Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Brussels and Brugge

Superb weather helps. The sun is out and so are hundreds of tourists. This is such an enchanting and friendly city, I cannot believe I waited for more than twenty years to return. Changing hotels and shifting to Hotel Amigo has been an inspired and wise decision since it is so perfectly located, just a minute away from the historic Grand Place . The cuisine here in Brussel is by far the best Europe has to offer and leaves Paris hopelessly behind in the food stakes. We have enjoyed three outstanding meals thanks to the recommendations made by the concierge. But between all the beer samplings and chocolates , each time I turned on the television set, I caught a haggard and decidedly sheepish Dhoni sounding very defensive and apologetic. For a change, cricket made it to the CNN bulletin which carried a longish clip with our Rajdeep Sardesai, who did not mince his words while ticking off our red faced Boys in Blue.
Brugge in reality looks even better than it does in the movies. Medieval and perfect, with all those canals and horse carriages. We asked our friendly waiter at the sixty four year old restaurant on the square La Civiere D,Or, about the movie and he said he had not bothered to watch it after watching the unit shoot the film in the square over five long months.
I am ready to go home... am sick of living out of a suitcase and eating strange food , gourmet or otherwise. Now for some serious varan bhaat with a dollop of home made tup.
More from Mumbai.
Au revoir mon amies.

9 comments:

Shwetha said...

Brugge is so cute, I liked it better than Brussels which was a tad too touristy for me. One could sit for hours in the square with a chocolate dripping waffle and a book. I was there last fall when I was pregnant with my (now) 8 month. A fantastic way for my husband and I to wrap up the joys of vacationing as just a couple before the brat arrived!

Have a safe and comfy trip back. Look forward to your type after some well deserved resting from travel fatigue.

raj said...

I started writing travel blogs while visiting my son in USA...find relating to your's so natural...you have a real facile pen and great ability to write so enticingly...keep writing for us sake...regards
raj

Shailee said...

Shobha!! I guess I am becoming a bigger and bigger fan of yours with each passing day!
I even dreamt about you last night :P
I saw that I was back to high school (for some stupid reason) and that I was supposed to take part in the debate competition. I had prepared this awesome speech and was ready to rock the stage when out of no where I realized that you are out there, sitting in the audience with a paper and pen. I got so tongue tied that I managed to somehow mumble my speech which of course was met with a lot of skepticism from everyone. I was so scared that you just might write me off completely!!
Silly me

Tsomo85 said...

I feel the same way too, home sweet home. I completely agree with the comments above, you're hard to resist. Love your writing style; straight from heart, amusing, adventures, & real as well!

Charuta Gondhalekar said...

"varan bhaat with a dollop of home made tup."
The ultimate food for any maharashtrian! nothing beats it

Dreamlike said...

My friend said the only public transport in Brussels is tramcar...interesting:)

raj said...

thanx Mrs De for reading and acknowledging my comment..

sphat09 said...

Hi Shobhaa, I recently had the good fortune of meeting you at the BMM convention in Chicago and got introduced to your interesting blogs after reading the one you wrote about the convention. I look forward to reading your blog each day since. I am the one who introduced myself as a Queen Marian in case you might remember......I know you meet thousands of people every day!
Love your blogs...

Unknown said...

ok, mz de. we never wanted to win any cricket matches in the first place. we were participating in the Mz Congeniality contest! and guess what? we won! a very proud day for our men in blue/white/yellow! i wish they would stick to one colour, less confusing. dhoni was absolutely correct in recalling the idiot who thought every time the bowler got his jersey from the umpire - it is tea-time! he is english, for god's sake! tea is everything to these people. and dhoni rightly understood this. so after chai-shai, he got the bozo to play again. all these reporter types are now tearing into our team captain. especially sardesai. he should learn from arnab. the trick is to screech at the interviewee till he faints right away. so, enough already. your holiday sounds great. the jewel in the country? st jean de luz!
stay awake, mz de!
ps: some people object to the treatment of norwegian mass murderer. they want him labelled "terrorist" and fed biryani in his cell.