Mussels in Brussels!!!

at long last... the Atomium!!!
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I decided to learn from yesterday’s experience, and got up before I even called Austin in the morning. I got dressed, and packed up as much as I could, moved it into the hall and *then* woke him up, telling him we had to leave in 20 minutes to catch the bus. It was a lot easier to get going that way! We finished packing in the hall where we could have a light and not wake up our roommates (since it was 6.30am!) and then dropped our bedding in front of the office and headed for the bus. We found it easily enough and were at the train station in plenty of time to find breakfast and our platform. Austin was glad to get back on the train (I think this has been his favourite part of the whole trip so far… the train rides) we had to switch trains in Köln, but then we were on our way to Brussels… I was so excited to take him there… Brussels is one of my very favourite European cities. In fact, it makes my top 5 favourite cities ever. Once we got into Station Midi, we found the luggage storage (hooray!!!! We didn’t have to drag all our stuff around the city all day!!!!) and found some public transportation maps and got the train schedule for our train to Eindhoven later on. By that time Austin was getting pretty hungry, so we stopped at Sbarro in the station for lunch. Then onto the metro to go find the Atomium. It was a fairly long ride out that way, with one switchover, and by then Austin pretty much needed to not be underground anymore, so we figured we could walk the rest of the way… Needless to say, 2 hours later we finally found the stupid thing, and had met quite a few friendly Belgians along the way… including an old man who simply started giving us directions before we even told him what we were looking for!!! We laid down on a bench under the Atomium for awhile and tried to gather our energy for another long walk… only to discover a metro station literally 100 feet away. Ah well… the exercise was nice, and the weather was actually really beautiful, so we didn’t mind it so much!

I love these streets... they are super cozy, and lined with FOOD!!!
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We caught the metro down to the Grande Place (Grote Markt) and found one of the many restaurant alleys (small alley ways that are quite literally packed with restaurants!!), after a somewhat heated debate we agreed not to go off in search of Manneken Pis (grrr!) but still found a postcard to send Oma. We found a great little restaurant a little bit off the beaten path on our way back to the metro station and had tomato soup and Spaghetti with mussels… so we had mussels in Brussels!! :o) (it’s still not old, I’ve been saying it for 2 days now…) It was *delicious*… finally we got back to our train station and got our luggage out of the locker and found our platform, and we were Eindhoven-bound!!!

it’s still not old, I’ve been saying it for 2 days now…

MUSSELS IN BRUSSELS!!!!
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We got into Eindhoven without any problems and Tante Hetty was waiting for us at the station… off we went to their apartment to say hello to Oome Herman, where we hung out for a little while, then Hetty drove us over to Margo & Gerd’s where we’re staying for the next few nights (it’s just too much for Oompje right now for us to be there… he needs lots of rest) Hetty told us to sleep in and we’d connect in the morning (I don’t think she thought about who she said that to… haha!) and off to bed we went… excited to be in Eindhoven, and more excited for Austin to meet some of my dutch family!!!

hooray! not only did we get to store our luggage at the station all day, but the locker opened again at the end of the day!! (we had some doubts...)
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For the non-family readers: Hetty & Herman are my dad’s aunt & uncle. Herman is my Oma’s (dad’s mum) little brother. Margo is Herman’s oldest daughter, Gerd is her husband. They have 3 kids. They also have a very big house (HUGE by Dutch standards) so there is plenty of room for all of us. Hetty & Herman used to take care of Jared and I on weekends when mum and dad would have church obligations elsewhere, we also all lived with them for our first few weeks in the Netherlands while we were waiting for the people in our house to move out. Herman recently had a second bout of throat cancer and is in treatment, hence the severe need for rest right now. Tante Mary, who we will see tomorrow, is Herman’s sister also. Everyone but Tante Mary speaks at least a little English, and understands it well enough, so Austin is getting by just fine. Of course he also has me to translate for him when necessary. :o) photos at: http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?user_id=21524&tmpl=54&event=215022&album_id=216125