Arrival in Brussels
Sunday, October 20, 1991
The rain stopped long enough for us to cook breakfast and put up our wet tent. We found no English speaking Churches in Mons, so we studied the Prophet John in our Bible. We arrived in Brussels, studied numerous corner street maps, and found our hotel - The Royal Windsor Hotel.
In the afternoon we visited the “Grand Place”, beautiful old buildings, truly a grand looking place, stopping as we went at numerous lace and chocolate shops. Oh! the calories. we also visited the famous statue “Mannekin Pis”. Yes, a little boy doing his thing. we took the Metro to “Rick’s Place” - excellent ribs and American cuisine.
Taking a Drive to Brussels Belgium
Saturday, October 19, 1991
Off we go - driving to Brussels, Belgium. We cross the border and exchange French Francs for Belgian Francs. This time it’s 1,000 Belgian Francs equal to about $30USD. The language is French but almost everyone speaks English also.
In wanting to satisfy our camping desire, we pack the car for a Saturday night stay at a campground at Mons, Belgium. Yes, I said Fall was here -cold, rainy. We drive thru several rain storms on the way. We arrive at Mons. The rain briefly stops and we set up our tent.
The campground is really nice, adjacent to a beautiful park with statues, ponds, ducks, and flowers. We stroll thru the beautiful garden and out of all the walking paths, we are led down one to find 3 beautiful white duck feathers on the ground. Someone is really watching out for us. Now David’s Pirate hat will be complete.
The rain would come and go as we cooked in between the raindrops and are holding our umbrellas while adding on another layer of clothes for warmth. We have found no camp fire facilities at any European campgrounds - this lending to only one positive note - your clothes don’t smell smokey.
Darkness came early and we retired to the warmth of our feather comforter. The rain continued all night. We were awakened by loud music from a building in the park about 1/2 mile away (student party). It actually vibrated the ground we slept on but was somewhat enjoyable.