Everyone rides the train in Europe and few
understand that folks from the US are mostly
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| Live news report |
clueless about how to use this
sort of transportation. So with the help of a few kindhearted souls we made our
way from Maastricht to the interesting city of Brussels. Being near the border of France, the city is
officially bilingual; and English is very common, as well since there are so
many tourists. Historically a Dutch-speaking city, Brussels has seen a major
shift to French since Belgian independence in 1830. Founded by a descendant of
Charlemagne in the, 10th century Brussels has grown from a fortress
town to a fair-sized city and, in effect, the capital of the European Union
(EU) as well as headquarters for NATO. While we were there, a great debate was
occurring about whether Greece was going to adopt the austerity
measures set out by the EU or whether they were going to go ahead as usual.
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| One of the canals |
Two of us arrived in Amsterdam after a not so
positive adventure transferring from American Airlines to British Airlines through
Heathrow. Although the airlines tell you that you can make your flight if you
have at least 90 minutes, this is not actually the case during high season. We
did make our plane, but our luggage did not. It showed up at our hotel a few
hours later, in good repair, so we were able to continue our adventures on a
more positive note. The lesson from this, plan for a two, or better yet, three
hour lay-over in Heathrow rather than sprinting through the airport and sweating
through internal security that does nothing in a hurry. You’ll arrive at your
destination a bit later, but without the anxiety of trying to make a connection
that could depend on the whim of a security person, bus driver, or gate clerk.
