Northern Europe Bike Tour Day 1

Charles got to us around 8:40 am! Yay. There was a direct train to Bruges at 8:58 that I thought about hustling us to since it only came once an hour but then I decided to just wait for the next one in our hotel room. The Brussels train station was just below the airport so back we went into the airport. When trying to use our ticket to get through the turnstile, it kept scanning as invalid. Our tour company had purchased the wrong date it turned out but the train attendant took pity at our lost and confused look and just let us through.

We had booked 1st class tickets to make it easier to move with our luggage and it was nice to have plenty of seats to choose from when we got on. I took a set of 4 seats with luggage and both kids wanted to sit with Charles in the other set of 4 seats. As we passed through central Brussels, suddenly our first class seat area became very full of people! We actually had people start sitting with us. But then the train conductors came through and told a bunch of people that they had 2nd class tickets and needed to leave. Then it was very peaceful again.

Upon arrival in Bruges, I wanted to be eco-friendly and we paid 12 Euros for the bus which was warm and super crowded. Charles asked why didn't we just take a taxi (it may have only been 15 Euros).

In the main square

We dropped off our luggage and went off to find the Hislops for lunch which ended up being Paul's Boutique for burgers. That really hit the spot and the kids gobbled everything. We wandered around a little afterwards and then it started raining on us and it was pretty brief but also a sign of how our trip was going to be. After some wandering, I could tell that Frank wanted to keep exploring while Charles really needed to rest. So we went back to our hotel and checked in and Charles immediately passed out for a nap.

I was puzzled at the hotel why we had 1 room for the both of us since I had paid more to have the kids have their own room. That mystery was solved when it turned out they put us in the Hislops room so we shuffled out of there into a double room downstairs for us and a big triple room for the kids 2 doors down from the quad. The kids room that we ended up throwing all the kids together in the room for 2 nights which worked out surprisingly well and gave Emily and Frank some alone time too.

Later that afternoon we went off to pick up our bikes and at first we panicked since we saw they brought a road bike for Hannah with racing bars but turns out they brought 2 bikes for Hannah to give her more options. Phew. We spent the afternoon setting up bikes and then bike back to our hotel and got headed out to dinner later with the group. Dinner was pretty far away but there were tons of cool awesome shops to peer into but it was very late by the time we got back and all the kids promptly passed out.

Bruges has many canals