A very late Friday night...

[randomness]

orewashinanai is in Mechelen, Belgium, attending the Royal Carillon School "Jef Denyn". Mechelen is just close enough not to be completely unreasonable as a weekend trip, although my being kept late at work in Friday night meant that I didn't arrive at my B&B until after 2AM. The drive to Mechelen was long and uneventful, through Germany, the southern tip of the Netherlands, and Belgium, though by the time I arrived I was pretty much out of gas, both literally and physically. I got quite lost in the center of town, thanks in part to a set of directions from viamichelin.com which told me to turn left into a street which was permanently blocked by traffic barricades.

I felt bad about arriving so late, but I'd called the owner of the B&B before I left, warning him I'd be very late. He'd said it would be okay, because it was a weekend. I found him still awake, but looking like he was closing up, as I was an hour and a half later than I'd said I'd be.

orewashinanai was also still awake, so after I'd picked up a key for the B&B we met up and moved my car to a lot out along the ring road near the Youth Hostel where it wouldn't be ticketed or towed in the morning. orewashinanai told the story of his first, ill-fated visit to Mechelen, with the Yale University Guild of Carillonneurs, which included getting lost, running out of gas, and asking directions in French in a Flemish town. It was a lot more amusing to listen to than it probably was to experience. It ended with them lost and calling the Youth Hostel repeatedly for directions. Inevitably, when they found it, it was across the street from where they had been calling.

It did look pretty difficult to find from the road.