour guide is very friendly and knowledgeable and the tour party of 42 people consists mainly of Australians, with 10 Americans and around half a dozen kiwis.

We were taken to the Grand’Place, a town square with amazing old buildings and lots of shops aimed at the tourists. We had a couple of hours to wander around before reboarding the bus for a tiki tour around town. The bus is almost brand new, it is only on it’s 2nd tour, and is very big. It will be quite different for us, since we have been touring by ourselves in the UK, to get used to being in a big group - it felt a bit like being on a school trip at times! We leave at 7.30 am tomorrow, which will be a shock to the system!

There’s a welcome dinner tonight, here at our hotel, where I guess we will get to know the rest of the tour party better.