visit www.johnfogerty.com and http://johnfogertyfreeks.yuku.com


***NEW PICTURE UPDATE: JULY 25th, 21.20 CET***

THANK YOU everyone for all those nice and funny and sweet words!! It keeps me going on late night moments when
I'm typing and fighting with internet connections and such :-)

Sunday, july 4th: Leeuwarden, NL > Malmo, Sweden

13.53hrs: in a trafficjam somewhere near Hambrug, Germany.

We're on our way!!
Hope the trafficjam will be gone now...


thanks, we will!!

Left home yesterday, and went to our friends Tries and Peter in Leeuwarden who are celebrating their
wedding anniversay and both their b-days in one weekend. (yes, The Wedding Friends from 2006!! ;-)


I only looked at it

It was a fun way to start the tour, had our maybe last decent meal in 3 weeks.
Tries somehow misunderstood us yesterday and though that we're going to see *40* shows this tour, but the
funny part was that she wasnt even shocked about it hahahahahahahaha!!!

On our way here we saw a field with camels and a park with cube-shaped trees. Hm!
I climbed on the backseat to eat lunch (crackers, tomatoes, olives) worked out pretty well,
thats at least one thing: we have a lot of space with only the two of us!
Still, I miss some of the usual suspects we wont see this year :-(

Well, my laptop thinks he is a heater and the temperature in the car is sky-rocketing
since I put it on so I guess as long as I dont have anything important to say, I'll
stop for now.
(also, I have to use the same plug thing as the GPS. I bought a thing with 3 things (you get it?
THINGS!) at the dollarstore, and it doesnt work :-( I guess the stupid part is that I didnt
try it before we left so I could get a better one at a real shop)

Please dont forget, I dont have mobile internet this year, so I dont know how often I can
put things online, but I'l do my best!

22.40hrs yayayayaaa I am online in our Ibis Hotel in Malmo!
Got here in one piece, took the ferry to Denmark, that was so ff-ing expensive,
we were in shock! cant remember at all we paid SO much before!
At least they allowed us on as second last car so we didnt have to wait too long :-)


at the cardeck on the ferry to Danmark


getting closer!!

We took the Oresundbridge to get here, one of the longest bridges in Europe I believe.



Across the street of our hotel is a very big supermarket were we just went to get some
fruit and veggies but GEEZ were they expensive!!

Tomorrow we will drive to Helsingborg, about 65km, and see the concert at Sofiero Slot,
where we saw him in 2006. (Home of the very first Fork-happening :-D
so I'll have some more interesting stuff to talk about!
(pictures will follow too, but its not allowed anymore to
take pics at the concerts)


Sunday, july 5th: Near Malmo, Sweden

whew!!!!

what a day!!!
We just came back from the concert in Helsingborg, our ears are ringing, we're tired
but happy :-D we had a very very very very nice first day of the tour!
Thanks to some wonderfull people we met...
and thanks to a fantastic first concert!
We're driving next to the water (Oresund) and on the otherside of the water we can
see the lights of Denmark, so pretty!!
I just stuck my head out of the window and it even smells Swedish here!
On our way here I had a bit of a feeling like "Germany looks weird today"
but the Swedish feeling is back!! to bad we're gone tomorrow :-(
Well at least we saw ONE concert here. I even saw the roadsigns to Stockholm :-)
Thats like sniffing on a big chocolate cake and not eating it, but hey! (hej!)
But there is something VERY STRANGE going on: this must be the first time
ever in 13 years, that we leave a John Fogerty concert with an empty backseat :-(
Its just not the same when there isnt a crowd of crazy people with you when you leave!

where to start.
we arrived at the Sofiero castlepark before 11o'clock to check things out,
cos we didnt have a ticket yet.
We asked the superfriendly boxoffice woman and she said that the tickets would be on sale at 6 o clock,
at the same time the door opened, so we were very worried about that.
We bought a ticket to see the park, to kill the time, walked around and saw lots of familiar faces from
last year and we spent a long time talking to Henry and Martin, and watched how the stage was build up.
Oh yeah and there was a loooot of talking about the soccer championship!!!


Robert and Henry the truckdriver

Then we decided to leave them alone and we went to see the castle from inside, not Versailles but very pretty
and walked in the garden, with lots of funny art, flowers and a silly labyrinth! It wasnt very difficult
at all :-D we were allready making jokes about it when I walked in (and Robert didnt) for during teh concert
John: "where is petra?" Robert: "stuck in the labyrinth!"
People had to get out of the park at 3 because of the soundcheck, and first
it looked like we were allowed to stay in.
We were happy with that but I left my food in the car and only had a (warm) yoghurt
for breakfast so I was getting a bit shakey and light in my head :-)
in the end we had to go out anyway so first thing I did was get my food from
the car, but everything was very hot, and if you think warm yoghurt is yuck, try
some car-cooked cucumber!!! BRRR!!!

Then the gates opened and we were in as first... were the only ones that ran in!!
everyone was carrieing seats and picknick boxes and food and went in very slow so we
were at the stage as first too!!
the securities that were standing there all went "welcome!" when I arrived, thought
that was very cute :-)


at the front with Arne and between us, Bo

But even better was... half the band was still onstage! we waved to Kenny and Jason and they
came to say hi, isnt that awesome!! Newbie James was there too and I called him, and he came to us.
He was a bit surprised and I said we just wanted to say hi cos he was new and we had nice chat!!
Earlier that day we found out something VERY FUNNY about him but we're not telling you what, yet
hehehehe. Sooner or later the word will spread!! ;-)
We met Bo from Sweden and Arne from Denmark, and Dave and Colin?? from Ireland
and we had nice chats to fill the time.

Then around eight, the band gathered onstage and we looked at them and Robert pointed at some
one and asked "who is that?" I didnt look up and said "HE IS NOT MATT NOLEN!!!!!" Robert gave me some
looks and I added "and he isnt Billy Burnette either"
No he wasnt, and they are gone, and they will be missed, but we're moving on, and we're doing our best to
give the new guys a chance!
And you know what... if you give them a chance....

