Monthly Archives: March 2012

I think I need to level the playing field a bit. While I’m obviously excited about going to Paris, the real purpose of the trip is to get to know Belgium, a country I love already without ever having been there just from my millions and millions of visits to Monk’s, a Belgian bar in the city that boasts an encyclopedic array of imported beers, serves authentic pots of mussels and frites served with their housemade spicy mayo, and even has their own Flemish sour ale brewed specifically for them in Ertvelde, Belgium. Also, I love waffles, chocolate, neo-gothic architecture, lambic, and capital cities whose biggest attraction is a whimsical, 700 year old statue of a little boy peeing into a fountain. What, you were unfamilar with the Manekken Pis? Sometimes he is even dressed up in jaunty costumes.

I am beyond thrilled to get to spend so much time exploring the country. We’re staying for two nights in Brussels, two nights in Bruges, a night in Ghent, and a night in the Belgian countryside, hopefully in an old castle. Thankfully, the rail system in Belgium (like most places in Europe) is convenient, fast, and cheap, so getting to and from each city should be a breeze.

For Brussels, just like our hotels in Paris, Boyfriend cashed in some points with Starwood Hotels to land us The Four Points by Sheraton (I’ll try to remember all of this when I complain the next time he goes out of town for work).

Brussels is far less expensive a city than Paris, so even if we hadn’t used points for this hotel, we still could have gotten a great deal on one. I’m already planning which trams to take where, and reading Rick Steves’ book on Brussels & Bruges manically, trying to soak up as much as I can. Just like Paris, Brussels is an extremely walkable city, but unlike Paris, it’s small enough so you can hit the majority of the sights in one day. We have two full days and a morning before we have to leave for the airport.

For our two nights in Bruges, we used airbnb to rent this amazing, furnished apartment in the center of town. I first heard about airbnb through Victoria of SFGirlbyBay, when she wrote about her stay in a beautiful apartment in Le Marais during her trip to Paris last year. Since then I’ve been waiting for an excuse to use the site, and Bruges provided the perfect opportunity. It was cheaper than staying in a hotel, the reviews are absolutely glowing, and Boyfriend is super excited to be able to cook dinner for us. He’s weird, I don’t know. It will be a nice change though, to stay in a house rather than a hotel, and we’ll end up feeling like locals even though we’re only in the city for two days.

There’s still a lot left to do and plan, but a big chunk of stress has been lifted off my shoulders. Once everything is finalized for Ghent and the countryside I’ll let you guys know! Have any of you ever been to Bruges or Brussels before?

SO. About this grand European vacation I’m taking in May. We land in Brussels at 8am on a Monday morning, and are taking a train right to Paris from the airport for two days. Of course, because I’m me and I’m a total spaz about everything, I’m sweating bullets about the possibility of losing our luggage, missing our Thalys train, having the plane get sucked into some LOST-like mystery island, you know, the usual. But at least I can finally take a deep breath about our hotel accommodations, because as of Monday night we officially have a place to stay in Paris and Brussels. We still need to firm up a place in Ghent, Bruges, and the Belgian countryside (Boyfriend is dying to stay in an old castle, isn’t that adorable?), but we’re definitely on a roll.

I should mention that Boyfriend travels a lot for work. Sometimes to exotic places like India, and sometimes to snoozefests like Minneapolis (no offense, Minnesotans). His job requires him to travel, and since he’s been in the same job for the past 7 years, he’s racked up a fair amount of hotel points. Hotel points are magical little things. Did you know that if you have enough of them you can stay in a 4 or 5 star hotel in an expensive European city for FREE? I thought it was the stuff of lore. So imagine how excited I was when I found our Boyfriend had (officially past tense now) enough points with Marriott, Hilton, and Starwood to put us up in a 4 star hotel in two expensive European cities for $0. And not for one night, but for four. FOUR. I guess all those lame business trips he goes on are actually worth it!

Tomorrow I’ll do a separate post on our Brussels hotel as well as the charming apartment we’re renting in Bruges. Speaking of, have any of you seen the movie “In Bruges”? I watched it with Boyfriend this week because he hadn’t seen it before, and in the 4 years since I first watched it I’d forgotten nearly everything about the plot. It was like watching it for the first time again. That movie is so good. And Clémence Poésy is in it!

Okay, so Paris! After a ton of research and reading a million different hotel reviews, doing some fuzzy math to figure out which hotels would work with the points we had, we settled on our choices: The Renaissance Paris Arc de Triomphe, and the Hilton Arc de Triomphe. We have to change hotels for the two nights we’re there, but bfd. Both are four stars and both are otherwise prohibitively expensive per night. They’re only a few blocks from each other and both within eyesight of (in case you hadn’t guessed) the Arc de Triomphe. I’m soaking up the waves of jealousy radiating off you right now.

Because I am a neurotic over-planner, and in an effort to maximize the limited amount of time we’re spending in Paris, I’ve already mapped out which metro line we need to take once our train pulls into the city of light (M4 towards Porte de Clingancourt from Gare du Nord one stop to Barbès Rochechouart, switch to M2 towards Porte Dauphine, 9 stops to Ternes, walk 1.5 blocks) to get to the Marriott. And don’t think I didn’t use street view in Google Maps to “walk” to the Hilton so we’ll know where we’re going.

And as it turns out, where we’re going for our second night ain’t too shabby, either! And before you say anything, yes, I realize I’m staying at a Paris Hilton for my very own “one night in Paris.” I’m trying to not defile the purity and loveliness of this trip with that grossness.

I know which metros to take to get to the Louvre and Ladurée. So far, that is the extent of my planning. It’s going to be fun and interesting trying to squeeze in everything I want to see and show Boyfriend in the most beautiful city in the world in two short days, especially considering we’ll be jet-lagged the entire first day. I have a vision of us sitting outside at a bar after dinner on Monday night, giggling with delirium.

I know that I shouldn’t put so much emphasis on the hotels, since the only time I’ll be spending in them is when I’m unconscious in bed. Frankly, I could spend two nights in a cardboard box on the streets of Paris and I’d still post about it like it was the most fabulous thing in the world. But there is something to be said about getting almost €1000 in fancy hotels for free. I may have had some pretty impressive bargains before, but I do believe this takes the cake.

Tomorrow: Brussels and Bruges!