We were up earlier than usual today – the kids always used to wake up early on the first day of our holidays and now it would appear that we have turned into our children 😂😂.
Jezza woke earlier than me and checked us in – for us seasoned Ryanair travellers (you know who you are 🤪), it’s important to leave checking in as late as possible and hopefully get seats closest to the exits – he got a window seat on Row 3 and I got a middle seat in Row 31 – funny how he got the good seat 🤨, but he did assure me that, as at 07:30, I didn’t have anyone sitting on one side of me, but, on verra, as we say here…
After repacking his suitcase, Jezza decided he was happy enough with his Northern European wardrobe and once I had sorted out all the liquids, we made ourselves a couple of wraps for lunch at the airport. Mark and Ruthanne took us to the airport, saving us having to get the 9am bus from the town and then hang around in Béziers for a couple of hours waiting for the airport bus.
Once at the airport we went through security where Jezza’s case was searched. I wore my non wired bra so the metal detector didn’t go off (for once) 😅. They weren’t that thorough though as there was a bag of liquids in Jezza’s bag which went undetected!!! But, most important of all, they weren’t interested in my knitting needles as being weapons of mass destruction 😂😂😂.
Our flight took off more or less on time – I didn’t have an empty seat to my right – my flight partner was a young girl who obviously hadn’t been taught to put her hand over her mouth when she yawned, and when she wasn’t asleep on the flight, she spent her waking moments yawning 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤬.
Other than my frustration at Miss Sleepy, the short flight (1.5hours) was quite uneventful and I watched a couple of episodes of The Other Bennet Sister – I’m quite getting into it now!!
We landed in the rain and I was glad of my light jacket – I did buy (and pack!) an umbrella for this trip but have no idea where it is for now… 🙄🙄.
We caught the Flibco bus from the airport – Charleroi is about an hour from Brussels itself and the rain got heavier as we began the next leg of our journey. Once in Brussels, we navigated our way through the Metro and found our hotel just by the Metro exit! Jezza, ever the gentleman, kindly carried my backpack for me as we made our way to our hotel !! Fortunately, the rain was abating as we checked in.
Jezza found a fish and chip restaurant called Bia Mara for our dinner – a real treat for us!!
As Jezza wanted a beer, I went for a spritz which was similar to Aperol but more bitter – the waitress was lovely and said I didn’t have to drink it, but I persevered and didn’t decide to have a second! The fish and especially the chips were absolutely delicious – we were stuffed – so much so that we didn’t opt for desserts…. We were looking forward to the walk back to the hotel and en route bought a couple of bottles of Pinot Grigio – not our normal choice, but we had to go for a screw cap bottle as we didn’t bring a corkscrew 🙄😂.
Our hotel faces The Cardo Hotel with the famous picture by Magritte, The Son of Man, superimposed on the outside of the building – it featured in The Thomas Crown Affair – I loved the original with Faye Dunnaway/Steve McQueen, whilst Jezza prefers the remake with Rene Russo/Piers Brosnan – I wonder why…. 🤔🤔.
So we ended a somewhat long day drinking Pinot Grigio from tiny tumblers whilst watching Celebrity Weakest Link on our hotel bed, followed by a programme on Paul McCartney 😍😍!! We wanted to stay up for MOTD to wallow in Arsenal’s loss (sorry Jan), but as we have Man City tomorrow, we decided against it!!
We’ve had a lovely first day – tiring, but interesting and without any issues. We’ll sleep well tonight and are looking forward to a full day tomorrow…
Total steps: 10,300
