OUR EUROPEAN HOLIDAY - DAY 23 - FAREWELL BEAUTIFUL COPENHAGEN.... HELLO TO BRUSSELS...

We woke up feeling quite sad this morning.... I can't believe that this visit, this holiday that we have been looking forward to all year has come to an end.  We have loved being in Denmark,  the people here have been so welcoming.... they have made us feel very much a part of their families.  We have family here and it is sad to say goodbye...

Sad to leave this lovely apartment we have called home for the past three weeks.

We did manage to have a bit of a sleep in as we made sure we had everything packed the night before... Pete cooked us an amazing farewell breakfast of poached eggs, fried mushrooms, bacon, wilted spinach on rye toast with hollandaise sauce.  It was amazing.  We just sat around chatting until it was time to leave.

Our farewell breakfast....

Our farewell breakfast... so sad to be leaving...

We left Pete's around 11.15am as we had to have the hire car back at the airport by noon and we still needed to fuel it up before delivering it back to the rental company.  We made it in good time, returned the  car and then headed up to check into our flight.  We had a few hours to spare which was really good because it meant that we had time to find our way around.  The airport is a little overwhelming. 

Honestly, once you went through security and went up to the departure lounge it was like you were in a HUGE shopping centre.  At first we couldn't tell which departure gate we were leaving from which was a little stressful for me.  They didn't put our departure gate up until an hour before our flight and half an hour before boarding time.  We ended up having a hot chocolate and muffin right near the Departure board so that we wouldn't miss it.  I think I have already done more than 10,000 steps today just walking around both airports. 

Checking out Lego at Legoland at the airport....

Our flight was about 10 minutes late leaving but it was a god flight and we were only a couple of minutes late in landing. 

In the air on our way to Brussels.....

Farewell Denmark....

Our chauffeur from Insight was there to greet us as we walked out of customs.  It turned out our chauffeur was a lady and her name was Stephanie.  She was lovely and told us a lot about Brussels and pointed out landmarks on our way into the Marriott from the Airport.  She also pointed out and showed us where the airport had been damaged from the bomb attack earlier in the year. 

Our hotel was right in the very centre of Brussels.  The room was lovely.  We checked in and had a rest for an hour or so before heading out to explore our neighbourhood and grab some dinner..

The Marriott - Our hotel in Brussels.

Our room

 Our first impressions of Brussels....
There is a very strong police and army presence in Brussels.  The SWAT team were also out in force.  It is a little daunting to see so many of these men with high powered rifles and machine guns walking around and it did make us feel a little uneasy and perhaps unsafe, although we were assured that they take everyone's security seriously and that is why they are around. 

Also it didn't help that it was a Saturday night and there were 1000s and 1000s of people out in the streets, lots of dark and middle eastern men just wandering in large groups.  Something we are not used to at home...  There was also a very strong urine smell outside of our hotel...

We wandered around the block and came across the "Grand Place" another jaw dropping moment for Steve and also myself.  Some of these buildings, especially the Town Hall were built in the 14th Century.  Absolutely remarkable and lots of the buildings were gold guilded.  Looking forward to photographing them in the daylight.

We ended up heading closer to home and had dinner at McDonalds which was part of the bottom story of our hotel.  It also gave us a chance to use the free WiFi to upload a couple of photos.   I am really going to miss our computer this leg of the journey.

We arrived back at our room around 10.45pm feeling absolutely shattered.  It was nice to have a hot shower and just crawl into bed....