We Went to Amsterdam!

Grand Place was very grand indeed, both in daylight and at night. We were impressed. Graham said Brussels seemed like something out of an old war movie! This city definitely deserves more time spent than we had to give it. Our last morning was spent in the Musical Instrument Museum and it was one of the best museums I've been in. We got in half a tour of the city, enough to want more and finally arrived back in England with an excellent exhibit waiting for us!

Instrumental Brussels

May 8

In the morning, we went to the Musical Instrument Museum, one of our "must see" things to do in Brussels, even with just a short time in the city, and we took a cab there to save our legs and a bit of time. The building used to be a department store, Old England and is in the Art Nouveau style. The building is really different, tall and thin with arched windows and decorations around it. The museum was really brilliant and not very expensive either, just 5 euro per person. There are three levels of exhibits, instruments of all kinds and you get a headset that kicks in and plays the music and sounds of many of the instruments on display as you near the cases. Probably works by infra-red signals.

The first level has folk type instruments from all over the world. Another level focuses on strings and there are also keyboards and brass/horn/reed instruments. Most are behind glass and some of the larger pieces are out on display. There are lovely painted pianos and a grand mirrored room reflecting the harps and grand pianos on the third level. It's all very interesting and the cost isn't very high, just 5 euro per adult. You can check your coat which we did and it was nice, not having to carry our coats around. Should do that more often!

We spent a happy hour or two in there wandering around listening to all the different kinds of musical instruments from different countries and different cultures, some instruments were very, very old and traditional. Some of the pianos were painted, one of the upright pianos looked like a 1940s radio. There were old fashioned types of bagpipes, I'm not even sure if any of them were the familiar Scottish type but pipes are quite an old instrument that may originate in Egypt. We had a coffee in the rooftop cafe and peeked out at the city wide views from there. In summer when the outdoor terrace is open, it must be spectacular on a sunny day. I bought a few postcards in the gift shop which is really good, has lots of books and music of all types.

From there, we hoped to get in all or most of a city bus tour, the hop on hop off kind. They leave from the front of Central Station so we headed in that direction down the hill through a park in front of the Museum of Arts. One thing we noticed in particular about Brussels is the graffiti. It's on *everything* and is everywhere. It was even on the trains! And the statues in the lovely public park have it painted over the bases and along the walls. Such disrespect, really.

Anyway. One bus was just leaving and the other sitting there had no driver and we had no idea when one would show up. But another tour company was parked a little way away so we took that. He was leaving shortly so we bought tickets and went up to the top. The weather was cool but a bit sunny. We weren't sure if we'd have time to do the whole tour because of the traffic but we went anyway. (We had to be to the train station to check in for the Eurostar so you have to be there earlier than you would if you were just taking a regular train).

The tour route for the one we chose turned out to be a better one than the other company as this one went through the newer parts of Brussels first and out to the outskirts in the Heysel area where the Atomium is. That was built for the World's Fair in the late 1950s and looks like a giant molecule. It has some exhibitions and a cafe at the top and the main attractions are the views.

The tour also went through a more modern part with big new buildings made of glass and steel along wide boulevards lined with more modern shops. We passed through a nice park and also by the Royal Palace. By the time we got to Grand Place, we thought we probably wouldn't have time to do the rest of the tour which may take at least another 45 minutes. We had to get back and get our bags and get to the train station.

We got off the bus at Grand Place and walked back to the hotel, got our bags from the locked luggage room (we had checked out this morning) and got a cab to Gare Midi (South) where the Eurostar terminal is. Turns out we were there quite early so we had time to go to a cafe to get some lunch. The first one we went to didn't have much choice but the next one did and we had a really nice baguette sandwich, some cakes and coke and got some snacks for the train.

We checked in, found our seats and settled in for a comfy 2 hour ride into London. Brussels was all too brief, but we had a taste of it. It might be nice to go back again and see more of it. The side trip to Bruges was still a good idea even though it took time away from Brussels because it was a lovely day there. I guess it's better to have a taste at least, and if we want to go back again someday we are at least more familiar with the city and can be more comfortable with it.

Hello Leicester Square

May 8

We arrived in London at 6 p.m. local time and made our way through the station. I wanted to pick up our train tickets that I'd booked for our return to Manchester on Sunday so we had to find the ticket machines in the station. St. Pancras is actually quite large and connects to King's Cross as well. We got confused and a bit turned around but eventually found where we needed to be. I even successfully navigated the machine but we still had to go through a queue anyway when we wanted to top up our Oyster transport cards. Oh well. Then we got mixed up trying to find the right exit to get to Euston Road for the busses. We walked a block or so to a stop by the British Library. According to my bus map, i needed the number 30. One left just as we got there and we probably waited about 10 minutes for another but we were tired and it felt like longer. We discovered later that there were several other numbers that would have got us to the same stop before they veered off in another direction.

