Alive and well in Brussels

I arrived in Amsterdam a bit early on Saturday morning, so I was able to catch a fast intercity train to Belgium within minutes of getting off the plane. The train took a mere two and a half hours to get to Brussels, so I decided to do a little wandering around the city before checking into my hotel. Brussels is a beautiful city and the architecture really grabs hold of you as you wander from street to street. The Grand Place area is especially spectacular with large spires on many of the buildings and ornate scenes of many themes represented on each structure with great artistic detail. One is surrounded by chocolate shops and waffle stands at every turn. After a few hours of walking around and getting acquainted with the city, I headed back to my hotel. Once I checked in, it was nearly time to meet with Coach Lesley Moreels from the Brussels Bulls football team. Lesley and I met at the hotel and then he took me on another brief tour of the city. Coach Moreels is the president and coach of the Bulls. He is very passionate about American football and he started his own team from scratch about 4 years ago. He has over 40 players on his senior squad and his junior team is really developing well too. Lesley has two American import players on the squad and 9 coaches, of which a few are American as well. We went out for dinner at Brussels Grill and the experience was typical of the non-rushed meals that I have come to apreciate over in Europe. We probably talked about football and life for nearly 3 hours before finishing . Finally, after a potent espresso to cap off the evening, Lesley gave me directions to the stadium where his team would be playing the next day. All in all, a good first day to my trip had begun. Lights out.