On Saturday, we went to Brussels.
The Mannekin Pis. I said to Mrs S "I always thought it was much bigger...", meaning the whole statue. A couple of blokes in the crowd laughed and I realised what I'd said.
A bit of Tintin. There's quite a few dotted around the centre.
And who can resist a Smurf?
And another Grote Markt.
Almost every town has one (or Grand Place in France).
Think the building on this side of the square is the Town Hall and there was a wedding celebration going on.
Yesterday we took a TGV from Lille to Paris to watch our eldest run in the marathon. When we got the tickets, the lady asked us if we wanted first class. An extra €4, she said. So we upgraded.
The seats in first are in a 2/1 configuration where there are 2 on one side of the aisle and one on the other, rather than 2/2 in 2nd, so you have more room. The seats are wider and plusher.
Bit of a novelty having a downstairs and an upstairs on the train too. We didn't have to climb the stairs.
Couldn't believe how lightning fast the wi-fi on board was. I downloaded a speedometer app to check the train speed and it was downloaded literally in a split second.
Talking of speed, the maximum we hit was 192mph.
Not the fastest TGV in history but a good bit better than the retired Intercity 125...not that I ever remember them going full whack.
It meant the journey back took a little over an hour. The journey there took longer as it stopped at Arras. I would have loved to stop there, due to its links with WWI and network of tunnels dug by New Zealanders, but maybe another time.
As an aside, some of the retired 125s ended up in Southern Mexico!
We arrived in good time to meet number one son at the start line, but underestimated how busy the Metro was going to be.
However, this was not helped by the exit we were heading for being slap bang next to a main line where a train was waiting so there were people queuing to get out of the Metro to street level, people coming into the Metro from street level, people coming in from street level for the train and people coming from the Metro wanting to get on the train. All converging at a point not designed for that much traffic.
Anyhow, we got to the start line a little late. His time group had just set off.
After a bit of sightseeing, we went to the Petit Palais for lunch. Petit Palais, Grand Prix! Never mind, the view from our table was lovely.
Then we went to the nearest point from the start line that was actually the 28-29K point.
We had a tracker on our phones, letting us know where he was, and where we were.
Sadly, I think the tracker was off-kilter, as we missed him at this point, but managed to catch up with him with about 4 Km to go and then again at the end.
He says he doesn't want to do another but his US cousins are trying to tempt him into the NY half.
