Day 15 ... highlights train travel and "The Atomium"

... decided the other day that we'd spend today in Brussels and take a tour of the city while there [just a "quick dipper" tour] - we had to navigate our way to/from Brussels via train travel and were really quite successful ...

Train travel went very well, and we had no issues locating the tour office where we needed to meet up with the group. We had a quick lunch and did some walking around prior to joining the tour ... located a great little shop with some funky clothing I knew I'd be checking out post tour "Desigual" ...

Our tour guide, Hugo, was really quite the character ... can't even begin to physcially describe him but there was no tour guide uniform for this fella ... and I got a "bit" of a kick out of the ad-hoc way in which he conducted the tour ... very entertaining, other times it was like watching the "goings on" on TV ... a couple of quick examples:

1. the group is gathered and the tour is ready to start ... Hugo says I'll be back in 2 minutes ... 15 minutes later he returns and we're all just kind of looking at each other ... and, we're off ... the tour begins [15 minutes late] ... kudos though - Hugo does know his city and its history ... and he knows architecture ...
2. we're walking down the street toward the tour bus and Hugo is in the middle of explaining some history on the Kings of Belgium and his buddy says 'hi' and Hugo belts out, "Tony, ¿cómo estás" ... and they proceed to catch-up in Spanish ... [for about 5 minutes]
3. Hugo is a Belgian ... conducted the tour in English and Spanish ... and has a wicked British cockney accent [and at times kind of sounded like Austin Powers?]

... one of the highlights of the tour was going to see the Atomium [constructed for the Belgium '58 Expo ... today's photo features the structure].

Overall I would say that if you were asking me if I would recommend you take this tour - no, you'd be better off with the "Hop On / Hop Off" ... and how much time would I recommend you spend in Brussels? Unless you've got family there, I would recommend you spend as much time as we did today ... a quick day trip in and out ... ... arrived 12h07 -- had lunch -- strolled around the market place -- went on guided tour -- a quick clothing purchase -- drank a beer / hit the 'loo' -- caught the outgoing train 18h23!!

It was good to get back to Amsterdam ... there is an energy about this city and its people [even the tourists] that I kind of missed today ... it's an easier pace, Amdersterdam is so well maintained, it's real - more organic if that makes sense ... and I kind of missed seeing 10,000 bikes , and people on bikes, and being on a bike, and being almost run over by a bicyclist ...

Today's photo: Sabine and I posing in front of a fountain in front of "The Atomium" ... taken by an American ... we were just planning on attempting another "selfie" ... he loved our pic and made his wife flash a peace sign in there's [for he had me take his family pic in return ]

Cheers - RGR

P.S. for those interested in my shopping escapade today I went back to that little shop and purchased a couple of tops - super funky!! The very flamboyant shop guy that tallied up my total was shocked and horrified I had not heard of their brand name ... he asked where I was from and I said Canada - his response: "Oooooo, yes we don't have any shops in Canada ... you'll look good in colour dear" ... haha!