My Travel to the City of Brussels in Belgium
While we were traveling at the city of Brussels in Belgium, the hotel that we were supposed to stay was over-booked, then we were transferred to a 3 star hotel instead of the usual 4 or 5 star hotel like the Intercontinental Hotel where we stayed in Cologne, Germany. I joked to my Canadian room-mate, Marge, that probably Napoleon Bonaparte made a speech on this small balcony at our last floor balcony while I stood there. And she was laughing so hard at what I said and was mimicking the Great Napoleon pretending to say my speech at the balcony. After that scene, we went downstairs for dinner. We were supposed to have a room downstairs but the door handle broke down so they moved us to the top floor.
We didn’t realize until after midnight that we were on the attic of the hotel and not on the last floor. We slept late but when the midnight bells rang at the church nearby, I could hear some strange noise in our area so I got up and looked out the small window at the back of our room. It’s an attic, that’s where we are. When I was in bed I could hear loud noises of chains dragging down the stairs nearby. At first, I really thought that I was just dreaming or hearing noises in my dream, but I rubbed my eyes and I was wide awake. So I listened again and could hear the noise of dragging chains getting louder and louder. I got scared so I woke up Marge, and ask her if she heard that weird noise and she did, too. It kept going all night long so maybe this hotel was haunted. Instead of sleeping and covering our heads with the comforter, we decided to dress up and have midnight snacks at the café across the street. We saw it when we came here earlier in the afternoon. We went down the elevator and into the lobby to leave our hotel key and told the front desk that we are hungry and going for a bite across the street at the café.
That café was serving pastries, wine, coffee and other drinks so we ordered coffee and pastries to go with it. We took our time eating and drinking until it was almost dawn so we went back to the hotel to sleep. By then the weird noises were gone and we fell asleep so soundly but by morning we heard a loud knock at our door since we overslept and the whole tour group was waiting for us at the bus already. The tour Director told us to put out our bags and luggage in 10 minutes and go downstairs to join the group. Now, we were not only late but we missed breakfast as well. We dressed up and got ready to leave but my luggage won’t close because it was overloaded with stuff, souvenirs and all. Marge told me to sit on top of the luggage and we will try to close it and it did close by then with my weight sitting on top of the baggage. So we had our bags out and was picked up by the Bell Boy and brought to our tour bus.
The Grand Place is the central square of Brussels. It is surrounded by guildhalls, the city’s Town Hall, and the Breadhouse. The square is one of the most important tourist destination in the city and the most memorable landmark in Brussels.
By the time we got on the bus, we were 20 minutes late and what an embarrassment. But you know what? it was our turn to be late that day because almost everyday two or four people (in pairs) are always late. Then the motor coach left the old haunted hotel and when we told our tour group members, none of them would believe us because nobody else have heard those weird noise near the attic room where we slept. Marge and I just looked at each other and laughed it out. It’s true and no one would believe us. If I was alone in that room, I’d be very scared so I’m glad they got me a room mate for that day. On our other hotel accommodations I had single rooms all to myself.
“Le Mannequin Piss” Statue
In Europe the last city we visited before crossing the English Channel and left Calais Port on our way to Dover Port in England was Brussels in Belgium. That was a very haunted hotel where we stayed and it was such a scary night for Marge and me. I will never forget those noisy chains dragging down the stairs, thump, thump and kaboom, we got scared and run across the street to that Café to have some midnight snacks. What a scary adventure that was for both of us, and an almost sleepless night. But when we finally went to sleep it was so late that we had to oversleep. After our tour of the city of Brussels where we saw the beautiful buildings in the downtown area, we also went to see the statue of the “Le Mannequin Piss” somewhere around the city proper hidden in a small alley. Then we were off and left Calais Port to proceed to our next stop, the City of London via a Hovercraft Hydroplane Boat, so Dover Port here we come!
MY TRAVELS IN EUROPE SERIES #18 to the End of Series
About the rest of my travels in Europe, it will be continued soon with Series #18 to the end of my European Tour. I still have to find the albums with photos taken in Nice, France; then the photos taken in Monte Carlo, Monaco. From there we crossed the Dolomites Mountain in Italy after we visited the French Riviera and also the Italian Riviera. We also visited some Italian towns after our Tour of Rome and the Vatican City. We visited Capri and Anacapri Islands and from there we went to Sorrento and then to Venice. I already blogged about Venice, Florence and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We also went to Amsterdam and then passed by Davos in the Principality of Liechtenstein on our way to the Netherlands. Then we visited Salzburg, Vienna, and Innsbruck in Austria.
I really enjoyed my European Tour which lasted over three weeks with the Gateway Tours Company. It was a well-deserved vacation of a lifetime and someday I’d like to tour Europe again and experience the famous Orient Express from Venice to Paris and maybe continue on to London from Paris. What a train travel it would be and another dream come true for me. Now I’ll bid you all “Goodbye”, ’till we meet again! “Au Revoir!”
About Oly Trinity
Oly is the travel blogger, documentarian on lakbaypilipinas.ca, also a writer-poet, photographer and artist whose work constitutes a blog-documentary in many aspects of life, people, places, arts, culture and traditions, even architecture. It's about trips at home and abroad, also flashbacks of trips on years gone by, reminiscing memorable experiences then back to the future and now, all these in the new blog. You will see, hear and read about the travels, feasting on foods around the globe, meeting people in places that she visits and sharing their traditions and goodwill, who visits countries that others only dream about and who wants to share with you all of her experiences never to be forgotten in this lifetime. From her old hometown to her new home she will marvel you with stories, and show you how small the whole world really is; if you love to travel. Now, let's start that wonderful journey together.