Belgium

Europe » Belgium
July 17th 2008

Published: July 17th 2008

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Jeff and Nina

Airport in Corfu

Tongeren, Belgium July 7, 8

Leaving Corfu was sad. We had such a wonderful time in the warm weather, by the ocean. We were a bit surprised to land in Amsterdam where it was over 20 degrees Celsius cooler! We were picked up by Alexander…a great guy who is studying piano and percussion (and whose father was the head of one of the two festivals hosting us, and the organist for Jeff’s concert the next evening). It was a 3 ½ hour drive to Tongeren, Belgium. I should mention that the reason we came to Belgium before the rest of the Canadian Brass guys was because Jeff had been invited to the Belgian Brass festival to give a solo recital with horn and organ.

We had to stop for gas, and ended up with our first (and only) Belgian beer and waffles. We figured we had to try it, at least once!

We arrived at our hotel very late at night, and woke up the next morning to see that we were next to a cemetery and a castle! It was a beautiful setting in the middle of nowhere, and we needed a car to get into town.

Windmills on Holland

We were picked up at 11am and taken into town where Jeff had a nice warm up, and I met, and hung out with some of the Belgian Brass guys.

After Jeff’s warm up, we went to lunch where I had an incredible bowl of tomato soup (perfect for rainy, cold weather) and Jeff had some salmon pasta. We then headed to the church where Jeff’s concert was later in the evening. And whomever did we run into at the church, but our friend Tony Rickard from London, England. Tony arranged all of Jeff’s music for that evening’s concert, and took a train from London to see the concert and hang out with us!

We didn’t do much during the day because we were tired from traveling, etc and we spent a couple of hours relaxing before the concert.

The concert featured Jeff on horn, and internationally renowned (and recorded) soloists Reinhold Friedrich on Trumpet, and Michel Becquet on Trombone, and it was streamed live on the internet on www.themusicpage.com. A second concert right after Jeff’s concert featured his friends, the Spanish Brass. It was a truly inspiring night for me!

The next morning