A Soft Landing: Welcome to Brussels

After flying all night on a completely packed flight, we arrived in Brussels at 7:30am.  The schedule called for us to check in to the hotel and have about 3 hours to freshen up and rest before our first official meeting.   Of course, when we arrived at the hotel (ALoft---  a sister property to the new Portland hotel) most of the rooms were not ready.  They had just 6 rooms for 16 fellows (8 men and 8 women). 

I stowed my luggage in one of the available rooms, and decided to go walking to keep myself awake.  In the lobby, I ran into several other fellows who had the same idea.  We wandered out of the hotel first in search of food, and found a wonderful little bakery just down the street.  Tired and confused, we weren't really sure what was in each pastry, or how to order them.  At least one Fellow was surprised when his chocolate croissant turned out to be filled with olives instead!  And we were all stunned to realize that there would be no coffee in take out cups!

After our adventures in breakfast, we started wandering around the area.... primarily in search of an ATM, but also trying to get our bearings.  We were delighted to stumble upon a lovely park with the famous arch we'd all seen in photos of Belgium.  We were also surprised that the reportedly grey and cold city was enjoying its first sunshine in months, and that the temperatures were going to top 80 degrees.

We headed back to the hotel in hopes that a few new rooms would have opened up, but we were reassured we would not be getting in until afer 2pm, so we headed directly to our first class:  a 2 hour lecture on the history of the European Union.

The presenter was fine, and the material interesting.  But the sun was pounding through the window, the room was warm, and we were tired!  We all struggled to keep our eyes open, ask good questions and take good notes.  When the lecture was complete, we were very grateful that there were finally enough rooms for all of us, which left us 20 minutes to get ready for our walking tour of the city.  This meant that many of us started our first excursion in Brussels by violating the suggested dress code--- jeans, wet hair, and general giddy exhaustion was typical.

The walk was wonderful, and I was impressed by the beauty of the city and how old the buildings were. 

We found waffles and chocolates, visited the mannequin de pis, and celebrated a Fellow's birthday by sampling Belgian beer and stews cooked "in the Flemish way" in a pub in the Grand Plaza. 

The food gave us a surprising second (or third or fourth?) wind, leading us to stop at a pub or two on our way home.  Finally, after midnight, it was time to collapse in bed.