Then John ran on stage!!
First thing I noticed is how GREAT he looked!! He's just amazing!!!!
I cant read my notes. I dont know what to do about it :-S
I'll try:
John started with Up around the bend and then Suzy Q
Then Backdoor and that was a bit weird when you cant scream "BILLYYYYYYYYYY!!!!"
Must try "go Jaaaaaaaames!!!" tomorrow.
I think here he used a very pretty silver with black sparkling Telecaster
for the first time this evening. Guitar came back several times!
James was playing a Gibson SG most of the time I think.
It looked like John was having some problems with his troat, we didnt
hear it very well where we were standing and the stagemanager was getting cups with tea
all the time. (we wondered if there was a cookie with it too :-)
There was some funny interaction with John and the audience, like when someone yelled
something, John went to him and asked "what is your name?" and he answered "Cross Tie Walker!!"
and John said "thats not your NAME!!" that was funny!!
Behind me someone said "Jeff Lynne on keyboards!" :-D I dont think John introduced Mike!
(or Dave or Jason)
Mike looked like he fits in pretty ok too by the way. They all look like they're having a lot of fun!
But holy cow that James Intveld cant only PLAY but MAN HE'S GOT STYLE!!!
I couldnt get my eyes from him and Hunter!! (Hunter with long and flying hair)
Highlight of the evening was without doubt Keep on Chooglin, but when I started dancing
I realised I missed my Choogling partner in crime Anne, that was weird not to see her freak out
too! (well at least we cant give eachother headbutts now LOL)
During the show something went wrong with the mouthharp mike and John took his normal microphone
that looked special! Then he walked on the catwalk and some super intermezzo with him and Kenny started!!
he was making signs to him and he would play part and then Kenny played a part and so on and so on, and the
rest of the band was watching it with big grins on their faces!!
The new Wrote a song is pretty awesome too!!! I wonder where those idea start to change a song
like that.
After Put a spell on you a crowd of people started yelling for Hunter :-) and at one point someone yelled
"let James sing a song!!" I think he has a whole fanclub like Kenny :-)
During Proud Mary someone started waving a huge american flag that was attached on a pole, would have been
a great gesture, but minor detail: it was upside down!!!
I saw John looking at it and going "huh???" and we had to laugh, i mean comon, doesnt everyone know how that
flag is supposed to be!!

We went to look at the shirts and there is a minor problem: this year I like them ALL, and as I cant afford them
ALL, I'll have to choose. The girly shirts have a big heart on it, they are so fantastic!!!
The red Centerfield shirt is super too, as is the tourshirt and the black Fogerty/Creedence shirt but they are
men's shirts, so I dont know what to do yet.
I showed Martin my reconstructed hoodie and he liked it so that was pretty cool :-)
I am sorry I am very very tired I have to get some sleep now, sorry I dont know more details but trust me
the show was great!!! Only song I really missed was rocknroll girls.
I wanted to post some random pics (of the park and such) but I am way to tired now so thats for later....
It was a great and very long day and now its going to be a great and very long night!!!!! :-D
Tomorrow we're going to Kopenhagen, across the water!!

ZZzz!!


Wednesday, july 7th: Denmark > Wurzburg, Germany

On the german autobahn near Hamburg again, but now in the other direction :-)
Just visited Lidl supermarket and bought some nice and fresh food, had lunch in the car.

Yesterdays concert was absolutely ULTRA SUPER FANTASTIC, much better than Sweden!! I'll come to that later.

When we arrived in Copenhagen yesterday, we went to see the churches first.
There were two churches I REALLY wanted to see: the Vor Frelsers church with the fairytale spiral tower,
I wanted to see ever since my first visit to Copenhagen 13 years ago, and the impressive Grundtviks church.
I didnt want to send Robert into town with the car, so I just *hoped* we'd see the Vor Frelsers on our way to
Grundtviks, maybe from a distance.
But all of a sudden the GPS was sending us right through downtown Copenhagen, we turned a corner and there was
the Vor Frelsers!!! Robert was counting the times I was screaming "there it is!!! I've seen it!!" hahaha but
I was just so excited, waited 13 years to see it again!! I even managed to take a picture. A visit would have been
the max, but that just wasnt possible with limited time.


there it is! the Vor Frelsers church :-D (and look at that upside down bike LOL)

Robert tried to make his way through the city, I was going "I cant believe I've seen it!" and looking around at the
city. I have to say that it kinda reminds me of Amsterdam, and not only because of ALL THOSE BIKES!!! They even ride
"granny"bikes there like the one I have at home! (and they call it the same too) and at every street
corner was a bike shop!
I also loved the architecture of all those houses and flats... really different then Sweden. Or Germany or Holland/Belgium
Even the massive old blocks looked pretty!
So we saw a lot of un-touristic Copenhagen and on the outside of town, we found the second church.
We parked and looked at it, looked at it again, and kept on looking at it. This must have been one of the most
impressive churches I've ever seen!! And I saw a few, like the Dom in Cologne or the Sagrada familia...





It has such a unusual architecture and its so massive and simple in such a pretty way... build to impress for sure!!
It reminded me of the church in Reykjavik!
We also quickly went in, simply gorgeous, and outside we kept on staring at it, and then we had to leave.
I was very happy that I was able to satisfy my church obsession :-)

We quickly found Brondby stadium, where we met Karsten, and we inspected the area. They were still
building everything up and it wasnt very clear where the entrance was, as the concert was on a field
behind the stadium. Well, to keep a looong story short, they kept on sending us in circles and at the end
of the day, I absolutely had my exercises :-D



Hanging around near backstage, we saw the band arrive, and some of them came out and gave us
sweet waves like Kenny, Dave and Hunter.
The place was in the middle of nowhere, so when Egon arrived, we went to an ATM to get some money (we still
had to buy tickets, these were the only 2 shows we didnt have tix for cos of the short notice)
We ran through several very strange positioned red lights, hahaha, poor Egon in the back :-)
but we all survived the trip to the bank.

Back at the venue we met a lot of people like Jeppe from the forum, Lars and his wife, and Colin and Dave,
but we never saw Linnet!:-(
we were just hanging around near backstage a bit (with the Danes) cos 1) we didnt know where the entrance was yet anyway, and 2) there were
some people with us that tried to get Johns autograph for years and years!!
Everyone was getting hungry and first they talked about having pizza delivered
but Lars and his wife went to get some sandwiches and beer and we were having a
very relaxed sort of picknick while killing the time.


At the actuall entrance we just sat down waited... and waited... and waited... and waited...


Robert chatting with Dave

I was writing my diary and every minute the weather turned from very hot to very windy and cold so
I kept on dressing and undressing!!
For a moment I thought it was going to rain, but allthough it turned quite cold during and after the show,
we all kept dry feet! thank goodness!!!!
We talked to a lot of nice people, as always, and I made some yummy goats cheese sandwiches for later (that swedish
bread I bought is so delicious, its like "german" bread but way softer)
We could hear soundcheck a bit and then Robert said "hear" and I listened carefully... was that LODI???
Yes, that was LODI!!

And then... the security people arrived and took their places. I just HATE, yes HATE that moment!!!
from the moment they arrive untill the doors open, there is such a tension build up, everyone gets up and nervous,
and adrenaline keeps rushing through my vains!!
Will they open our door first? wont the gate get stuck? will the ticket scanner work?
everytime the securities took their positions, their boss called them back for another "meeting" and it was
allready 6oclock, the doors should have been open!!

