Belgium...again

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Belgium…again!

So, back to Belgium we headed! Somehow…we ended up in a town on the border of Holland and Belgium where we couldn’t get another train to Tongeren…so we called the Belgian Brass guys, and they brought a couple of cars to pick us up.

It was a gorgeous day…so we all sat down at an outdoor café and enjoyed some coffee. Yes…there is a trend. Canadian Brass likes their coffee!! 😉 We had a good time watching Willis, Jeroen, and Jeff be kids, and do magic with cards, coins, and lighters. Even our waiter came over and got into the act, performing his own magic trick. It was very fun! The guys have a great way of going with the flow while on tour. Things happen and plans sometimes fall apart. They try to get on track as quickly as possible, and then once there’s nothing that can be done, they immediately get over it, grab a coffee, and get back to the fun of it all. It’s quite amazing to watch.

It was a 20-minute drive back to Tongeren, and when we arrived, we went straight to the school for Jeff to do a masterclass for all of the students at the brass festival. We arrived at 1:57pm for his 2pm class. We ran into Tony again! He had left the day before, to return a day earlier to Belgium so he could see German Brass play a concert.

The masterclass was great. I wasn’t quite sure how much most of the students understood, since English is not their first language, and as we all know, Jeff speaks quite quickly. But they laughed and nodded a lot, and talking with the students after the class…they all had great feedback and were all really inspired. I am inspired by Jeff every day…!! 😉 Lucky me!

After the master class, Jeff and I returned to the hotel to take a nap before the concert. We had a nice meal with our new friends, the Belgian Brass guys…and all the CB guys caught up with Fred Mills (one of the founding trumpet player members of CB)…and we headed to the concert.

The festival had saved front row seats for us (yikes!). It was great, though…and I leave every CB concert much happier than when I came in. That’s a good sign, eh?

There was a small reception after the concert…in which I tried a Belgian beer called Carmelita…WOW!!! AMAZING!!!

It was a great time…Tony and I caught up on life, love, etc, and Jeff was able to hang for a bit with the Belgian guys.

We all headed home with hopes of getting a good night’s sleep for the next day of master class, and traveling.

The CB guys did a 3 ½ hour masterclass the next morning…and I stayed in the hotel to organize and pack. I might have gotten an extra hour of sleep too!

We all met up around 1pm and ate some INCREDIBLE French fries at a restaurant across the square from our hotel, before going to the train station to catch our train to Luxembourg.

Enjoy the pics…next stop, Luxembourg!
Love,
Nina (and Jeff)

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