BRUSSELS: A LAST EVENING

In search of the material comforts of an American style hotel, we gone online at our Antwerp lodgings to book a night at the Park Inn Radisson, right across the street from the Midi train station, where we would board the Eurostar for London.  It was a good choice, as we ascertained on checking in.  Nothing fancy, but everything comfortable and in working order.  I wrote a long blog entry—and, as you know from my previous post—erased it.  So I substituted a short entry, by way of an apology.  And we set off on foot to find the restaurant in the Sablon area of the city that, you might recall, had been recommended by our friends at the next table at Fiskebar in Antwerp.  (I know, the chronology gets a bit confusing here; I'm a but confused myself...)  A long, slow climb up to a district that reminded me in some ways of Montmartre in Paris: narrow cobbled streets, long stairways, and picturesque small squares crowded with cafes and restaurants…

We found Lola, the restaurant we had been looking for, and assured ourselves a reservation, leaving ourselves another half hour or so to take a seat at a nearby café and enjoy an aperitif—in my case, a glass of kir—looking out over the square.  You can imagine the scene: trees slowly shedding their leaves, a cacophony of car horns, a continual flow of passers-by, a fountain with the requisite number of pigeons...  And made friends with our neighbor at the cafe, an elegant woman who proved to be a diplomat working currently at the Belgian ministry of foreign affairs.  Then on to dinner, which turned out to be less toothsome than billed.  Perhaps we simply ordered wrong.  Ellie felt that we should have ordered fish: I chose the duck, she the veal.  It was a decent meal, but no match for the excellent Fiskebar.  

Returning through now darkened streets to the hotel, we relaxed in the luxury of a king-sized bed and indulged in a TV set that had access to a number of English-language channels.  Decadent.  Slept well, and woke in the morning well rested and with good time ahead of us, after a brief excursion for a light breakfast at the train station, to begin to catch up with this blog.  And now, on board the Eurostar...

... I'm just finishing this current entry as we speed through the tunnel under the English Channel.  Soon, back in London…