Chapter
24
The European tour started in mid-March. Brian had been looking forward
to it. The European fans were just as wild as the American ones, some even
wilder. Plus, it was fun to go site-seeing around the foreign cities when they
had time off. Leighanne had gotten a role in a new movie and was in California
filming it, so she couldn't tour with them.
The tour went very well. All of the Boys seemed glad to be back in
Europe. They hadn't toured there since the summer of 1999, and it was now the
spring 2001. They threw themselves into their performances, and the crowds
loved them. They too, seemed happy to see Brian performing again. Brian
continued to feel fine as the tour went along. His next doctor's appointment
had been set for a day in April, but Brian had to cancel it and reschedule it
for sometime in May because of the tour.
Towards the end of the tour, the Boys had a few dates in Germany all in
a row. That gave them plenty of time to do some site-seeing and shopping in the
country.
The first day in Germany, the guys were in Munich. They hung around
together for most of the day and had a great time before their concert that
night. The next day, they were in the city of Cologne, Germany. That day, they
decided to split up and see the sites. AJ, Howie, and Kevin went off together
to tour the city. Brian and Nick went off to hang out together. They brought
Brian's basketball along with them, like always, hoping to find a nice place to
play.
Around noon, they came to a nice little park with plenty of food
vendors around. It was not too crowded, so they decided to eat lunch there.
After lunch, they wandered around the park and found some basketball
courts. There were a few teenage boys on one court, but the other was
unoccupied, so they played there.
After about half an hour of playing, Brian began to get very tired. He
and Nick were caught up in a heated game of one on one though, so he ignored
his fatigue and played on. Finally, Nick beat him and they settled back on a
bench together to relax. Brian mopped off his forehead, which was covered with
sweat. Both he and Nick were breathing hard. Nick caught his breath within a
few minutes and stood up.
"Hey look over there," he said, pointing to what looked to be
a shopping area. "There's some cool looking shops over there. You wanna go
check it out?"
"Yeah, sure," Brian panted, still trying to catch his breath.
"Give me a few minutes." Nick sat down beside him.
"Are you okay?" he asked, looking at Brian's sweaty face.
"Sure, I'm fine. I'm just pretty tired. I guess we just haven't
played that hard in awhile." Nick settled back and waited for his friend
to catch his breath.
***