Well, guess what.
The opened our door second. We protested, but they had to push a trashbin aside first (.....)
and the woman kept saying "two minutes, two minutes" Waaaa!!! Dear lady, do you know how many people
can run in in that time!?
I got in and a guy told me I couldnt take my Swedish goatcheese sandwiches nor my tomatoes in, DARN!!! so I
handed them over to him.
Robert always get in before me and today that was a smart move for sure:
MY TICKET DIDNT SCAN!!!!!
I bought it from Egon, who had printed it at home (like a lot of people)
I just couldnt believe it! the scanner kept on going "eep...?" instead of "BLEEP!!!" and after about 20 "eep...?"s,
and 4 different scanners, the man told me I had to GO BACK TO THE BOX OFFICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was able to stay calm all the time, but now I allmost started crying!! I said "no, please, we've been waiting
here for ours to get in as first!"
Egon was still with me and talked to the man, his own ticket DID work, and I cant thank him enough
for staying with me all that time!!
In the mean time, I was holding up everyone else behind me too, like Lars and his wife!
I dont know where they ended up but I felt very bad for everyone :-(
I have no clue what finally happened, I think the guy just decided to let me in, I thanked him and we ran to
the others, who had to wait at a second door.
Egon and I teamed up with Robert, so we still had a good position. Phew!!
I am so proud of myself that I kept it so calm all the time, party because I assumed Robert would try to keep
my spot, also cos most other people were walking in slowly, and maybe also because I am growing up after all LOL
There was no cursing, no shouting, everyone stayed friendly and polite!
Then the second run started, and while everyone ran in (at this point) and everyone passed me, I felt a little grumpy
that it looked like I wasnt able to run a bit faster then one year/21 kilos ago!!!
But Robert was able to keep my spot and we were standing just between the catwalk and James. Perfect!

Robert went to get something to eat and came back with a whole Pizza Hawaii. He was so happy with it and showed
it to me, but I almost got sick when I looked at it and realised I might had to eat something like that too cos they
conviscated my own food.
Oh yeah, we're just started and I find it allready so hard to stay with my "diet" !!! I have to say that Robert is
really the best support I could wish for, he's completely fine with visiting supermarkets so I can buy fresh food, fruit
and healthy snacks for on the road!
There are a few problems though: the thermo bag I bought, cookes everything up (see the cucumber earlier)
and we never know when the next meal is, so NO WAY I can keep up with my "3 meals/2healthy snacks aday and no heavy meal
after 20.00hrs
I just eat a real good breakfast and lunch and then hope for the best!
I walked around to see what they had but it was only pizza and bratwurst and hamburgers, sigh, so I was REALLY out
of mood. Offcourse, if you gotta eat you gotta eat, but as I got a good lunch, I decided to wait.

We waited and waited and waited and I sat down and tried to rest a bit with my back to the fence while
Robert talked with Dave (the Irish one, not Santos :-) and I looked at the people that were looking at me.
On the second row there was a couple, and they had one folding chair, and every 15 minutes one of them could sit
on it! That was really funny :-D
When I adressed them about that, the woman asked if I would mind trading places (she also offered me the chair)
during the support act, a guy named Poul Krebs, as she was a big fan. That was ok with me, but I told her I dont
sit down during support acts, and we talked a bit and she was very friendly. Turned out there was a bunch of Poul Krebs
fans in the crowd!
When he started she told me to keep my spot, so I offered it to a very small woman, who was happy with it but she didnt
manage to keep my spot in the pushing crowd, but during Fogerty Robert stepped back to give me more space. [heart!!]
Anyway, this was one of the better support acts we saw!!
He was pop/rock, had a very good guitarist with him and had a very good voice!
He is very famous in Denmark and most people sang along most of the songs.
Great start!

John started somewhere around 21.45 hrs, we wondered why, it had probably nothing to do with the soccergame
cos that ends at 22.15 I think?
we were making jokes about that, that they were all watching the Holland-Uruguay(?)soccergame backstage and that
John would come onstage wearing an orange shirt when Holland won. Well, half his crew (the dutch guys) were wearing
orange shirts cos Holland DID win. But GOODNESS I am talking about soccer, omg, sheesh......

I just climed to the backseat cos the sun is cooking up my laptop in the front! Now I am in the shade, thats better.
Its a 10 hrs drive today!!

Anyway, the show.
Right from the start it was so much better then the day before!!!
Johns voice was back to normal, and everything was just... super!
And maybe John DID watch the soccergame and IS he supporting Holland, cos he was acting a bit weird
all the time :-D in a good way!! Even when there turned out to be some problems with the monitors?
He was kinda freaking out in songs like KOC and at the end of one song he acted like if he was going to
smash his guitar and he made some very funny comments
I think he also sang some very strange lines??

Today started with Hey Tonight, second was Green River with some cool SQ inside it, and third....
I recognized it from the 2nd note, and lost it at the 3rd: LODI!!!!
Ofcourse he was playing it for Linnet, but as I supported her a bit to start asking for the song too
and as it is one of my favorites, and as it is just EFFING AWESOME that he does things like that,
extreme happiness was taking over!!!wooohooo!!!
I was dancing and jumping and having fun and thinking about my neighbours (with the help of Robert, if you
ever stood behind us you know what I mean :-) someone was tapping on my shoulder and asked to make some room
to take a picture.
WHAAAAAAAT?????????????
If you get up to the front to take a picture and there is only ONE person dancing and going nuts, why do you
have to ask THAT person??? GEEZZZZZZ!!!!
I told her I wasnt going anywhere and Robert pushed her in his spot.
Dont get me wrong here, I make place for people taking pics ALL the time, but come on, I was having
a party there, why didnt she understand? And Lodi looks the same on a picture as Green River, as long as you're not
a guitar geek! (note to guitar geeks: I love guitar geeks, its not a bad word for me)
She took a few pics and stayed at Roberts place and he had to ask her to leave!
Anyway Lodi was awesome and so is John for playing it and afterwards I shouted "THANK YOU!!!!!!" as loud
as I could

Tonights excuse for lack of notes is that my fingers were freezing! I tried to pull the sleeves of my reconstructed
hoodie over my hands but I was a bit scared to rip in in pieces :-)
But also, most of the time I was just dancing and having a good time, it was one of those shows!
I liked the setlist *much* better then the night before, but luckly my favorites of the first show where
still there like Pretty Woman, Haunted House, Ramble Tamble, etc
New tonight was Run Through the Jungle, and I just love that mouth harp solo, and for some reason John looks
so sexy when he is doing that! It was also one of those special moments for me when John was really alone on the
stage, I just kept on looking at him feeling blessed that I was at a John Fogerty concert, Mister Creedence, here
I was, looking at the man who's music means the world to me, how desperate I was in the years before I saw him!

