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by Howie

A little over a month ago I was headed to San Francisco for few meetings. A nice trip, but typical. Fly out, go to hotel, dinner meeting, meetings next day in the office, and head home … but the flight out (in a middle seat in coach) was a bit special.

Being on Delta I was on Wi-Fi and paying attention to twitter … and saw this (Thank you Mommy Points):

I clicked, read it, and got on IM.  The following is what occurred:

(5:15:29 PM) Howie: wanna go to brussels for a long weekend in the next 2 months?
(5:15:47 PM) Sara: yes
(5:15:56 PM) Howie: you’ll find the days off if I book it?
(5:15:59 PM) Howie: $250 round trip
(5:16:06 PM) Sara: yup
(5:16:10 PM) Howie: ok i’m looking
(5:16:10 PM) Sara: i’ll have to take unpaid
(5:16:11 PM) Sara: but whatevs
(5:16:29 PM) Howie: leave wed or thurs back on mon ok?
(5:16:36 PM) Sara: yup
(5:18:45 PM) Howie: march 21 26th i think
(5:18:51 PM) Howie: trying …
(5:38:14 PM) Sara: alrighty
(5:49:08 PM) Howie: confirmed
(5:50:33 PM) Howie: now to figure out hotels!
(5:50:55 PM) Howie: i’ll book the sheraton to hold it for now so we have something
(5:54:07 PM) Howie: you excited?!?!?!
(5:56:28 PM) Sara: yes!
(5:56:34 PM) Sara: i’m always excited about europe
(5:57:18 PM) Howie:
(5:57:26 PM) Howie: i’m asking my ambassador to give us ideas.
(5:57:29 PM) Howie: lets see what she comes up with
(6:12:51 PM) Howie: confirmed to go up the day before leaving at 320p out of sav

I booked the trip through vayama with my Chase Sapphire Preferred^SM card (no foreign transaction fee thank you very much just in case), and we were on our way from New York (LaGuardia) through Montreal to Brussels on Air Canada.  Add in an award ticket from Savannah to New York, and an overnight at my brothers house and we have our trip foundation set.

I then checked SPG.com and found cash & points availability for the Sheraton Brussels.  Based on reviews and location for 16,000 points and $240, we were set.

Trip booked, vacation secured … what do we do now?  Well, we’re going to do a day trip to Bruges and a day trip on the Chunnel to London (we’ve both been individually, but never together.  We’ve also got a friend we’ll visit).

Other than the 4 hours I spent in meetings last year with a customer I have no idea what to do.  Chocolate?  Beer?  Food? Generic tour?  I’ve got some advice from my SPG Ambassador (Thank you T.D.).  What do y’all recommend for a foodie (me) and a pop culture geek (sara)?

We did a similar trip last year, with the $150 Delta Mistake fare (booked from Delta’s old Business Elite lounge in ATL) and lucked out … but would like to do a little more planning on this trip.