395 - My First Trip to Europe XII

Update on mom: She’s doing a lot better in this new Rehab facility, and they’re getting her up to do some physical therapy now.. so it’s looking up!

Before we left Amsterdam, Rich and I had a meal at an Indonesian restaurant. Rich used to be in Indonesia long ago in the Peace Corps, so it brought back a lot of memories for him.

The picture at right is he and I having dinner. Notice all the different dishes? That’s supposedly a typical Indonesian dinner. It was delicious and kept us full on the ride back to Germany.

Sunday morning, we get in the car and started for Brussels. Little did we know it was the weekend of a big Euro Summit in downtown Brussels, and as we approached the center of town, much of the center was surrounded with big wooden X’s and concertina wire everywhere.

We made our way around the center, and found a Novotel Hotel. We were going to go in to see if they had any room, but Rich was worried that the car was too close to a corner and would be towed. As I got out of the car, I saw a young Gendarme (police officer) coming up the street, so I asked him if he spoke English (yes) and if we could leave the car there while we checked for a room as this was our first trip to Brussels. He said absolutely, and offered to stand there and wait while we checked.

Well, the hotel manager at the desk rudely told us there was no rooms available so we headed back out only to meet our new friend watching our car. When he asked about a room, we said no, that we’d have to do more searching. He said “come with me” and entered the hotel and TOLD the rude manager (remember him?) that if he didn’t have a room, he would FIND us a room as we were visitors to their country and he should be nicer to guests.

As our friend stood by the door, we waited as the manager made a few phone calls, then gave us the name of the Hotel Metropole. The manager then told us that would be 12 Belgian Francs (luckily we had changed money already) and we handed him the money.

As we left, our friend in blue asked “What was the money for?”, and we told him the manager charged us the 12 francs. At this point, I thought he was going to jump over the front desk and choke the manager, he was so incensed. He slammed his billy-club on the desk (I’m sure leaving a mark) and told him he will NOT charge us for something that cost him nothing! We got our money back, and outside, I asked if I could have my photo taken with him.

That’s him and I to the right. Behind and down the street is the Grand Place (more of that on Friday).

Oh, did I mention the Hotel Metropole (please see the webpage) is a 5+ Star hotel? It’s a good thing our bosses said money is no object, especially after seeing this hotel!!

More about Brussels on Friday…

To answer some questions:

Mark, thanks for the compliment!
Mike H, thanks bud! Call me sometime.
Peter, it truly is.. I hope some day you can visit if you haven’t been there before.
Merle, the tulips, canals and windmills were so beautiful.. I only wish I had better pictures.

Have a great Hump-Day all!