But he has a band with him, and allthough no Creedence, they're doing pretty ok too! Guitar licks from James and Hunter,
Mike with the soulfull organwork, Kenny on the drums, Jasons Fiddlework, Daves bassgrooves,everything, they are a awesome band!
Not only to listen at, to look at too, its so clear they have a lot of fun together!!
Sometimes they crawl all around the stage like ants when they all have a guitar and take the chance to team
up with persons they are away from normally (at one point Mike was standing in front of us with Jason, and Hunter was
with Dave) and boy do they all have style!
There is something about that James/Hunter combi, I dont know what, but I am not the only one who cant keep my eyes
away from them!
They're allmost on a mission from God to Rock With Style! :-D
(this reminds me of a happening with Betty Lou... BL... can you help me out here.. where was that?!! :-D

At some point we realized John broke a guitar record cos he was playing at least 4 or 5 songs even maybe
with the same guitar, that pretty paisly baby!!
As Robert moved behind me I was standing next to guitarist Dave who looked like he was having the time of his
life. With every new guitar I just had to look at him to see the love and exitement in his eyes!
I just LOVE that!!
Dont you wish also was new, the crowed loved it!
John was doing some "alternative lyrics" thing and at one point he stopped halfway with singing and
walked away and started a solo :-)
At some point there was something wrong with James guitar I think when they wanted to start a song and Stig
walked onstage, and John said: "the orchestra will now play a short intermezzo while Miss Bubbles...." I didnt
get the rest of it, I dont know if "Miss Bubbles" is a joke that we Europeans dont get or whatever, but
they started a song...
we went "hm, nice, WTF!!! intermezzo!!" and slowly we realized it was Just Picking!
I am not sure if he ever did that before??!!
I had to say that the one bad thing about the show was that there was no interaction with the
audience at all. I understand it cant always be like Grona Lund :-) but a bit of contact with the
fans just belongs at the show! Ofcourse my day is totally made when John smiles at me or says hi
and you can imagine how bazurk I go with anything beyond that, but I also totally LOVE it when he
is "fooling around" with other fans!! Thats one of the mayor reasons we're at the front....

During Old Man, that I never liked live and I dont know why but I just dont,
my empty stomach started acting up, I started feeling so hungry!!!
Felt a bit weak in my knees and thought "ok, thats it for tonight" but geezz, dont I know better by now??
RAOTW completely blew me off of my feet!!!! I danced and jumped and did the "RAOTW wave" on my own, untill I noticed my
neighbours on my left had joined me!!!
Two drunks tried to push us away, but one was so uncarefull to place his toes under my foot while I was dancing!
Nehehehehe.
And then Proud Mary, dancing, singing, the "rolling" handthing that my neighbours copied too!! Thought that was really
cool!

After the show we watched the roadies clean up, and then Henry the Dutch truckdriver showed up and
tried to make clear to us that Holland was going to play the soccer finals!
I think he wrote "FINALS!!!!" on his Iphone and showed it to us
but I didnt get it and thought he wanted to take a picture :-D
I walked around a bit. I noticed those big beer pitchers(?) on the floor
everywhere again, but last time I collected them for refund, I got something like one Danish Krone, (and a stunned
girl behind the counter) instead of the big bag
of money I once collected in 2006, so I just let them on the floor.
I walked over to Felix the soundguy instead, who was buisy working, but I had a question for him:
I finally wanted to know who that song "Take me Home" sings, its one of the songs that is played before
the show! He told me its Mark Broussiard(sp???) I will find it out, its awesome!
While walking around I noticed there where a lot of rockabilly looking types, more as normal, maybe James Intveld has
something to do with that???
Also, everywhere were groups of drunk fans "singing" like "wokking wah ovah ze wooooaaalld!!!" and "in zem oooowd,
coddonfiels back wooooaaammmm!!!!" it was very funny and added to the atmosphere!!
We changed our last Danish Krones for merchandise, I bought the super red girly shirt with the heart, I hope it fits!!
I couldnt help looking at those empty beer pitchers everywhere while waiting in line. What if they HAD refund and
I was able to pick up maybe worth of 2 shirts????
well it was too late and I decided to let it go.

We lost Karsten, and we were supposed to stay the night at his place, but luckly we ran into him outside the venue.
(where all the separate groups of drunk fans now had unite to form one big drunk and loud choir that was
belting out CCR songs. Though I cant understand why you get so drunk when you go to see a band, it was fun)
While they guys programmed the GPS (normally my job) I dove in the trunk to find something to eat. I was now so
hungry I didnt want anything too heavy, and ended up with the best tasting cherry tomatoes and Swedish crackers
EVERRRRRRRR!!!!:-D
Chewing on those awesome thin rosemary/honey/seasalt crackers, we drove to Karstens place, near the holy and sacred
ground of ROSKILDE, where we saw our first Fogerty concert 13 years ago. If we only knew then.
We slept extremely well!
Next morning we met his wife Marianne and they had made us some perfect breakfast! Karsten had picked up I like to eat
fruit in the morning and they made a super plate with all kinds of delicious fruits!
Then a good cup of coffee, and we said goodbye to them and their supercute dogs.
Robert: that is a dog for hunting, right?
Karsten: yes, and the other one is a dog for sleeping!
hahahahahahaha!!!!!!
(I tried to take one with me but didnt work)


with Karsten and Marianne and one of the sweetest dogs ever, Sofie

hehe jemig!!!
now we're in the middle of Germany. Hope to get online in the hotel, we'll be there in 2hrs I think.
I still wonder if this years tour is going to be funny, interesting or weird enough to keep on writing
about, after all this time there are only two weirdo's in one car and not 7 :-)
Ah but things will get very interesting when Holland has to play against Germany
in the finals!!! Being Dutch and being in Germany and such.... we'll see.
Hope we have a nice hotelroom, need some good sleep!


22.30hrs: ohyes we have a FANTASTIC room!!! Its the fanciest ETAP hotel we ever had, it even
has a shower with a changing colored light in the shower head :-D
When we arrived and got outr of the car, we heared a loud ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
and I thought wheres the bees??? but it was the soccergame on TV in every room :-D
Robert just watched the soccer game; and Germany lost :-(
He needs the computer now so I'll stop right here!!!


thursday july 8th, Wurzburg>Munchen

Roberts foot hurts after driving such a long time yesterday!! Owww... every tour its something....
We'll be driving to Munich today for the concert, and after the concert we'll be back here,
because its a long way to Cologne and if we stay in Munich we wont make it in time.
Slept good but not long enough, zzzzz....
Todays weather forecast is: *HOT* uh-oh.

thursday july 8th, Munchen>Wurzburg

23.45hrs, on our way to the hotel, 260 km...
Woohoo!!!!!
Today was just a fantastic day, it should be like this all the time!

we arrived in Munchen around 1 o' clock and got lost on the gigantic parking place of the
Olympic Park :-D where Tollwood Festival was held. But we saw Uwe and Martines camper, so we
parked next to it and went to look for them and the festival area.
We found them on a bench on the festival area, what turned out to be a complete mini-village
with lots of alternative shops, foodstalls, bars and everything! It was offcourse GREAT to
see them again and we sat down with them in the shade, and talked and had a lot of fun.
Later Michael also joined us and I walked around on the festival area, looking for a bikini top, cos
the dress I was wearing was very hot and sticky. I found a cute hippie summer top but didnt try it on...
It was just so fantastic to walk around there and watch all the little booths with all kinds of fun stuff!
There was lots of hand made and craft things, lots of hippie stuff and lots of foreign food, yummmmmm...










some shots of the festival

Only thing that bothered us was that the show was going to be held in a huge white tent. First I thought
that it was just the roof but it was a real, plastic, tent....

