We left for the train station early this morning, and had a nice breakfast at the station - trackside dining. And that was the best part of the day. (Great Dutch Apple pancake pictured!) From that point on - hot, muggy and crowded.The train from Amsterdam was hot, muggy and crowded - definitely the most (and only) uncomfortable train ride we’ve had.
When we got off in Brussels - to spend about 3 hours in the nearby Grand Place Square - the station was hot, crowded, muggy and confusing. Everything seemed hard to find. We finally found the lockers to store are bags, but didn’t have the energy to seek out and walk to the Grand Place, so we went to a nearby (air conditioned) restaurant and had lunch there.
Back on the train to Paris, we took the French Thales - their high speed train. For some reason, we were traveling on this train in 2nd class, but it was fine. This train was comfortable and (fast - pretty cool - but it was only an hour and 15 minutes before we arrived in Paris.
Wow - very crowded at the train station - standing in a fairly long line to get a Taxi. And when we finally got to our hotel, the air conditioning and the internet was not working. I could have gotten by without the internet, but the AC was only slightly cool, and our room was uncomfortable. And when it cooled down outside in the evening, we couldn’t open our windows to sleep because of the busy street below.
We left the hotel room for an evening stroll (cooler and less muggy now) and had a fine dinner on a sidewalk café. And sleeping in the room wasn’t too bad after a cold shower. But the next morning, when the hotel said they wouldn’t be able to fix the AC until Wednesday, we said we wanted to find a new hotel, and we did.
