In 2018, I ended our next to last l European blog with this quote:
“I still do not love Paris but I am glad I got to see more sites and walk at a slower pace. I have vowed to not go back until I am 50, so let's see if I do not have to resort to flying into CDG....”
That is from our 2018 10.5 anniversary trip. Exactly five years ago. Well, life is funny and CDG must truly miss us. I had promised our son if he was able to do something amazing in school that I would take him anywhere in the world. Well, he takes after Jordan and he did it. He did spectacularly well regardless that the odds were statistically probable of less than 3% of achieving the goal. I blame Jordan for his genes and it’s his fault for his son achieving this goal.
His child chose to take a trip to Paris. Really, the one European city we both dread?!? We chose to travel during a school break in November. To save money, we planned to fly into Brussels and out of CDG.
Our flight plan was Greensboro to Charlotte for the first leg. Unfortunately we had our first mishap in 17 years on this flight -we sat on the tarmac for 45 minutes. This was bad as our layover was only 55 minutes for our next leg of the flight to London. We sprinted to the gate through 3 concourses, which at my age is rough. We were the next to last people to board. I have never been in a late boarding group and this was a bad experience. Thank you to American Airlines for holding the plane!
The flight was fine and we hit London Heathrow tired, as our son took 3 out of 3 seats to sleep. As always, we rode the terrible bus to another terminal at Heathrow where security took an hour and I was yet again pulled for multiple additional screenings. We had little time at the British Airways club, which we realized was our first BA club. It was a good reprieve.
From here, we thought it was an easy forty-five minute jaunt to Brussels. We caught a delay on the tarmac for 45 minutes and then flew through a wind storm that killed multiple people in Benelux on this day. We were all sick on the plane and the flight took three hours. We cleared a long customs line and by grace/luck our scheduled car service stayed to pick us up. He drove us to our centrally located hotel, where they took pity upon me and upgraded us to an amazing room with quite a view.
We were still somewhat air sick so we only could walk two blocks to the Grand Palace (Square) and eat tourist food. We followed our family tradition and ate at Hard Rock on the square. {Side story-Our first time in Brussels, we spent 20 minutes walking around trying to find a Hard Rock and only found a sign. Well that sign marked the future site of the restaurant and tonight we got to enjoy the food at the restaurant! With Messi’s endorsement!}
We will regroup tomorrow as this is the worst travel day I have ever had. The priority was to take care of son, as it was first trip out of the US and he (+ Jordan) are now sleeping soundly. The air sickness took the jet lag right out of him. I am currently sitting wide awake writing this blog, so we will see when I sleep.
In good news, after bribing D with a Belgium soccer jersey, we got him to try Belgium waffles. He is HOOKED. So here’s to enjoying Brussels again tomorrow — and some waffles!
And CDG, my long-time archnemis, I will see you soon…
-Lauren
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