After a while we went to stand inline at the entrance, it was completely covered in the shade so very comfy
cos it was really hot today!!!
We met lots and lots and lots and lots of great people, friends and familiar faces and talked with everyone.
There was even a bathroom on the right so we're doing just fine, the difference with Copenhagen couldnt be bigger.
We could hear the soundcheck very well and enjoyed listening to the band singing songs like Summertime Blues.

When the securities showed up to let us in, they told us that it was ABOUT FIFTY DEGREES inside the tent!!!!!
And I am not talking about Fahrenheit!!!! :-O!!!!!
Getting in went quite easy today. It wasnt a long run and I kept a spot for Robert, who cant run with his
inflamed foot. (yes, its always someting, we start falling apart as soon as the tour starts every time)
We got a spot right in front of the catwalk, first I was a bit grumpy that we didnt get closer to the stage,
but it turned out to be one of the best spots we ever had!
And yes, it was HOT in that tent, almost like a sauna. And there was an anoying smell of the melting rubber floor :-D
I never was more sure that I had to take it easy cos I didnt wanna faint, I even discussed it with Robert what to do
in case of.
In the meanwhile we were surrounded by nothing but friendly people!!
We had great chats and laughs and a good icebreaker was the hippie summer top I bought, cos first of all I didnt
knew what the front was, and second, I forgot to put it on at the bathroom. So everyone interfering with it and
a woman was confinced the label had to be on the left so I just put it on like that. Over my dress, and then I put out
the dress afterwards :-D
Minor problem: it didnt fit!!!!
But it was way better (less hot and sticky) then the dress, so I just ignored that hahahaha. And now the folks around us have a good story
to tell at home!


Then we noticed Handyman Henry climb to the roof cos he had to do one of the follow-spotlights tonights. During the show, we couldnt
help cheering for him a few times, when we saw the spotlight move :-D
We also saw a part of the German CCR coverband "Choogle Rockers", their guitarist is a huge Bob Britt fan and I adressed him
with "there is the German Bob Britt!" and he was flattered :-)

Then someone told that the show was going to start at 19.30 and not at 19.00 as shown on the tickets and the audience wasnt happy
with that. In fact, things got quite ugly when the band did also not show up at 19.30, and there was lots of boo-ing through the
songs that were played. The boo-ing got louder and louder during every song and we feared for the worse!!
I have to say that it wasnt really fun waiting in that hot sauna.
There was still some boo-ing when the band came onstage but it quickly got less, but when John ran onstage,someone threw
something at him and acted like a complete jerk, boy he was lucky that he was out of my reach!!!!!!!

The waiting was forgotten as soon as UATB started. The whole tent was singing along and they kept doing that with all the hits,
the whole evening!! They were so much better than the first 2 shows we saw!
Then, after Suzy Q, John ran on the catwalk, we all waved at him, he looked at me and gave me a super cheery wave and a big
smile!!! Did I wrote that such things make my day? Its so much more than that!! I felt like a 13 year old girl again :-D
Then he asked our neighbours "what do you wanna hear?" and they went "Who'll stop the rain!!" and the started the song.
I was so glad that they did that again, just cant get enough of it, love it so much, all the things John sings are related to
something for us. When he sings the crowd has rushed together, trying to keep warm, still the rain kept pouring, falling
on my ears, I go straight back to Roskilde for example. It just always make me feel so happy!
Heat and discomfort were forgotten for me. I just kept on feeling superfine till the last note of Proud Mary!
And there is only one guy who does that trick everytime I think "oh, tonight I have to keep it calm" !!!!
Just before LOMBD started, the crowd started singing it, and he came to the front again and started playing a bit.
Somewhere between two songs from the back of the tent a loud "VIVA ESPANIA!!!!" sounded and everyone around me had to
laugh, no one got irritated. It absolutely added to the athmosphere of the night :-D
It was also very clear that John was having much more fun today!!! That smile just never left his face.
There was some orgasmic fiddle work in Big Train from Memphis and that got a huge cheering response from the crowd!
John was also doing some very hot guitar solo there!!
Haunted House I noticed a girl in the front jumping and dancing like there was no tomorrow. Love that song too,
and tonight John added a scary ghost sound when it was done.
Just before HYESTR there was some funny stuff going on with the audience on the catwalk (swear he was posing for a guys
camera!?) and all of a sudden he just RAN away, grabbed something from the drumraiser and ran back to the front
of the catwalk... waving a German flag!!!!
One of those little carflags of the soccer championship everyone has over here!!!
Wonder from who's car that came :-D
anyway it was just awesome, everyone went hysterical!!!
He did it again when he introduced Kenny and threw it to him but he didnt catch it.
Like I said before, we had one of the best spots ever, we had a fantastic view on the whole band but the sound was
even better!
And very good lightning because of the big festival, every now and then it felt like I was watching a TV show recording.
By now I wonder where Hunter and James are growing to to the end of the tour! If you see them together, it just looks like
they have been playing together for ages! They were trying out cool moves and everything and it just kinda feels a bit like
the Bob Britt/Billy Burnette combi.
At some point I noticed Julie sidestage and waved to her and she waved back very cheery too!
Well, what more can I say. Like I wrote on my paper: "JC = happy" and so were we and so was the rest of the crowd!!
During RAOTW we were with more people to start the "RAOTW-wave" and even though it was cool that it was copied when
I did it on my own in Copenhagen, now we were with more and everyone joined us!! Jason saw it and gave us a big smile.
Proud Mary, and the show was over :-(
For a second we hoped they would come back, but Kenny threw his sticks in the crowd and they were gone gone gone.

Robert just put on the radio to keep awake a bit and all of a sudden the latest Jason and the Scorchers cd blasts in our
ears at volume 11 !!!! If that doesnt keep him awake the horrible cowshit smell that comes trhough the open windows will :-S
Oh they would be a nice opener for John too :-D
Thinking about it, what would happen if you throw Warner E. Hodges in Johns band??!!!
We just stopped to stretch our legs a bit and we never saw so many stars in the sky!! very impressive...
Still, think this is a bit of a scary ride, we shouldnt be doing this, and those speeding idiots
that pass us at more than 200kms/hr all the time doesnt make it feel any better!

