Jetlagged

Jet Lag: The feeling of walking around in a fog, with your body functioning somewhat normally, while your brain is on autopilot!

Well, I'm here in Brussels, Belgium! Sorry, no pictures yet. It was cool, damp, and cloudy when I arrived yesterday. Today it is sunny and warm (60's F), so hopefully I'll be able to get the camera out later after work (I'm taking a break at the moment and thought that I'd send out a quick post). Now back to today's topic Jetlagged.

My flight(s) were fairly good this time, but the total time for travel was a bit too long. I left from Ohio around 7:30PM, flew to Minneapolis, where I had a 2 hour layover. Then from there to Amsterdam, again a 2 hour layover, and then on to Brussels arriving at 4:00PM local time. Total travel time was around 20hours. The flight across the ocean was probably the smoothest flight I've ever been on, which was great because I needed, and got, quite a bit of sleep.

The fun part of the trip was the ride on a Fokker 50 from Amsterdam to Brussels. They call it a "City-hopper", I call it a "Puddle-jumper". The Fokker 50 is a twin prop plane that holds about 30 passengers. It was a sturdy plane, and the turbulence was at a minimum, but there were still those occasional elevator-like drops in altitude that you can only truly experience in a smaller aircraft. Just the sort of ride you want after crossing the ocean in the middle of the night!

Once in Brussels I tried to walk around, as much as possible, to catch some fresh air. This is highly recommended to help minimize the jetlag, of course it works better when the sunshine cooperates. In my case it did not! I stopped at one of my new favorite restaurants De Voile Rouge (the red sail). I sampled a few Wit biers, and munched on Carpacio and salade Nicious. The waitress was very patient, the crowd was thin, so she decided to help provide some French lessons while I ate/drank. I can now order either another bier or glass of wine in proper Francias (very important!).

After that I made my way back to the hotel, to have hat I thought was going to be 1, maybe 2 more beers, and then off to bed. I didn't count on meeting a couple of very interesting folks that would bend my arm to stay and visit a bit longer. More details on that later. Needless to say, I didn't get to bed when I planned, so the proper switch over to the local time will need to take place today/tonight! I'll need to rely on the magical powers of the European coffee to make it through the day (Topic of a previous post while in Amiens, France). That way I'll at least give the appearance of being awake, eventhough you and I will know better!

Bonjour for now! More on my travels later, as the week goes along.