I am completely shocked to report that we made it on the 11:00am train from Paris to Brussels, with a connection on to Brugge.
We had to get in line and talk to a real person to try to figure out the tickets, so we spent the time waiting in line guessing at whether we would be able to just get pushed to a later train, what it was going to cost, how kind the person might or might not be about it. We made it to the agent with 5 minutes until the train left No idea what was going on, or at first if she even understood our issue. But her fingers were dancing across those magic keys, and suddenly voila, we had printed boarding passes. Still certain we couldn’t enter the station with 9 minutes to be on board and actually make it, I asked if we should move to a later train? Surely we wouldn’t make it at this point. But she pointed vaguely and said the train was there, at platform 9.
We turned, and lo and behold, it was there at platform 9. And platform 9 was right there! Sort of. So we wove our way back through the rat-maze exit line, unhelpful e-ticket kiosks, people begging for money and newspaper/coffee stands. The girls being in the lead at the beginning, stayed there instead of trying to switch places, me calling out “Turn Right!” and “Cut left as soon as you can!” as we went. They were in a state of perfectly balanced humor at how this was unfolding, and urgency tinged with fear, so there was no hesitation as they followed the orders.
And believe it or not, we made it on the train with about a minute to spare. I know. I’m still amazed, too.
The lunch wrapped up with a Belgian classic: Belgian waffle with vanilla ice cream & chocolate sauce. Mmmm…
Afterward, we gave in to what we knew we would have to from the moment we walked into the Centrum: A horse drawn carriage ride through the center of Brugge. It was really funny, because Lydia sat up front with the driver. We got less of the spoken tour than usual, I’m sure, because the driver was so busy answering Lydia’s questions. When did you start riding? What was your first horse? How many horses work at the centrum? Do they work every day? She was in seventh heaven.