Good morning all!
So we moved on to Hengelo, in the Netherlands on Sunday the 17th. No surprises that I loved it there! Played an intimate little place called De Nul. Greeted at the door by Steph as we drove around like headless chickens looking for parking. It's amazing how nice folk have been everywhere we've gone. Gig was great. Dark room. Beautiful atmosphere. To top it all off we were given an amazing home cooked dinner afterwards and got to chat to the audience a lot.
The sound engineer, Martin, was our city host and also one of the nicest guys I've ever had the pleasure to meet! He took us to the city square to watch The Netherlands play Portugal on a big screen. The dutch know how to have a good time, that's for sure!
As well as taking in the sights and playing shows every day, this trip has turned out to be a bit of a palet widening beer expedition for me. I blame the Barron family! Palm beer in Hengelo. Light. Easy to swallow when you have hundreds of Dutch jumping around after a goal. Not so easy to swallow when Christiano Ronaldo ruins your days betting.
After the game, and as soon as our Dutch friends had found suitable solace in the bar, we headed to a cozy little art gallery for some more booze and a little look at Dutch recreational culture. I like how they do things :) Slept in Martins place. Beautiful inner city apartment. His hospitality won't be forgotten. Good coffee too. Woke up to thunder and lightning, with the heaviest rainfall I've seen since Florida about ten years ago. The weather is better than we give it credit in Ireland I think!
On to Bremen then. First stop, the office of Songs & Whispers to pick up the apartment keys and say hello. Staff all lovely, as to be expected at this stage, and it was nice to put faces to the names I had been in contact with in the months prior to landing here when the tour was being organized.
Apartment is lovely. Feel right at home and it's nice to have a base here where we can leave our stuff while out on the road. Also, this is the first time we really got to recharge with a good night sleep. Aldi right around the corner. They give us wine for 2euros and the cigarettes are in baskets. Lots of trees in the neighborhood. I like it here.
Played in a beautiful little church in Vegesack last night. My first time playing a proper show in a church. Acoustics were pristine and got to work with Heiko (bossman at Songs & Whispers), who did sound for us. Lovely guy and we're being made feel right at home here and very welcome everywhere we go. Had dinner in a Turkish haunt afterwards. We couldn't read the menu or talk to the staff, and had just practiced our pointing skills enough when a Ghanaian called Quave came in and offered to translate for us. Good craic. Language means little when everybody is laughing. I'll be going back there. Nice meat and they have Coke in glass bottles.
Slept well in the apartment. On to Hafen today to play in an old casino. Found a casino yesterday but they had no game on. I have the words for "raise" and "all in" so I should get along just fine. Looking forward to seeing Bremen City. Read a children's version of The Musicians of Bremen before I slept last night to get me in the mood.
Love and all that jazz.
Paul
So we moved on to Hengelo, in the Netherlands on Sunday the 17th. No surprises that I loved it there! Played an intimate little place called De Nul. Greeted at the door by Steph as we drove around like headless chickens looking for parking. It's amazing how nice folk have been everywhere we've gone. Gig was great. Dark room. Beautiful atmosphere. To top it all off we were given an amazing home cooked dinner afterwards and got to chat to the audience a lot.
The sound engineer, Martin, was our city host and also one of the nicest guys I've ever had the pleasure to meet! He took us to the city square to watch The Netherlands play Portugal on a big screen. The dutch know how to have a good time, that's for sure!
As well as taking in the sights and playing shows every day, this trip has turned out to be a bit of a palet widening beer expedition for me. I blame the Barron family! Palm beer in Hengelo. Light. Easy to swallow when you have hundreds of Dutch jumping around after a goal. Not so easy to swallow when Christiano Ronaldo ruins your days betting.
After the game, and as soon as our Dutch friends had found suitable solace in the bar, we headed to a cozy little art gallery for some more booze and a little look at Dutch recreational culture. I like how they do things :) Slept in Martins place. Beautiful inner city apartment. His hospitality won't be forgotten. Good coffee too. Woke up to thunder and lightning, with the heaviest rainfall I've seen since Florida about ten years ago. The weather is better than we give it credit in Ireland I think!
On to Bremen then. First stop, the office of Songs & Whispers to pick up the apartment keys and say hello. Staff all lovely, as to be expected at this stage, and it was nice to put faces to the names I had been in contact with in the months prior to landing here when the tour was being organized.
Apartment is lovely. Feel right at home and it's nice to have a base here where we can leave our stuff while out on the road. Also, this is the first time we really got to recharge with a good night sleep. Aldi right around the corner. They give us wine for 2euros and the cigarettes are in baskets. Lots of trees in the neighborhood. I like it here.
Played in a beautiful little church in Vegesack last night. My first time playing a proper show in a church. Acoustics were pristine and got to work with Heiko (bossman at Songs & Whispers), who did sound for us. Lovely guy and we're being made feel right at home here and very welcome everywhere we go. Had dinner in a Turkish haunt afterwards. We couldn't read the menu or talk to the staff, and had just practiced our pointing skills enough when a Ghanaian called Quave came in and offered to translate for us. Good craic. Language means little when everybody is laughing. I'll be going back there. Nice meat and they have Coke in glass bottles.
Slept well in the apartment. On to Hafen today to play in an old casino. Found a casino yesterday but they had no game on. I have the words for "raise" and "all in" so I should get along just fine. Looking forward to seeing Bremen City. Read a children's version of The Musicians of Bremen before I slept last night to get me in the mood.
Love and all that jazz.
Paul