We're off - Jeff
Lines lines lines. Like Disney, but worse. We had to carry bags.Crowds - SFO international terminal was packed with people all ready to go. Our gear consisted of a drum case, several duffel bags, guitars in bags, and my bass in a borrowed keyboard flight-case. My case was the largest, yet Jer's was heavier - over the 70lb. limit. The guitars were carry-ons. Then, with cases & bags all donated to the land of conveyer belts, a bit of soup, it was sweet farewell to family, land & country.
Meanwhile, I'm sick with the flu. A good dose of NightQuil, and I've been fine... so far. (knock knock) A movie, some pasta, a discussion about the latest CD review, a photo of us on the plane... Now, I may go back to sleep. More later from the continent.
-jeff
Leuven - Jeff
We played in a beautiful old Belgian town full of romantic narrow streets
called Leuven. The crowd was small, but it was a good start for the tour.
We met Ricky who owned several restaurants and bars in the center, including
Libertad - a fairly small bar with a stage at one end. We drank a beer called
Stella Artois, and a wheat beer called Hoegarten. Our sound was full of
energy all trapped from being inan airplane for over 11 hours. We made a
few flubs during the show, but generally sounded good.
Jeremy's Benelux tour notes day one
We all met at SFO and stood in line to check in. At the counter I was informed
that one of my flight cases was too heavy and would cost an additional several
hundred dollars to check. Luckily we were able to remove the snare drum
and stick bag, reducing the weight to within the airline's tolerance. Whew.
Then we were off.
On the plane Jono and I began to play our favorite dice game. We had saved a plastic tray from the first meal to use as a contained area to roll the dice. This worked great until I accidentally dropped one of the dice. We thought it had dropped to the floor. We began to search for it with the help of a flashlight Jono had brought. After disturbing our fellow passengers for a while, we discvered that the errant die had lodged between the seats in front of us. We got it out and continued the game. Eleven hours on the plane...you gotta do something to kill time.
We arrived in Frankfurt for a brief layover before the short hop to Brussels. Anticipating a hassle because of our huge caravan of heavily laden luggage trolleys, we approached the customs station with trepidation. you have never seen four more bored looking civil servants, they didn't even speak to us, and we breezed right thru. On the other side, our host, Gert, was there to meet us with his GIANT van.
He took us to our housing, a beautifull two bedroom cottage just outside Turnhout in Lichtaart. We had a little nap, and then Gert returned to take us to the first show in Leuven. Leuven is a beautiful medival town with narrow cobblestone streets and stunning ancient buildings. We played in a tiny club called Libertad, owned by a gent named Ricky. He treated us to a great meal next door at a mexican (!) restaurant. We proceeded to rock the crowd, drink Stella Artois, and smoke Cuban cigars. All in all a great fisrt day.
On the plane Jono and I began to play our favorite dice game. We had saved a plastic tray from the first meal to use as a contained area to roll the dice. This worked great until I accidentally dropped one of the dice. We thought it had dropped to the floor. We began to search for it with the help of a flashlight Jono had brought. After disturbing our fellow passengers for a while, we discvered that the errant die had lodged between the seats in front of us. We got it out and continued the game. Eleven hours on the plane...you gotta do something to kill time.
We arrived in Frankfurt for a brief layover before the short hop to Brussels. Anticipating a hassle because of our huge caravan of heavily laden luggage trolleys, we approached the customs station with trepidation. you have never seen four more bored looking civil servants, they didn't even speak to us, and we breezed right thru. On the other side, our host, Gert, was there to meet us with his GIANT van.
He took us to our housing, a beautifull two bedroom cottage just outside Turnhout in Lichtaart. We had a little nap, and then Gert returned to take us to the first show in Leuven. Leuven is a beautiful medival town with narrow cobblestone streets and stunning ancient buildings. We played in a tiny club called Libertad, owned by a gent named Ricky. He treated us to a great meal next door at a mexican (!) restaurant. We proceeded to rock the crowd, drink Stella Artois, and smoke Cuban cigars. All in all a great fisrt day.
Well, here we are, As far as I can tell, none of the cell phones work. I
can tell that email will be the easiest way to keep in touch. Europe is
pretty cool, as one can imagine. Both Ferenc and Jeff are recuperating from
vicious bouts of the flu. Jeremy and I are standing tall (and drinking heavily)
and trying to keep our vitamin count up. The 11-hour flight was extremely
taxing but Jeremy and I boozed it up and slept with pharmaceutical aids.
We arrived in Frankfurt and then got onto the plane to Brussels. Gert (our
tour host) met us at the airport and moved all of our stuff to our domicile
here in Lichtaart. We met the cordial hosts Paul and Marlene who explained
the heating system, the on-demand water system, the compost, the chicken
farm (the goats are gone). Everything is what I would call efficient here.
There is very little traffic on the roads. Why? Because gas is over 1 Euro
per liter. Currently the Euro is at $1.50 per Euro and 3.5 liters = 1 gallon.
So think $6/gallon. Everyone bicycles. The roads are well managed and the
cities are a nice mix between old and new.
We played our first show tonight in Leuven, an awesome city. Gert introduced us to Ricky, the club owner, who told us some city history. Most of it was wiped out by WW bombing but the Town Hall/ church is an incredible display of medieval architecture. We ate mexican food at one of Ricky's restaurants (go figure) and then played.
Tomorrow we have a plan to go sightseeing. Fortunately I remembered a few things I had talked about (I should have printed out all of that stuff) and we might take a train tomorrow to Bruges before our show in Eeklo and just meet gert at 6:30. The devil is in the details but if we can get out of here by noon and have the wonderful caretakers & Paul drag us to the train station and figure out what we want to do and when we need to get it it done, all will go like clockwork. Belgian clockwork.
So everything is clean, Europe is a very efficient state. It is all good
We played our first show tonight in Leuven, an awesome city. Gert introduced us to Ricky, the club owner, who told us some city history. Most of it was wiped out by WW bombing but the Town Hall/ church is an incredible display of medieval architecture. We ate mexican food at one of Ricky's restaurants (go figure) and then played.
Tomorrow we have a plan to go sightseeing. Fortunately I remembered a few things I had talked about (I should have printed out all of that stuff) and we might take a train tomorrow to Bruges before our show in Eeklo and just meet gert at 6:30. The devil is in the details but if we can get out of here by noon and have the wonderful caretakers & Paul drag us to the train station and figure out what we want to do and when we need to get it it done, all will go like clockwork. Belgian clockwork.
So everything is clean, Europe is a very efficient state. It is all good
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