Anyway, I walked around a bit as usual, ran into some nice people from Scotland (hi!!)that came all the way
just for the show!! Million Milers are everywhere!!!
also had the chance to ask Curtis about the "paisly baby" guitar that turns out to be a Paisley Crook
if I am correct. (if someone allready told that somewhere I am sorry, didnt read a lot before we left)
Then we went outside to get some air again, aahhh, that felt good! We had some diner with one of the
many cool German fans, we had some tasty Thai food! Perfect closure of the day. I had to do some stunting
to get myself a spot on a table (had to climb over tables and chairs) and in the end we all sat down
side to side squeezed with total strangers, who turned out to be nice table mates. Then I looked up and
noticed Felix the soundguy and Hunter, they were walking around and enjoying the festival market.
I had changed clothes in the meanwhile and had my new hippie top over my bag, and when we left (more climbing)
I didnt watch out and lost it.


happy with my thai food, but man I look TIRED!!! Still got my new top here...

We walked ahead on the market, and all of a sudden I noticed I lost the dress, so I freaked out (as always when
I lose something or think I lose something) stopped in the middle of the road, turned around and was THIS close
to bumping into the guy behind me! I wanted to apologize and then I saw it were Felix and Hunter again!!!!
Ha!!!
Robert said "go for your new top!!" but I coulnt care less!!! This was just meant to be, and we had a fun chat with them.
Hunter seemed to be pleased when we told that he and James fit so good together! After a nice chat we let them and
I went back to the restaurant for the top. I looked everywhere and asked everyone and then it turned out that one
of our table neighbours found it and put it in her purse! I got it back and thanked her and we walked around a bit more,
there was just so much to see and to look at, my favorite stand was the big "Marakesh" tent that held a Morocan market!


Couldnt help myself and bought a nice red pillowcase, would have bought more if we just didnt had to do this 2,5
night ride.
On our way back to the car we ran into Uwe, Martina and Michael again, we walked through the dark park to the car,
inspected their camper, said goodbye, got lost on the carparking again, and now we're on our way.

Tomorrow we have to drive to Cologne, after that we're going home, so it will probably not be before saturday or sunday
before I'm back online!

Your crazy nightriders salute you.


Sunday, july 11th, Belgium> Austria.

Today is our anniversary :-D But we always celebrate the day we first met and thats June 6th.
That was in Cologne, in the same venue where John was going to play, so we were looking forward to it!

I try to decide if I keep on typing or close my laptop and my eyes...man I am tired and Robert is giving me a foot
massage with one hand :-D

It was about 3hrs to Cologne, and when we left the highway to get diesel (thats cheaper), AGAIN
we found a Lidl supermarket next of the gasstation! we bought food for the day and I really, really,
really, really, REALLY enjoyed my COLD yoghurt!
Back on the road, we got a phonecall from Uwe, who was allready there with the camper, and told us that...
the venue had changed! It was supposed to be in the park, and now it was moved to the theatre!
That was a bit of a dissapointment cos we were looking forward to see John at the place where we
first met!!
The theatre was only a few meters away from the stage in the park, but still.
It was very weird to be back there anyway, at the place where it all started!
We had some troubles to park the car and then we teamed up with the Germans,
stood in the shade (hothothot again) and enjoyed the view on the river Rhine and the Dom church.




there you go, another church for ya!

They were building an entrance with extra shade for us (much obliged!)and we sat down, and before
the gate opened (at 3.30) there was a small crowd of maybe 40 people waiting to get in,
and we met the Boudens family and Peter.
It started to get a bit pushing and shoving and the superfriendly securities tried to calm us
down a bit and then we got in. All went super relaxed in the end! The security wanted to rip
my ticket and took it, and then a guy wanted to run in and he went after him, holding my
ticket hahahahaha I went "ehm, sir?!" really funny!!
Almost ran over Uwe cos I lost control (sorryyyyy) and inside everyone was standing for a closed door,
we had to OPEN them ourself!!! sheesh! Luckly Robert was so smart to open it and we all ran in, over some steps
shouting "steps!" over our shoulder, and we were at the front.
And there was looooooots of space at the front! :-D
Half of the people took a spot around the PA booth and... then... nothing... tumble weeds etc!
there was no one there!
So we sat down, walked around, got bored, enjoyed the airco, whew! shared snacks with neighbours
(thanks Antje! :-) etc etc.
It took really long before the room started to fill up, later I found out everyone was sitting outside
but it was way to hot outside!



We met lots of friends, like Baltasar, Pete and his wife Sylvie, Bert from Holland, etc etc.
Even with the airco it wasnt very pleasant inside, and we kept on going to the bathroom to splash water at the sink
to cool down a bit.
It was a kind of a mini festival, and the first group was a Dutch singer with his band, he was called Tim Knol,
I almost bought his cd, it was sort of "alt country" (uch, uch) with ballads and rock and it was really nice.
Second band was a Texan band called Midlake, that looked and sounded like they escaped from the 70's!
Hairy guys with guitars and flutes and they made folkish rock, Robert said they sounded a bit like
Pink Floyd every now and then, mostly very relaxed tunes, but we liked it very much! They would have
been perfect on the outdoor stage!
Unfortunately I started to feel a bit unwell because of the lack of oxygen and rising mercury, so I sat down
but I sat down with my face to the stage and could look just though the vences!
I took of my shoes and that felt good too. No one felt down or turned green so I kept them off a long time!

Then Jimmy Vaughn started and I think it wasnt bad, its just totally not my music, slow blues!
I absolutely loved the faster songs and I even danced when I could!


For the first few songs, half Johns band was watching side stage and taking pictures, and I dont think I ever
saw such a big smile on Hunters face!

When John started, we were all cooked up and about to fall apart, but we tried to do our best!!
I made some notes, but they are at home I think and I am in southern Germany so that doesnt work well
This is what I wrote at John Fogerty.com:

Just got home from Cologne and we're completely dehydrated cos with every bottle of water we drunk we sweated
out at least two!! It was about 3x hotter today than it was in the plastic tent!!
And not just because of the hot weather and the strange, tin, cookiejar shaped venune, also because man that show was HOTTT!!!
Some quick things, more later. Just wanted to say that the crowd was hysterical, and sang along everything and started singing between
songs all the time!!! Getting LODI again was super ofcourse, but it was way to hot and sticky to really move and jump; untill halfway KOC
when I dont know what happened but I dont think I ever went more crazy :-D and after that we got Night time, wooohooo!!!
It got more and more hot, Hunter looked like he took a shower and the others were soaking too.
So when the came back for the encore and they had taken all their shirts off, it wasnt much of a suprise!!!
Apart from the fact that it wasnt true :-D JUST KIDDING!!!
John sang Happy Bday for Uwe after Martina held up a sign!!!!! I dont think he will sleep tonight!!
we were just stunned. And overheated!
Oh I have to say everytime I hear Pretty Woman i like it twice as much!!! wooo!!!
And it was so hot, I emptied my waterbottle in my neck, and aahhh that felt so good!
There you go another first: I never took a shower during a JF gig before :-D
we saw lots and lots of friends and familiar faces and also the ultimate Million Miler;
a guy that had come all the way from Argentina for John!!! *applause*!!!!

have to add that in the end, I noticed not only that the first band of the evening was dancing sidestage in the back,
but during RAOTW Curtis, Johns guitarroadie, also started swinging and waving his arms!!!!
Also, again problems with their gear, and after Hey Tonight, John called stagemanager Tim onstage,
who had been onstage a few times during the show previously, but now he stayed there while John started singing
HT again!
Whatever was going on on that stage, the crowd just thought "ok!" and completely took over, and turned it into
a goosebumpy experience, with everyone shouting and singing the whole song!!!
And that grin that showed up on Johns face...
After the show everyone came to say something to Uwe and we talked to friends and I tried to help a girl
to get a souvenir.
We went outside, where a big group of drunk people was singing Cotton Fields, its turning into a tradition!!
We still had a two hour ride home to do, and wanted to go to the exact spot where we met, 14 years ago,
so we said everyone goodbye and left.

