Candes Saint-Martin, my favourite spot in La Touraine.

Saturday 4 June 2011

A 'blind' date

No, before you start imaging all sorts of things; you’re wrong!

But I'm nevertheless a bit nervous, because this afternoon, I'm off to Brussels to meet blog readers from the US. B. and his wife P. have been reading my blog for several months. They had been planning a trip to France for while and after reading my blog posts on Brussels and seeing the photos of the Grand Place, they became intrigued by our little country. And so in February they decided to include a short stay in Brussels in their program.

They arrived last night from Atlanta after a very long journey, including a transatlantic flight to Paris, a long wait at CDG high speed train station and a train ride that took them all the way to Lille, where they had to change stations and trains to finally arrive in Brussels. The taxi ride to their hotel only took ten minutes and was apparently the easiest part of the trip.

When I talked to B. last night on the phone he sounded exhausted but relieved that they’d made it. Although he still wondered how they did it!



La Chaloupe d'Or at the Grand Place
where B. and P. and I will be meeting this afternoon.

I hope they have had a good night’s sleep and are not too jetlagged to enjoy their first day in Brussels. We’ll be meeting at the Grand Place at 3 p.m. for drinks at the Chaloupe d’Or, followed by a visit to our famous Manneke Pis, the notorious rue des Bouchers and the beautiful and elegant 19th century Galérie de la Reine. I’ll also give them some pointers on other things to visit tomorrow and nice places to have dinner. They will be in Brussels till Monday, before setting out for France.

It’s extremely hot and sunny today. I hope that won’t spoil the fun, especially as violent thunderstorms are predicted for later today.

9 comments:

GaynorB said...

I hope you all have a lovely day together.
I think meeting in person changes virtual friends into real live friends.

Craig said...

Good on them for visiting Brussels. I think that it's a lovely city and I love the food there. Have a good time!

Diane said...

All the bloggers I have met have been fantastic, sure you will have a great time. Diane

Niall & Antoinette said...

Hope you have a lovely day. Je gaat toch ook frietjes met mayonaise met ze eten hoop ik? ;-)

The Broad said...

Brussels is a lovely city and Belgium a lovely country. I have visited there several times because my husband had business and I enjoyed every minute of my explorations. I especially enjoyed discovering the joy of mussels and the fabulous restaurants serving them! The memories are making my mouth water...

Leon Sims said...

We'll look forward to hearing of your meeting soon. I'm sure you'll have a great time catching up - I know we have in the past as well with fellow Bloggers.

ladybird said...

Gaynor, It's always great when virtual friends finally get a face and a voice!

Craig, Ah yes, the food! I've shown them three restaurants I particularly like in the Grand Place district ... I hope they followed my advice and had a nice meal last night.

Diane, Welcome and thank you for posting a comment. B. an P. are the forth blog friends I actually got to meet, and it was great.

Nadege, It was! You'll read all about it later.

N & A, Thank you! No, no 'frietjes' ... we were too busy talking and forgot all about food. :((

The Broad, Yes, it's amazing how much there is to see, do and ... eat in Brussels. Glad you liked the mussels.

L & S, I'm still sorry we didn't get to meet last year. But all's not lost, because I believe you'll be back in 2012! Right?

Anonymous said...

That was sweet of you to welcome them. I always get so excited by meeting strangers who come to France and then wonder why I waste my time.
Hope they are worthwhile tourists and that you enjoy yourselves.

ladybird said...

Dedene, They were lovely people and very interested in Brussels and life in Belgium in general. We had a great time!