We got to sleep a bit later today, though we had to sleep with all the windows open, so the street noises really prevented much sleeping in. Girlchild got up and went to the patisserie with us this morning, and she chose some sort of apple concoction, while the rest of us stuck with croissants and pain chocolat. We even got brave enough to try the tiny little elevator. We enjoyed our pastries with some coffee, but it was already getting so hot we had to kind of hide in the non-sunny area of the flat. Then we packed up, cleaned up, and headed out. Madame Brunel, mother of our host Veronique Lancel, arrived determined to let us know that there had been some sort of sailor strike at the Eurostar yesterday. She had it all written out for us, since she had already told us her written English was better than her spoken English. We had gotten by okay in French at the apartment, but it was fairly basic conversation about the way things worked, the neighborhood, shops, metro, etc. My French is definitely not up to discussing strikes. She was relieved to know we don't take the Eurostar until Friday, and we were on our way.

We arrived at Gare du Nord to find that it was, like the pyramides at the Louvre, a giant greenhouse of heat. Ugh! No AC, just the sun baking us at 100 degrees. We had arrived plenty early, so we went and found a market to buy some sandwiches, and some cookies for later. I also ducked into a patisserie and grabbed an eclair. Then we were very glamorous and ate it all on the floor of the train station, in a shady spot. We were not the only ones! We grabbed some cafe for the train, and hopped on the Thalys to Brussels.

The train was sort of climate controlled... it had AC, but it was still pretty warm. We were relieved that the tickets guys didn't bat at eye at Gabe's ticket, which somehow read William Sun instead of Sunderman... autocorrect or autofill error, I suppose. All of the staff were really nice, and when we arrived at Brussels-Midi, we found another nice guy to tell us how to change to get to Brussels-Central. We didn't even have to buy another ticket because you can transfer to another train within Belgium on the same day. Thalys is kind of pricey, though, and the SCNF train itself was nicer.

Central station was kind of confusing, and quite large. The maps and signage are a bit odd.. hard to tell which direction arrows are pointing you. We knew the hotel was close, but we couldn't quite figure which exit out of the station. We finally just decided to go out, and sure enough it is literally right across from the station. We had just been telling the cubs that a lot of times the area around transportation stations can be a bit shady earlier today in Paris, but it's really nice right here.

I can't describe how excited we were to learn our hotel has AC. There is a massive heat wave going on in Europe right now, and it was over 100 in Paris when we left. It was mid 90s when we arrived in Brussels. Sure, we're Texans, and Houstonians at that, but NOTHING here has air conditioning. Even the Louvre was hot. Hopefully, Brussels is not quite as hot tomorrow. The check-in lady, Alicia, was delightful. She offered us a sale on the breakfast, but for 18 Euro each, we declined. She told us to go into the station and get something there, which we had sort of planned while we were trying to figure out how to exit the place earlier. Our room is beautiful and really spacious: we have a seating area, beautiful beds, two bathrooms, and separate tub/shower. Hedge took a shower while I bathed tonight.

We cooled down, perused the map Alicia gave us, and got online to see what we wanted to do. We thought we would see if it was cool enough to stroll the Grand Place, eat, then walk down to the palace. We ended up staying around the Grand Place, because there are a million shops and restaurants - mainly chocolate and beer places! We found a little beauty store, where we found some lip stuff, since everybody has dry lips and I lost my good stuff on the plane. They don't sell the squeezy kind here. The cubs decided to eat frites for dinner, and Hedge and I decided to let them, then send them back to the hotel while we had a drink and a bite. Toria had frites with mayonnaise (ugh), while Gabe opted for ketchup. They decided to skip the waffle after the giant thing of fries, then we took them back to the room for showers, Netflix, and the cookies we bought back in Paris.

I think we plan to do the palace and a museum or two tomorrow. Today was a "light" walking day, and my FitBit says that I only walked 19,000 steps, which is about half of what we've done the past few days. Tomorrow depends on weather! I must not complain when it's cold, windy, and raining in Scotland!