Wednesday, July 13: Good bye, Barcelona and good bye Charlotte! :(

The morning was a bit hectic. Our flight to Brussels did not leave until 11:30 am, but Charlotte's flight to Germany left at 10:20 am and so we planned to leave at 8 am. We were getting the last dishes washed and writing a note to whoever did the cleaning to keep the leftover food. We still had the last trash to take down to the dumpster, and we expected the taxi to arrive at 8 am sharp. Well, at about 7:50, the driver rang the door bell and we were NOT ready. So we scrambled around and hoped that we had done everything we needed to do. We sent the kids down to tell the taxi driver we were on our way. Then we locked up and dropped the house keys in the mailbox as instructed by the host. Seconds later, Charlotte flew around the corner into the hallway and yelled "don't return the keys yet", but it was too late. She could not find her cell phone, and thought she might have left it in her room.

On our way to the airport we decided if worst came to worst the host would have to mail it to her in Germany, but thankfully it showed up and all was well! Upon arrival at the airport we did have coffee together and then waited around at Charlotte's gate for her German Wings departure. It was so sad saying goodbye and not knowing when we might see her again.

Bye, Charlotte! We had so much fun and were so glad you came along!

Ben's last stop at FCBotiga store at the airport.

After she left, it turned out our gate was just the next one over for our Ryanair flight.

Catelonia, Spain, and EU flags at the airport

Bye bye Barcelona!!

We will miss you!

We arrived as planned in Brussels and after retrieving our luggage we had left there in a locker, tried to contact the Augustin, the hotel we were to spend the night at. It had been advertised on Orbitz or Travelocity or one of the hotel booking sites as having an airport shuttle, so we asked about it at the shuttle desk, but they were not aware. Since our phones were not working well for calls, but there was free airport wifi, I sent a Facebook message to the hotel asking for an airport pickup asap. The hotel clerk replied quite quickly, saying that no drivers were presently available, that arrangements had to be made in advance for airport transport and that they would try to find something for us. I expressed frustration, noting the reason I chose this hotel out of many others was that it included free airport shuttle service. They told me they do have transportation, but it is certainly not free, and since no drivers are available, we might as well take a taxi for 50 Euros. Another option would be a train for 34 Euros. Since we had already left the airport area, we had ta walk quite a distance to get back into the airport to talk to information. It was frustrating, since we had to go through a security checkpoint all over again just to re-enter to get some help. We sat at the airport, ate $15 french fries and discussed our options. It was disappointing to have to travel so far to the hotel, too, knowing our flight to Chicago left at 7:30 am, meaning we had be be back at the airport by 5:30 am! I had falsely assumed we had booked an airport hotel. We looked at prices of some actual airport hotels, but in Brussels it is difficult to find a room for 4 people. We asked the Augustin if because of the miscommunication about the airport shuttle, we could cancel and get a refund, but they said no. 

It did not help that we were out of cash and when I tried to use the ATM, it declined my transaction. It turns out that for some strange reason Belgium is on a list of countries where Mastercard debit cards are blocked. This short list includes places like Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Russia, and a few more. We had had no trouble in Germany or Spain, but now in Belgium we were blocked from getting cash!

Fortunately the airport train station accepted credit cards and we were able to buy round trip tickets to cover the morning, too. The train was really nice and clean and comfortable and the ride was about 15 minutes. 

 Then, with all our luggage in tow, we had to walk another 10 minutes or so across the city to the hotel. Many of the roads and sidewalks were cobblestone, making it a bit difficult to pull wheeled suitcases, but we made it. This fountain was at the corner closest to our hotel, which is behind the trees on the right.

The hotel was really nice and clean and the room was big.  The boys just wanted to stay in and chill. They were comfortable watching cartoons on TV and wanted to relax. 

 Daryl and I wanted to see Brussels, which is a nice city with famous buildings and sights. Also, we all needed food for supper. So Daryl and I ventured out into the Grote Markt (grand market place), which was not far to walk to.

We soon found some of the beautiful buildings, the royal palace, park and cathedral. The park was really nice.

 It was a beautiful evening to walk around the city. Unfortunately after the stress of the day, we were not in good moods and did not enjoy it as much as we could have.

Then, of course there is the famous Manneken Pis. I had imagined this statue to be so much bigger than it was! Not sure what the hype is, but this little boy peeing is all the rage in all the souvenir shops, tourist guides, etc. I guess it was put in place in 1618, so that's pretty cool!

We went into a beautiful chocolate shop across the way from the statue, which had a giant chocolate statue of Manneken Pis in their front window. There, we bought authentic Belgian Waffles with Nutella to take back for the boys. Instead of eating out as we had originally planned, we decided to just take out pizza from a Pizza Hut and go back to the hotel to eat with the boys. They were glad to have real food and of course the famous Belgian Waffles! Since we had to get up so early (4:15 am), we tried to go to bed kind of early.