Belgium - Day 1 - Monday

I figured the China blog seemed to work out pretty well and was a good way to keep track of what I actually did that I would do it again for this trip. No exciting weird foods and experiences (that I expect), but oh well.

The trip didn't start out too well on multiple counts. First, it was postponed for two weeks. Then, when we did fly out it was delayed three hours due to weather and mechanical issues. Oh well, we made it out Sunday evening around 9:00pm Chicago time and arrived around noon Belgium time (5:00am Chicago). Myself and one other engineer flew out together which was nice. The flight actually went fairly quick for an eight hour flight; slept a little bit. We picked up our rental car, a little Mercedes, and headed straight to the plant. It's about an hour drive from the airport, straight south. We met up with the three other engineers that arrived the week before, walked around the assembly line for a little, did a few emails, and called it a day. We stopped at Carrefour, which I believe is basically the European version of Walmart, to get a few groceries and of course a fresh waffle..There is a little stand at the entrance that you wouldn't really expect much from, but the waffles are fresh and so good. It's basically a belgian waffle with big sugar crystals that kind of carmelize....really good! Checked into the hotel (Le Cote Vert in Waterloo), got cleaned up, went for a quick walk around town, and then met up with the others for dinner across the street at A Cote de Amusoir. Good dinner; I had steak shish-kabob, a few Belgian beers, and tiramisu.

And that pretty much wrapped-up day one...by that point I was pretty wiped out.