I would like to forget day 7 of this trip, my cold virus that started a few days ago has come into form. No energy, tired, congestion, scratchy throat, all the good things. Yes the pharmacy person was right, I should have been sleeping and resting instead of traveling to watch a bike race and then standing out in the cool rain all afternoon. But what can I say, I’ve never been here for the Schelderpris and how old am I? Take advantage of what you can when you can.
Today was just a sleep-in kind of day, try to relax and recover, time to wash clothes before we leave Brussels tomorrow. Catch up with photos and blog stuff, just generally be a “slug”. Early to bed and hope tomorrow things will improve. Maybe should have made another trip to a pharmacy for something stronger than throat lozenges.
Friday, I slept in and am feeling better, not good but better. Today is another of my more stressful kind of days. Rental car pickup and drive back and find a place to park it for one night. Pickup is at 2:00 at the big rail station, Midi/Zuid. We are planning to transit to Midi, hopefully on an 81 bus and a slightly different pick-up location. Vera found a nice casual cafe 50 meters from our front door, so late breakfast at 10:30, Pancakes for her and a smoked salmon medley for me, yum. Thanks CHYL, good final brekky.
Off we go about 1:00, and of course it isn’t as easy as we thought. We can’t seem to find the location of the 81-bus stop. It doesn’t help that most intersections in this complicated town have more than two streets crossing. 4, 5 or more streets at slight angles is more the trend.
Eventually, we use Google maps to get us walking in the right direction and after about 2-3 blocks we find a transit shelter that says 81 on it. And then, here comes an 81 tram, (streetcar) instead of a bus. Well, why not try it. On we get and there is a driver with a tiny window to ask a question and he says yes, this will get to Midi. A more complicated route but yes, here we are at Midi, 3rd time in less than a week.
Did I mention this place is huge! I think I did. In we go searching for the rental car area and finally, after asking around some we find Budget. Check in is smooth, we get a Toyota HRV Hybrid, auto trans, with navigation, thank you. A bit of a maze to get below to the storage area and there it is. I was concerned about interior space and our luggage but this thing looks good, rear seats flip down and everything should fit without having to repack the bike.
We log in our Airbnb address and now, traffic in Brussels, haven’t really done inner city Brussels before. Just slow, deliberate and always watching for cars, trucks, trams, busses, bikes, people and all the new street controls. It was quite good I had to ride a bike through town a few times to acclimate some. Speeds are slower than USA, lanes are narrow, traffic is dense, knowing when to give way and when to be aggressive is important. Learning curve just keeps getting steeper.
We find our way back and then find one temp parking spot and then another. Maybe I have the pay for parking sorted. Supposedly free from 21:00 to 9:00. Yes, start thinking in 24-hour clocks.
Most all things are packed and ready before lights out, tomorrow, drive to and hopefully ride the Arenerg forest section of cobbles plus more.