But, the Spot Where We Met (SWWM) was... kinda taken over by buses and trucks!
We stood for the gate and I wanted to go away, but Robert said "lets just have a look"
One of the trucks was "stuck" in the gate, and Henry was driving it and he was moving "30cms" to
the right or something, I dont know but I felt really scared near that big moving truck!
we walked around it, and a little van was parked there and we saw Dave Santos get in!
Again I wanted to leave (didnt want to be kicked out or to be stalking)
but Robert said "come on" and we kept on walking, securyties all let us, later we find out
that there was also the "vip" space or something (with food and drinks) and a normal car park,
cos we saw several friends drive away, who werent surprised at all to see us there!
I said Hi to Dave and the next moment I was having a chat with Kenny, I had to stick my head
in their window to understand him and I thought "is it so hot in here or is it just John Fogertys band?"
hahahahaha sorry couldnt resist that!! :-P
Jason was sitting next to him (poor thing looked very tired and overheated) and Mike was on the
other seat and we talked about the heat in the venue and that they drink some sports drink onstage
not to dehydrate.
All of a sudden the conversation took a very silly direction, wahahaha, arent they just the
greatest :-D :-D
I started talking to Dave, who was buisy messing with buttons and knobs on the dashboard,
but no matter what he did, HOT AIR kept on floating into the bus!!
FINALLY they decided to get out of that darn thing, and Kenny came to us to continue talking
and he mentioned my weightloss, yesss!!!
Have to say that I keep on running into a lot of people who are stunned and everything,
thats just so great!!! everyone goes "what happened to YOU!???"
Anyway, they left (they had to wait because the truck was "stuck" in the gate) and
we walked ahead, but then Bob F came to us to say hi!
First we thought he was going to kick us out himself but he was very relaxed and
we had a supernice conversation with him, about his "semi proffesional" long sleeved
shirt for example and other nice and fun things. At one point he pulled a funny face
and he just turned into John with grey hair! So funny, I dont think they look like eachother
at all normally! (maybe its just the glasses!)
We told him we were we were going and he went "awww" :-D
He left and finally, we reached the Spot Where We Met!
We gave eachother a big kiss and a hug, looked around us, yep, here it was, and went back to the car.
With a big smile on our faces, we drove home.
(After getting totally lost in downtown Cologne, but hey at least we saw a bit of the city now ;-)



oh dear right now we are on a very tight road and the police wants to pass and there is no room to move aside
I am glad its not an ambulance! cos its going very slow. man we're lucky, we just passed them again and then they stopped the
car behind us!!!!!!They're about to form a huge roadblock!

anywayyy...
we got up early, did our laundry, went to get some fresh food and I collected my mom from the bus, she's
watching over our house for the rest of the trip!
We left home about 13.30, a bit later than we planned, forgot to take the adress with us so we just drove
towards Weert, got into a fight with our GPS, turned it of, allmost got lost, made a big touristic detour,
Well, guess you know the tune ;-)
In the end we made it but we were way later than we planned.



The Bospop staff is always very friendly and it was around 3 I think we entered the festival area. And it was
so HOT, that half the people were walking around in their undies or bikini, and the other half covered
themselfs with scarfs, blankets, dish-clothes and whatever to be protected from the burning sun!
I poured sunmilk over Robert and me, and wrapped my pink "sarong" around my head and shoulders, and
I am still very glad I did that!


When we got near the stage, there was a band playing called "Saybian" or something and they were ok
but we just were focussed on getting to the front, we were now on 6th row in the middle.
When the band left, most of the people left too, and one of them was a woman on the
front row who was so kind to give me her place!
I sat down on the floor, I was sitting on a rubber mat in stead of the usual iron board and it
took me maybe till the next band to realise why: I was RIGHT in the middle of the stage!!!!
Just unbelievable, we arrived so "late" and end up on the best spot!!

We teamed up with Uwe, Martine and Michael who were able to sneak in with a bunch of water bottles
(normally they take the caps of and no big ones alowed) and it didnt take long before they were
throwing water at eachother :-)
They also had a bag of icecubes with them... ooooohhh aahhhh!!!!
we rubbed it at our wrists, placed it in our neck, put it on our forehead...
(and when all the ice was gone in the end, Robert turned it into a shower and poured it all over us :-D
Next band was the wellknown dutch band "de Dijk" who make sort of soul/bluesy rock and ballads and they
sing in Dutch. it was very nice to see them again (has been 20 years) and I loved singing along with
their hits!


During their encore, I went to get drinks, and when I came back they finished and first I heared two
guys say "geeezz, what a shit concert" and ten steps ahead two guys said "they were brilliant as ever!"
hahahaha so now what was it???
we teamed up with friends, such as Merijn, the Boudens family and Peter, Walter, Willy, and a lot of other familiar faces.
Our group kept crowing, later we also saw for example the infamous Hendrickx Brothers :-D including Mr Guitarpick!
In the meanwhile, the fans of the next band, the Cranberries, sneaked up to the front, next to us were two girls
who didnt stand still one second during the show and sang along everything and went hysterical when the singer
waved and smiled to them :-)
Ohyeah the Cranberries!
I only knew their hits, but the show was FANTASTIC, they completely rocked, singer Dolores doesnt only have
a strong voice life, but she was also quite the preformer to look at! (wearing the most impressive Convers
Allstars ever)
She kept on coming down the huge stairs-build catwalk to the front all the time and stood there singing that was
pretty cool!


