The 2016 European adventure begins.

Day 1:

Philly to Frankfurt to Brussels -

Our flight out of Philadelphia was more than smooth, and we had no problems once in Frankfurt airport, however Norths' flight was delayed by about 4 hours, and we ended up being late to the show in Brussels. Thankfully we made it just in time to throw our gear up on stage for North to play. There was a hard noise curfew of 10pm, and we made it with 3 or 4 minutes to spare. 

We were also fairly lucky that all the gear worked fine, and we didn't have any broken or missing pieces for the gear. We couldn't figure out how to operate the keyboard stand we had gotten for Armines' sample gear, but we'll have enough time to figure it out tonight in Essen. 

Our sleeping situation was pretty nice. We didn't have to load out after the show since the venue had beds in the building. I was able to wake up and shower, and they had breakfast waiting for us. 

Day 2:

Brussels to Essen -

Only a short while into our drive we pull off the highway to use the bathroom, and there are police waiting to flag is aside. This will mark the first time Rosetta has ever had the van weighed on tour. 

When the policeman opened the side door, he noted we had no seat belts on. Obviously not, since we're about to hop out and use the toilet, but we weren't going to argue with the police. 

They had us pull to the side, and checked our passports. They then weighed the van and said we were 900kilo over limit (around 2k lbs). Along with the seatbelt fine, we payed around €630 just to stop and use the facilities. We were pissed. Only the second day of tour, and we were already being hassled by police. 

A nice sleeping spot, food, and vegan chocolate awaits us in Essen. Till then, we just enjoy the scenery and traffic on the drive. 

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The green room and sleeping spot at the venue in Essen had improved significantly since last year. The show was on a different stage than last time, but considerably better. 

We got vegan chocolate, and it was awesome, and pretty much all of it was gone by the end of the day. We got our exercises in before our delicious pasta dinner, and then rocked out. I got to take a shower, and we're doing laundry. On to Berlin tomorrow.