.....not that we're counting down the days or anything like that!!
So the game plan is to fly into Paris and immediately hop on train to go to Brussels. Don't ask why we didn't fly directly to Brussels instead - kind of a sore spot for Julee.
It took a couple of nights of text messaging via gtalk to get our hotel booked for Brussels. All we can say is thank God for the internet and secured websites!! Here's where we will be staying during the few days that we'll be in Brussels => http://www.hotelsiru.com/. Check out the interactive video for pics of the rooms - some pretty wild artwork hangs on the walls, particularly for chambre #3.
Patrick assures us that it's conveniently located to the train station, major tourist hot spots and famous street that's closed off to traffic and is lined with restaurants and shops. We would try to repeat the name of the street but our Dutch is non-existent so out of respect for Patrick and others who speak the language, we won't attempt to mangle the name of the street....even in writing!
Hopefully, the hotel will be nearby to little cafe type places where Diep can fulfill her cravings for frites (aka "french fries") or else she could become an unbearable travel mate :-(
Diep has come up with a few places that we need to check out while we're in Brussels including the Mannequin Pis which is this famous statue of a little boy taking a p*ss. Okay, Julee's wondering why she's travelling allllll the way to Belgium to see a statue of a boy taking a p*ss. Never mind. It's all for the experience. Plus, if that's not enough, there's the girl version of the same statue. Oh yippee. Some sculptor had waaaaay too much time on their hands.
After Brussels, Julee wants to head north to the town of Brugge because there's an annual chocolate festival taking place that she thinks would be worth going to. Diep's all for going anywhere where there is chocolate! Hey, we're in Belgium - land of chocolate so this is a must see event.
Of course, this is not to mention that Brugge is a beautiful little town full of medieval history that is absolutely worth a visit to.
At some point, we'll leave Belgium and head to France.....as of this moment, we have no idea where we'll be going to in France and when we'll be going. We have train tickets so we'll play it by ear - that will the adventure.
We also managed....after a lot of procrastination by one person who shall remain unnamed (Ms DS), we got our Eurail tickets. We're just now hoping that the tickets will arrive at Julee's house before the plane takes off....! Once we have our tickets in hand, we to reserve our train ride from Paris to Brussels.
Next on the agenda.....deciding on what to bring with us on the trip. This is going to be quite an effort. Just for fun, we'll post up the contents of our suitcases. Just remember, it's two GIRLS travelling.
'Later,
Diep and Julee