Day Four - Brussels

We check out of London House and hit the road to the Train station. We are taking the Eurostar from London to Brussels. Tickets and passports in hand we make it to the train station with plenty of time to enjoy breakfast. We board the train with ease, sit back and enjoy a smooth 2 hour ride to Brussels. We get off at the Brussels train station and head to the Europcar Car Rental kiosk. The associate speed reads the agreement and instructions for retrieving the car from the underground garage. These instructions involve 2 separate access cards and a special elevator - which we cannot find. After lugging our backpacks through the train station trying to follow the Divinci Code of car rental instructions I return to the kiosk to find the associate giggling with his coworker. Everybody hates a tourist, I get it.

He explains again, with some newly added details and we find the car. It's a shiny new black VW Golf and it's job it to get us 1,740 miles across Europe. We load in and I get in the drivers seat. Here we go. I pull out of the garage and we begin our drive to the hotel... except Google Maps isn't

working and we have no idea where we're going and people are driving like maniacs and I can't understand the road signs and OMG.

Whew. I pull over, regain composure and we are back on the road with directions. Make it to the Pantone Hotel and find parking on the street nearby although the payment instructions are anyone's guess (this will be our first and certainly not last introduction into the woes of parking in Europe). I am normally a great parallel parker but this time, with this stress I begrudgingly relinquish the duties over to Jacob who does an excellent job. We check in and plop down in our new hotel. It's big, bright, floor to ceiling windows, black shag carpet and a huge balcony. It also reeked of cigarette smoke.

We make effort to waste no time and head out right away to the Musée Magritte Museum to view a wonderful collection of works by Magritte. Afterwards we decide to check out the brand new Apple Store which is the

first of it's kind to boast a new design. Finding it was a struggle, with no data plan you are at the will of free wi-fi which is harder to find than a rental car in Brussels. So after some searching we finally find the store. I explain that we are fellow Apple employees on holiday and would like to take a few pictures. I would have been happy with just that, but we were given a full 2 hour tour of the front and back of house by a very lovely employee by the name of Sara. It was really special and we are thankful.

We were also very hungry so as soon as the tour was over we head for a restaurant around the corner recommended by Sara. Now I'm not going to tell you that everyone we met on our trip was pleasant. There are way more jerks in this world than nice people (especially in Europe... just kidding! kinda.) It's to be expected and hey, you really shouldn't be traveling if you are expecting to meet only pleasant people. So I will say just say this, if you like waiters in Paris, you're gonna love waiters in Brussels.

We finish dinner and head back to the hotel. On our way back we stop at a little corner store and load up on Belgian beers and sweets. We top off the night by eating and drinking in bed and listening to the sweet sound of CNN World News - the only TV station in English.