We managed to get off at the right stop and thanks to Google Street View, i knew pretty much where to go from there. I booked a room at the Hilton London Islington through Londontown.com because I'd got an astonishing deal. I don't know if it's because the Hilton is beside a business center and is not that busy on the weekends or if i just got lucky but we got a really nice room with queen size bed, full buffet breakfast for a total of 65 pounds a night for the Friday and Saturday nights!!! I was really knackered by the time we got to the hotel though. Frustrated and sore footed and tired. But man, you can tell when you're in a good hotel! The check in service was great!

The room was large, the bathroom was too and it had a tub and shower. We got our stuff unpacked a bit and i took off my jeans and crawled into bed for a rest. In fact, i was so comfortable and felt so relaxed that i decided right then and there i wasn't getting up again. I told Graham if he wanted to eat, we were ordering room service because my feet wouldn't carry me any further, even just out to the road (Upper Street) to find a pub! Yes, it's a bit pricey but pretty much the same as we'd been paying in Euros all week anyway and the pound is nearly par with the euro these days. So, it was a burger for him and a club sandwich for me. I couldn't get through to Room Service using the designated button on the phone so i called reception who took my order and then RS called right back to confirm. Again, top service! I made a few calls and texts to friends to sort out arrangements for tomorrow and i think I'm getting a cold, too. Probably wore myself out!

I'm 'Enery the Eighth I Yam

May 9

I definitely have a cold. Errrgh. It's not too bad yet, though so let's hope it doesn't worsen. At least all our major sightseeing is done and I won't have to drag myself around too much while feeling like crap. I don't actually feel too bad, just have a stuffy nose so far and a bit of a cough which probably will get worse. I have drugs and i have a puffer. I am armed and ready to go!

The bed was a bit hard for my taste but the pillows were really nice. Up for the buffet breakfast which is always excellent at the Hilton hotels. We topped up our phones and I found a bank machine before we headed to the British Library. I had already bought us tickets for the Henry VIII exhibit there which was set up by Dr. David Starkey, an expert on the Tudors. It's timed entry and I'd got the tickets for 10 a.m.. The exhibit was really marvelous! There were 500 year old documents, books with stunning illuminations, paintings, drawings and a few artifacts. There were also some interactive displays and apparently some sort of holograms of Henry that I completely failed to see, though Graham did. He didn't point them out to me because he thought I had noticed!

The audio accompaniment was narrated by Starkey himself. It was really amazing to see all these papers and letters that survived so long, some in King Henry's own handwriting. Seeing the documents that sent Anne Boleyn to her death or the divorce decree from Katherine of Aragon, things like that, just makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up when you think of how things changed because of it. I didn't buy the beautiful guide that went with the exhibit because it was big and heavy but i may order it online and have it sent either to me or to Graham and he could bring it over. I do want it though.

After a cuppa, we walked down Euston Road to the bus station at Euston train station and figured out where to get a bus to Baker Street. Weather is improving. Sunny but not hot but it's warm and there's a breeze. This afternoon we are meeting some friends and some friends of theirs for a picnic in Regent's Park! I haven't been to a picnic in years! We walked down Baker Street to find a Tesco where we could get some sandwiches and drinks. We had a coffee in a Costa and then walked over to the tube station where we met up with Glenda and Baz and made our way into the lovely green Regent's Park. I'd not been in there before and I think it's much larger than Hyde Park. We didn't know exactly where everyone would be so we walked a little way along a duck pond/stream where there were lots of majestic herons along the shores. Called the picnic organizer and changed direction. A little further on and there they were under a tree. The rest of the afternoon was spent talking, eating and drinking in the sun. Later, once it was getting chilly, we decamped to a pub just outside the park and had a bite to eat.

Now here's where it all goes astray again. See, earlier i had written something down with the date and it struck me. The date tomorrow is the 10th. Except the train tickets I'd got for our return journey to Manchester... *checks* yep, they say the 11th. Uh oh! We need tickets for the 10th. I had booked them online awhile back and obviously did it for the wrong date. And they were really cheap tickets too! On the way back to the hotel from the pub, we stopped into Euston station to see what we could do about them. Didn't think it likely we could change them and that was the correct assumption. Only could have if there had been any cheap seats available which there weren't. The cheapest available were 42 pounds each. *gulp* No choice really. But then... the nice man, he say they are first class unsold tickets! Sold now! The cheapest regular class tickets were 60+ pounds each! That's sorted. A nice comfy journey back in first class for tomorrow. It's really the only unexpected expense we had this trip so that's really not so bad.

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