{"id":437,"date":"2004-12-05T17:14:00","date_gmt":"2004-12-05T22:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vmalt\/?p=437"},"modified":"2005-12-08T18:16:14","modified_gmt":"2005-12-08T23:16:14","slug":"we-broke-huge-in-brussels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/we-broke-huge-in-brussels","title":{"rendered":"We broke HUGE in Brussels!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Gil Roth World Tour keeps on rolling! I landed in Brussels this morning for the CPhI\/ICSE conference, discovered that my hotel (Residence Florence) isn’t a full-service establishment, and had no way to check in. Since the conference is pretty big, almost all the hotels are booked up starting tomorrow, so I couldn’t make any alternative arrangements. Fortunately, there was a room available at the NH City Center, where I’m staying tonight. And my original hotel, after a couple of curt phone calls, will have someone on hand tomorrow to check me in.<\/p>\n

Getting to the hotel, groggy from another trans-Atlantic trip (fourth in 5 months), and finding that I was locked out, was a downer, esp. as it was 9am on a Sunday morning, cold and damp. And I was still a little rubbery from the vicodin I took to mellow out on the flight.<\/p>\n

On the plus side, I went to a little hotel down the street from my original one (the Agenda Louise), and explained my plight to the girl at the front desk. I walked in bedraggled, unshaven, etc., and said, “This is going to start with a story. There’s always a story.” I told it.<\/p>\n

She followed it pretty well, and helped make a few phone calls to the Residence for me, in hopes of getting me into my original destination. That was fruitless, but she was willing to let me stow my luggage for a few hours, while I looked for a place to stay (her hotel was booked).<\/p>\n

She also offered me some coffee in the breakfast room, which I took her up on. Then, while I sat with my coffee and formulated how I’d find another place in the general area, she walked up to my table and whispered, “You can use a room here till noon. I’ll give you a key.” And so she did.<\/p>\n

I was immensely gratified by her kindness. I only needed the room for a few minutes, to shower, shave, and change, but I was amazed at how forthcoming she was with help for a pretty natty-looking stranger with a dodgy story about not having a hotel. I’d have been happy enough if they just held onto my luggage while I scouted out other hotels.<\/p>\n

There’s not much point or punchline to this story. It was just awfully nice of someone to help me out like that.<\/p>\n

It looks like the weather’s going to be pretty blah while I’m here, but I’ll try to take and post some good pix.<\/p>\n

Also, I’ll be spending next weekend in Amsterdam, where I’m really hoping<\/em> that people are just as kind as the girl at the Agenda Louise.<\/p>\n

(My Brussels pix via Flickr)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Gil Roth World Tour keeps on rolling! I landed in Brussels this morning for the CPhI\/ICSE conference, discovered that my hotel (Residence Florence) isn’t a full-service establishment, and had no way to check in. Since the conference is pretty big, almost all the hotels are booked up starting tomorrow, so I couldn’t make any … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “We broke HUGE in Brussels!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brussels","category-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-73","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":434,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/secret-identity","url_meta":{"origin":437,"position":0},"title":"Secret Identity","author":"Gil","date":"December 10, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"At the conference on Wednesday, I passed by a small group of attendees from the Ukraine. We all have our nationalities listed on our name badges. Even if they don't get our names right (my press badge read \"Mrs G Roth\"), they always get our countries right.There were two men\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Brussels"","block_context":{"text":"Brussels","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/travel\/brussels"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":436,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/too-tired-for-sprout-jokes","url_meta":{"origin":437,"position":1},"title":"Too tired for sprout jokes","author":"Gil","date":"December 6, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm starting to think I've seen too many European cities lately. I realized today that I may've reached a point where I've gotta cut back on the Euro-travel, and find other places to go. I'm giving myself the benefit of the doubt, assuming that it's more a function of work-stress,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Brussels"","block_context":{"text":"Brussels","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/travel\/brussels"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":345,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/travelin-man-redux","url_meta":{"origin":437,"position":2},"title":"Travelin’ Man redux","author":"Gil","date":"September 25, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Off to London in a few hours for the PABord conference, continuing the oddball travel schedule which will see me board 27 flights in 2004 (up from 25 in 2003). Fortunately, I have the 40 gb iPod, a laptop, some DVDs, and a paperback of Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver to keep\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":987,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/is-this-the-voltron-residence","url_meta":{"origin":437,"position":3},"title":"Is this the Optimus Prime residence?","author":"Gil","date":"June 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"When I visited Brussels a few years ago, I geeked out and rode the metro out to a terminal that featured a 150' mural by Herge. I've got a Toronto trip coming up this summer, so maybe I'll stop by some of the transformer houses. Because I'm that much of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Brussels"","block_context":{"text":"Brussels","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/travel\/brussels"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":435,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/waffling","url_meta":{"origin":437,"position":4},"title":"Waffling","author":"Gil","date":"December 9, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"That cathedral I mentioned a few days ago? It really does look better at night.I took a couple more pictures of the Christmas setup at Grand' Place on Wednesday. My publisher, associate publisher and I took our European sales rep out for dinner near there, and meandered around in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Brussels"","block_context":{"text":"Brussels","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/travel\/brussels"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":433,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/amstergoddamn","url_meta":{"origin":437,"position":5},"title":"AmstergodDAMN","author":"Gil","date":"December 10, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"So I took a train to Amsterdam this morning, where I would rendezvous with some foreign investment personnel and interview some pharma people for a possible article. 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