We left early this morning for Brussels, Belgium to watch the Tour de France. The races started in Rotterdam earlier that day and fnished in Brussels. Instead of taking Eurostar, we took Thalyus. Mallory and Dane made their reservations before ours… it was their idea to go… they just came to dinner saying they were leaving for Belgium the next day! So when Clinton and I booked ours the night before at 12am, the prices had dropped and I was able to get us comfort 1 seats (first class), and now I never want to go back to coach. We had huge red seats with all the food and drinks we wanted. For breakfast I had yogurt and a chocolate croissant roll with coffee. On the way back, they had the BEST dessert with the meal. I forgot to ask what it was, but it was almost like a light pudding with brown cinnamon-sugar on it and semi-dried fruit on top. I also got my pick of wine with the dinner. The ride alone made my whole day! I am now writing this post on the train back to England, with regular coach seats, and it is just not the same!
When we got to Brussels, we went straight out to the park where the riders would be finishing. We had 6 hours till they got there, we just wanted to go check it out before we did anything else… and good thing we did. It was at this awesome park with a large monument called the atomium, I had never heard of it, but it was pretty cool. There were lots of people setting up to tailgate, so we walked around the park and town to see where they would be finishing. We found the finish line and just decided to stay there all day and save our awesome spots. It was a good thing we did, because 30min-hour later, all the good spots were taken and we would not have been up front, first row to see Lance Armstong!
I was excited about seeing the Tour de France, but wasn’t sure exactly how cool it be since we would only see them fly by for a second…. but it was sooo worth it, and I now I want to go back to see another section of the race. I am sure it helped we were at the finish line, though. They were handing out free stuff all day and playing music, so we never once got bored sitting there.
When the riders got there, it was crazy. It all happened so fast; even I got a rush of adrenaline. We were front row, so we were standing on the barricade trying to get as good of view as possible. When the riders went by, the motorcycle that drives by them to film them flew by us too, and almost hit all four of us who were leaning over the barricade. There were three bad wrecks at the end, and one was right in front of us. I filmed the whole thing and even got the biker, who was mad he got caug
ht in it, throw his bike.
Mallory bought a huge American flag, and when I was in the bathroom, Lance Armstrong’s staff came over and took a picture of them! I was so mad I wasn’t there! My anger was also in part to that I had to pay to use the bathroom. We have had to pay to use the bathroom everywhere we have gone in Europe besides the U.K., which is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. Something is wrong with the way they think over here. I just can’t comprehend why someone has to pay to use the restroom. It is beyond me, and I was not polite about paying either. One bathroom I snuck in earlier that day, but I was unable to sneak in later.
Mallory got an awesome picture of Lance riding by. It looks like he is looking right at us, or the huge American flag… but it might have had something to do with the one biker who had lost his bike walking on the side of the road to get it… but we choose to believe the former.
After, we went to grab dinner before we left Belgium. We walked into a restaurant to sit down when the waiter politely informed us that it would be better for our safety if we were to sit outside. I wasn’t exactly scared in Belgium, but I never felt comfortable either, and this really didn’t help. When we got back to Paris (after our nice first class ride) we ran to try to get to the Eiffel Tower before it closed so we could go to the top. Unfortunately, the very top was closed and we could only go half way up, but it still worth it. Even from that height, you could see all of Paris.
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