And we’re off!

We left Montreal YUL airport for Brussels on Monday evening after a bit of a delay. We flew in a Boeing 777 which is a large aircraft holding around 400 people. The flight was lovely and we landed just before 9 am this morning.

We were prepared to expect long line ups as we waited to get our new EES, or entry and exit visa for the EU. And we were right! You know it’s never a good sign when there are staff handing out bottles of water to everyone in the line ( when asked, the person told us that the line would take about 1. 5 hours to clear)…. And it was obvious that we were not the only jumbo jet that landed!

We were prepared for a long wait knowing that a new immigration system had just been put into place. While they have dozens of automated machines to do this process, they were not being used today…it was all manual checking!

We successfully received our entry and went on to the budget counter to pick up our car. We decided to rent an EV for this trip. While the service rep at the counter cautioned us about the inability of many chargers taking NA credit cards, we decided to forge ahead with our plans. He did advise us to charge before the batteries were below 40-50% in case we needed to find alternatives. Always an adventure!

Once we got our car and finished the orientation to a different vehicle to ours, we were off! Since we only had 72% charge, we decided to charge midway to our destination in Delft. The first charger we stopped at did not take a NA credit card, however the next one (Shell) was good!

We then headed to our B and B for the next couple of nights in the charming City of Delft, birthplace of the painter, Vermeer.

By the time we got to our B and B (Eemswolde 32) it started to rain. Instead of going for our normal walk after a long flight, we took the time to settle into our room and charge up our phones etc. ( surprisingly, the car does not have outlets for recharging – I guess we should have upgraded!)!

Before supper, inspite of the rain, we headed out to our restaurant in the old part of the city. Some amazing sites, and because of the rainy day, we had the palce almost all to ourselves!

We chose a lovely restaurant (Spijshuis de Dis Restaurant) in the heart of the old city for dinner – specializing in Dutch Cuisine. This restaurant is a real find! We were seated by the owner and head chef himself, Chris De Bruijne. He proceeded to tell us about his Dutch specialties and well as a very fine beer pairing! The beer I chose was a cranberry ale, and it was absolutely delicious. Made in the West Frisian Islands, apparently they only export 5% of their beer to the mainland. The rest is enjoyed locally!

Chris then proceeded to tell us what his favourite things were on the menu. Again, a real treat having the person who created these tell you his favourites! We chose a wonderful appetizer for 2 consisting of glazed smoked Herring, Mushrooms with a truffle artists topped with Brie, phyllo pastry stuffed with sundried tomato and brie cheese, an assortment of specialty smoke meats with Chris’ own pickled fruit, a tossed salad and smoked salmon with a parsley crème fraiche. Who needed a main course!

Our main courses were equally wonderful as Dan had a sautéed and then roasted sea bass, and I had a delicious medley of fish in a light refreshing cream sauce with a light melted cheese topping.

Needles to say we didn’t have room for dessert, but we looked at the menu and are thinking of coming back tomorrow to get a light starter and then dessert! We’ll keep you posted!

I’m proud to say we made it through our first day not succumbing to our bed in the afternoon, in spite of the rain! We are now back at the B&B and looking forward to a good, uninterrupted sleep. Hopefully we can get up energized for some exploring tomorrow! Until then!