Deb found tickets from JFK to Brussels for some ridiculously cheap price. Maybe $200 or $300 round trip. Going to Europe was never on my list of got to do, but if Deb wanted me with, I was happy to accompany her.
The rub is we hadn't come clean with with our coworkers about our attachment. But it happened that the department admin and my office mate were also going to Europe. So Deb went, declaring for Switzerland and France. I said I was going to London and Germany. We slipped out the back, Jack. Nobody had an inkling. We were careful about relating different stories. That's about how difficult life was in those days.
Since we were going to land in Brussels, my room mate Paul set us up with his buddy, "The Belgin". He fetched us from the airport and brought us home. There we had a nap and had dinner with his family. I seem to remember separate rooms, due to his parents and our lack of wedding rings.
The next day we took in Brussels and in the evening we were passed to some friends of his and they took us to Bruges, a canal laced city older than dirt. I think it was old when Columbus sailed. We had the best dinner of our lives there. Deb loved their pronunciation of my first name: Rhobean. The food was a mixed grill of chicken, beef and pork with roasted vegetables all cooked in a fireplace in the main room of the restaurant. The restaurant held but 5 or 6 tables. Oh, it was good. Forever after when we had some particularly good food, we'd compare it to Bruges.
That night was our last with a known destination for 5 days. I think the Belgin got us on a train to Calais, a ferry to Dover and a train to London. We lugged our luggage to a road with B&Bs on it and we simply walked down until we found one that said vacancy or to-let or something British.
No reservation. Dodgy room. English breakfast. Nowhere we'd go back to now. Nevertheless, we had a great time. 2 days later, at the station we were waiting for the train to the ferry and on to Paris, a half hour early. PIMS is a liquor my grandmother had with our relatives in Toronto and I wanted to bring her a bottle from England. Yes, Robbin, they sell it in the states and it is probably exactly the same. Yes, Robbin, we had to carry a bottle through the rest of Europe and safely home. I'm so much smarter now.
I asked someone where I could get a bottle and it was a short way down the street. I left Deb with the bags at the end of the train track with the train yet to arrive and ran to the store. It was further, but they had it. Watching that I didn't take more than half the time till the train left, I waited behind some 5 year old counting his change. Everybody thought it was so cute and I was ready to leave the bottle and run back, it was getting close. You know the end of this story, right? I arrived to see the last car leaving the station. A Jamaican train conductor approached us telling us he could easily have held the train a minute.
Deb's peeved with me, and herself for not letting her NY show. But we simply had a bar meal and were back a couple of hours later. No big deal, English pub meals are pretty good and the sun didn't go down until 10 or 10:30, so even late, Paris was just fine. We found a room and saw Paris in a day. Mona Lisa is like a postage stamp compared to what I had assumed.
Next post will be how we got out of our next bit of trouble.
The rub is we hadn't come clean with with our coworkers about our attachment. But it happened that the department admin and my office mate were also going to Europe. So Deb went, declaring for Switzerland and France. I said I was going to London and Germany. We slipped out the back, Jack. Nobody had an inkling. We were careful about relating different stories. That's about how difficult life was in those days.
Since we were going to land in Brussels, my room mate Paul set us up with his buddy, "The Belgin". He fetched us from the airport and brought us home. There we had a nap and had dinner with his family. I seem to remember separate rooms, due to his parents and our lack of wedding rings.
The next day we took in Brussels and in the evening we were passed to some friends of his and they took us to Bruges, a canal laced city older than dirt. I think it was old when Columbus sailed. We had the best dinner of our lives there. Deb loved their pronunciation of my first name: Rhobean. The food was a mixed grill of chicken, beef and pork with roasted vegetables all cooked in a fireplace in the main room of the restaurant. The restaurant held but 5 or 6 tables. Oh, it was good. Forever after when we had some particularly good food, we'd compare it to Bruges.
That night was our last with a known destination for 5 days. I think the Belgin got us on a train to Calais, a ferry to Dover and a train to London. We lugged our luggage to a road with B&Bs on it and we simply walked down until we found one that said vacancy or to-let or something British.
No reservation. Dodgy room. English breakfast. Nowhere we'd go back to now. Nevertheless, we had a great time. 2 days later, at the station we were waiting for the train to the ferry and on to Paris, a half hour early. PIMS is a liquor my grandmother had with our relatives in Toronto and I wanted to bring her a bottle from England. Yes, Robbin, they sell it in the states and it is probably exactly the same. Yes, Robbin, we had to carry a bottle through the rest of Europe and safely home. I'm so much smarter now.
I asked someone where I could get a bottle and it was a short way down the street. I left Deb with the bags at the end of the train track with the train yet to arrive and ran to the store. It was further, but they had it. Watching that I didn't take more than half the time till the train left, I waited behind some 5 year old counting his change. Everybody thought it was so cute and I was ready to leave the bottle and run back, it was getting close. You know the end of this story, right? I arrived to see the last car leaving the station. A Jamaican train conductor approached us telling us he could easily have held the train a minute.
Deb's peeved with me, and herself for not letting her NY show. But we simply had a bar meal and were back a couple of hours later. No big deal, English pub meals are pretty good and the sun didn't go down until 10 or 10:30, so even late, Paris was just fine. We found a room and saw Paris in a day. Mona Lisa is like a postage stamp compared to what I had assumed.
Next post will be how we got out of our next bit of trouble.
I LOVE these stories - Thanks
ReplyDeleteI was Robbin and Deb's boss at the time. I thought it was amazing that so many people in my department were going to Europe at the same time. When "innocent" Deb came into my office and said she needed to take some off for a European vacation at exactly the same time as Robbin was going to Europe, I totally bought into the lie that they were going to different places in Europe. I was so gullible back then (admittedly still am). I think I was the last one in the department to know that they were a couple.
ReplyDeleteLove the stories! Keep writing
ReplyDelete