Ou est les Prostitutes?

Okay, well more about that later.

First let me say that the 9 1/2 hour flight wasn't all that bad or maybe I'm just getting used to flying for long periods of time. Sarah and I had two seats together but the plane wasn't full so I was able to move somewhere to have an empty seat next to me which coincidentally left an empty seat next to Sarah. We were able to spread out a little and be more comfortable which didn't necessarily translate into me getting any sleep but I was still grateful for the extra space.

We got to Amsterdam airport (Schipol) about 7:30 AM and managed to get our baggage and through customs in about 45 mins.

We then caught the train right in the airport directly to Brussels. The scenery through Holland was very flat, as to be expected, and we did see several windmalls. Within two hours we were rolling into Brussels (still flat countryside and very industrial) which is where the prositutes come in..

Sarah is studying her driver's manual and I'm standing near the door of the train so I'd be ready to lug my heavy bags off when we stopped....I'm just gazing out the window and looking at the street that borders the railway and all of a sudden I notice that in every window of every house along this street there are women wearing lingerie (next to nothing!). This went on for at least 3 blocks....incredible...not only in broad daylight but also in the morning! I didn't know whether to go tell Sarah to look or make sure she wasn't looking. But as I already mentioned, she was studying her driver's manual and sitting on the other side of the train, so she missed it.

We changed trains in Brussels. We'd just missed the train to Namur but some "friends" I'd met on the train informed me that the next train to Namur was in 1/2 hour. Can you imagine? And Namur is not even a major destination and we only had a short wait. (Train travel in Europe is absolutely amazing.)

The final leg of our journey to meet up w/ Claire was only about an hour. We were exiting the train station when here comes my beautiful, oldest daughter. We had a happy reunion (yes, there were tears in my eyes) and then started our 1/2 walk w/ big, heavy luggage to our hotel.

As we walked along (in the very cold winter weather) I immediately fell in love w/ Namur. What a charming city w/ all the Christmas lights and a lighted cidadel on the hill. Our hotel is very nice and quite eccentric. It was made by combining something like 14 row houses into one building. The effect is that every single room is different and all on slightly different levels. As you go down the hall all the rooms are up and down steps and curving staircases. I'd hate to try to navigate it if I had too much to drink!

As if the day wasn't already long enough (over 24 hours w/o sleep!) we knew we had to keep going to enable us to sleep through the night later. So we dropped off our suitcases and headed out to see the town. We stopped into a cozy spot for some refreshments (cherry beer), visited a few shops of which there are many...and then back to the hotel where we waited for Claire's host dad to pick us up in his car to take us to her "home" in Malonne.

What a lovely family and home! They made us feel very welcome and it was wonderful to meet the people (at last) who have been Claire's surrogate family for the last 4 months. Both Sarah and I were exhausted, to say the least, but we mustered up the strength to partake in some wonderful food and drink. We started with 4 kinds of boudin, which is apparently referred to as a sausage but w/ the texture more like pate. There was some wonderful cheese to go along w/ it and champagne! Then we sat down to dinner of lapin (rabbit for all you dweebs in dweebland who don't speak French), endive frisee and pommes de terre croquettes... As if this wasn't enough they brought out a big board with at least 10 different cheeses (fromages) and a wondeful loaf of bread. AMAZING cheese but I was too full to eat much...and THEN...little crocks of Mousse au Chocolat....

Not too long after the chocolate mousse Claire's host dad brought us back to the hotel. Sarah and I talked for a short while and then SLEEP, blessed SLEEP.

I won't bore my readers w/ all the details of our first night at the hotel but it was eventful.

Goodnight for now.