Since I uploaded the video and pictures of the first two days we spent in Brussels, I thought I'd write a little describing my experience there. 

Upon arriving in Brussels, which was about 9 am, we immediately headed for the hotel.  That was the first encounter we had with a non-English speaking Belgian.  On the whole, Belgians are rather helpful and this old lady saw us huddling over a map, trying to get our bearing.  So she tried to help us locate the hotel.  Unfortunately, she doesn't speak any English and I didn't know any French except for some rudimentary words.  Through much miming and confusion, we managed to get the info from her; the hotel was three blocks away from where we were along the street running perpendicular to our current location.  And all I could tell her in French was "merci". 

The hotel is pretty nice though not fancy, but well we weren't looking for fancy.  After all, immediately after checking in, we headed out, having decided that we were going to Waterloo where Napoleon was finally defeated.  However, again we had some difficulty trying to communicate.  At the Waterloo station around 12 pm, we asked the station manager when the last train would be leaving back to Brussels.  Not understanding us, he gave out a few times, the last of which was 1730 hrs.  We groaned thinking that 5 hours were not going to be enough.  Furthermore, when we asked him how to get to the battle site, he just pointed up the road.  So we started walking, and we walked, and walked, and walked.  (I did mention to a few friends that those two weeks were the most I've ever walked in the past two years or so.)  And can you believe it, when we got to the center of the town, we found out that the actual battle site was much further and we had to take a bus.  However, the town was the location of Wellington's museum; it was previously a hotel where the Duke of Wellington comandeered as his headquarters.  It was a small museum but really informative - I didn't know for example that the Prince of Orange was actually involved in the battle, leading his men as part of the alliance against the little emperor.  And he was so young; barely into his twenties.  While the Prussian general was actually the oldest general ever in the Battle at 74 years old.

Okay, anyway, after touring the museum, we took the ride to the battle site - there were various monuments at different places in the battle site but the most prominent is the Lyon monument which if I am not mistaken built by the Dutch in honour of their Prince.  The Lion at the top of the hill was sculptured from the metals melted from the canons and other ammunition found on the battle site.  There we toured another museum, dealing with the actual battle, enjoyed the mock battle and those people playing dress up, climbed 226 steps to the top and enjoyed the panoramic view from the top.  I included one or two panoramic pictures I made of the view. 

By the time we headed back, it was 1800 hours and for a while we panicked.  In the end, we found out that the station manager was trying to give us the daily schedule (the frequency of the train).  Luckily we didn't miss the last train which was at 10 pm.

I'll write about the main city of Brussels the next time.

Peace,

Sid