Brussels and bicycling

Yesterday after a nice morning nap to get jetlagged old me through the day, I tried out the bike Julius had borrowed from one of his choristers (a guy who's 6'6" and no longer road bikes, so I'm on his 30-year-old frame, even older than my road bike), zipping through the nearby Foret along bike paths and trails (weird on 22mm tires!) and semi-enjoying the video-game-like aspects of quick terrain changes and slightly hairy street crossings. All good, nice destination, a little chateau where they filmed The Music Teacher I believe it was. Then we had a nice dinner out on the terrace until we were chased inside (around 10 PM) by smoke from the neighbors who were on their terrace as well. Ahh, summer in the city.

I slept like a baby on the floor of the 'cello studio downstairs, and awoke pretty refreshed at 6 AM. Having established an effective wifi connection chez Julius, I've done a few dozen more e-mails, and lined up what I hope will be a nice unpretentious group dinner for my Tourers at a local restaurant near my friend Natacha's apartment in Paris.

This morning I played around with my new camera (my old one refused to wake up, and of course the lead time on repairs is 4 to 6 weeks), and figured out how to use the self-timer, among other things. As usual I am blown away by how many cool functions these new cameras pack into a tiny package--reading the manual on the plane I was slightly intimidated at not even knowing the meaning of some of the terms.

Today Julius and I will pack light and head south into the Ardennes for a bit of bicycling and brotherly yakking--I'll try to take a few pictures. I'm feeling a little less nervous about July, though who knows what the next few weeks will bring. I suppose that will be a recurring theme of this blog, that nagging feeling that I have overlooked some detail or another. Meanwhile--south to adventure.