2 days in Brussels & Paris

With a few hours free after arrival in Brussels, I had a stroll around the hotel block. The beautiful sunny April sky urged me to take a walk & to leave my preparation for the meeting to later. As this is not the tourist area, there's not much of interest except some old unique European buildings. But I am surprised that they still have tram as public transport & very modern ones too. My French colleague told me it is wise that Brussels did not give up their tram transport & that Paris had reinstate a few lines of tram transport in outer Paris. Tram was re-introduced in Paris after the recent hike in oil prices.

The next day after the meeting, I rush to Paris so that I can at least get to see some parts of Paris by day. During my last trip to Paris in Sept last year , I had a car tour of Paris by night, courtesy of my boss!!

I reached Paris at 2.15 pm & by the time I settle at the hotel, I managed to start my Paris tour at 3pm. So what can we see within half a day. Actually I was surprised at my achievement, all by foot!! Sure a good way to get a good exercise & sightseeing. I started at Gallery Lafeyette & surprisingly ended up at the rooftop by chance. It has the most fantastic view of Paris. Oophs, my camera batteries went flat & the spares not working. I trotted down to ground floor & back up to the 6th floor. Bought some rechargeable batteries but they are of course not recharged. Well, I had to get some more batteries. Wow!! these batteries sure cost a lot more at French prices!! But its worth it.

Along the way to Champs Elysees & Arc De Triomphe, you will see lots of cafe & the typical seating arrangement facing the road.

I also saw this funny structure - guess what it is?? Certainly not a camera trick.

It's almost 7.30 pm, & still too early to go back to hotel. I'm quite surprised that it is still bright by 8pm in April. I don't remember that while in Uni days in UK. I thought that it is only in summer that you get daylight up 9 to 10pm.

So, perhaps, I should try the Eiffel tower. The huge iron structure is still a good attraction. At every hour, they will on the glittering lights & its quite a spectacular sight.

Finally, it is time to go back to the hotel & I tried the metro as my 2 feet cannot go all the way back to hotel from there. So that night I had a real good sleep from the tired legs. Nothing much can be done the following morning as I had to leave for the airport by 9.30 am for my flight back to Singapore.

So, back to Singapore & straight to work . I thought that I should not suffer from jet lag with such a short trip but I don't seem to be able to sleep. So here I am writing this.