Days 1 to 4

An auspicious beginning to our tour of Languages.
OUr flights were most interesting. Home to TO was just swell and on time and then we met Ryan and our granddaughter, Austyn, for some play time in the airport. Next on to Heathrow. That 7 hour trip was accompanied by a 5 month old who screamed her head off for 6 hours and 10 min. Poor child - must have had a pain but her 3-year-old sister - a little spoiled - was with her mother and the mother thought that screaming at her was the way to go to get the little one to listen. Alas, no sleepy byes for that trip. We arrived in good time because the plane was 75 people less and we could fly faster without the weight.
Our connections went well and we ended up in Brussels on time Tues morning at 10:35. However, as we entered the border patrol, G and I were swept away to a holding tank, lockup, as we like to call it. full of immigrants- sorry to say - people of all sorts of colour who looked scared and nervous, and then the two of us.
We waited our turn in the long line of passports- 1/2 hour, when the boss man comes out and tells us that if we stay the long four months in Europe, we will be considered ""illegal aliens"" --ahahahah, needless to say, this turned G very purple as he never does anything that could be construed as illegal.
As it turned out, there is a part of Europe call : Schengen: which is a band of countries joined to only allow a person, visitor tourist a 3-month stay - without a visa. We were very thankful that we had booked our return flight home and had proof of it in our hot little hands to show the boss man. The border cop winked his eye at us, smiled and told us that he was Letting Us Go. Imagine, two upstanding decent Canadians locked up. Such a welcome! This after we'd been awake since 4:30 a.m. Monday at Kelly's house waiting for the trip to finally get going.
A good beginning - very exciting - I've never been in lockup before!!
j and G