During the hot day, I got a few goosebumps, and they were responsible for some of them! All of a sudden the show was
over, and that doesnt happen a lot with me with bands I dont know.
After their show, a massive crowd of fans left, and Fogheads were able to get closer.
We had chats with Merijn who has some weird Million Miler humour like us ("it will be raining little icecubes tonight" aka"hail")
sang along with Elvis together and I went to get some free water at the tap at the toilets.
I picked up a cardboard tray on my way, still dont know how I was able to hold all that stuff (four cups too)
while visiting the bathroom at the right but I'll tell you, a road trip makes you very inventive :-D
Everyone was filling bottles and cups at the tap, I filled them and dropped them, filled them again
placed them in the tray, spilled half the water what made the tray weak, what made it impossible
to carry the cups, etc etc hahahahaha
Then had to find my way up to the front, where it was getting really crowded now. I heared someone admiringly
say "there are allready Fogerty fans at the front!" that made me smile, it was maybe 8 o clock allready,
half of us had been standing there since noon!!
I reached my old spot thanks to the friendly crowd, and Arnold who took the tray so I could squeeze
back in at the spot.
I had been sitting in my bikini top all afternoon (when the sun got behind light clouds)in the end,
we're on a festival!!! and it was stinking hot! :-D
We chatted a bit, looking forward to the CSN gig and all of a sudden Arnold tapped on our shoulder and said "By the way,
Bob Glaub is now playing with them!
BY THE WAY????!!!!
we completely lost it and other Fogerty fans wondered what was going on. Not a lot of us had seen Bob play with
John back in the nineties!
Funny detail is that Dave Santos used to play with CSN before he joined Johns band again!
So it must have been quite a reunion there!
Before the show started, we saw Dave chatting and laughing with people all the time.
And there they were! Crosby, Stills, Nash and Glaub!






They started with Woodstock. Goosebumps!!!
It was just so awesome to see them!!
They did some hits, not all, but it was fun to look and listen and they were absolutely *NOT* boring
like someone warned me!
Highlight was maybe Our House, loved that since I was a kid!
And offcouse it was great fun to see Bob again!! When he walked of the stage after the show,
he gave us a big smile and waved to us. That was just the icing on the cake :-)
By now the temperature had dropped a bit, the sun was behind a solid layer of clouds, and some of
them were veeeeeeery dark!
We had a few drops, ice cold, and it stopped again, but the wind got stronger and stronger!

John got on stage around 11 (= as planned, but still very late) and we enjoyed our good spot in the
middle! The stage was a bit far away, but that also made we had excellent view on them!
I wrote a report for the John Fogerty forum when I came home, that says it all I think :-D

Halfway the show it started raining like there was no tomorrow, it was icecold rain on our sunburned bodies. John sang Have you ever
seen the rain and we screamed back Have you ever seen the rain on a sunny day!!!?? Then when we were half soaked, he came down to the
front in the pouring rain and said "if you can do it, I can do it!"
Hard to describe what I felt for that man on that moment. Pure love and respect. He just came out in the rain for us...........
Later the rain even came down harder and when I just tried to keep my stuff dry he kept coming to the front in the rain!!!!
It was raining onstage too, not "leaking water" but raining and we thought it would be stopped, the tour or stage manager came on
stage and we were in shock: this was the first JCF show we would see that was going to bne stopped and he came to john and said "you
have to stop" or "if you wanna sto^p" but John didnt stop he kept on performing for us, standing there without raincoats!!! (did skip Old man)
Later I realized the only way to keep warm was to keep moving and I started dancing like mad and that warmed me up for sure!! Uwe next to me
didnt wanna know about any rain either and the rest of the field also thought "its only water"
In the end I took of my soaked shirt and danced around in my bikini top and that felt even better hahahahaha WOODSTOCK now I wasnt bothered
anymore by a cold cloth arounf me.
What I said about the shower yesterday, THIS was the real shower!! or even more a bath... or... what was it....
Then the encore he came running onstage with a big huge gigantic DUTCH FLAG and that was just the TOP OF IT ALL!!!!
After being attacked a few times the last two weeks about being dutch or a "Hollander" and now to see John run aropund with the flag; I knew
there was nothing wrong with bein a "Hollander"!!!! Pure pride to see JCF walk around with the flag of my homecounytr!!!
Then RAOTW, we just did the RAOTW wave, was extra fun in teh water and PM and it was over and they left and the crowd on
the field was just one happy bunch of people!!!!
Again, just one man could do this.

We were all literally soaked to our undies, I was wearing Allstars shoes and with every step you hear "SOP!" we stayed around to chat with other
drowning victims but it was getting cold and we walked to the car, while being adressed by total strangers that had to tell us they coudlnt believe
some thing so special they just saw and that he kept on playing!!!

At the car the only thing left was undress :-D and wrap ourselfs in blankets and drive home.

John: there are no words for tonight. Thank you.

What a guy, he just stayed in the pouring rain with us!!!!
He looked pretty drowned too in the end cos he just kept on coming down the front out in the rain
And no one around us left!
Robert later said he felt a bit like the "guy on woodstock" that yelled "we're still here John!!" after
Gratefull Dead rocked everyone insleep before CCR had to play!
We werent going to let John down, and John wasnt going to let us down!!


After the show the crowd quickly vanished to seek shelter (impossible) we waited a bit
and next to me, a girl sqeezed outher soaked shirt, she looked at me, completely drowned in my bikini top,
sqeezing out my shirt and sarong, and smiled.
(no, I wasnt walking around in my undies, I was wearing the sarong over pants)
everywhere were people with dripping clothes, it wasnt just WET clothes, it was dripping!!!
While walking to our car, with every step my converses went "slurp! sop! Sqwish!"
They only just dried up today, in the car :-)
But, at least it wasnt as cold as last year in Imst!


Right now we are in a hotel in Salzburg on our way to Graz, Robert is watching the soccer finals
I turned my back to the tv and I think thats good cos I hear nothing positive coming from Holland!
I hope they dont put my country to shame, cos the bits I *did* see had nothing to do with soccer.
Right now I might just get a little tired of soccer, but it has grown in the tour so much, not
only with John with the flag and the shirt, but just because its been going on all tour allready,
I just cant ignore it :-D
Anyway, our hotel is in a mall at the airport and, yay oh yay, there are two supermarkets around the
corner so I'll have my yogurt for the morning and my veggies for the day!
A little organisational hickup just caused that I ate canned pasta for dinner... bwueargh...
but I was hungry :-S


this roadsign near Salzburg adds to my imagination! you can go to: Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, and Italy!





Tuesday july 12th, GRAZ AUSTRIA!!


Some pics!!

They're not extremely good, but thats not the intention, just wanna share memories and souvenirs!!!
I just bought this camera, its a small pocket cam and it was very cheap so I am still learning (but fast ;-) and I need a lot of
light onstage, thats also why Far Away Mike is missing!



























wednesday july 14th, Vienna > Salzburg.

On the highway! We just passed the beautifull abbey (I think) of the village Melk!



Left Vienna behind us, boohoo, its such a wonderfull, pretty town!!
We visited Vienna 8 years ago, and I got a headache from all the impressions :-D

Yesterday, we were at the venue pretty early, cos *they* warned us that it was "very small" and that we had to be
there in time.
I am not sure how big Vienna is, but let me tell you its HUGE. We had some problems getting there, it was on the outside of
the center, in a buisiness area. Funny was that it was near "Gasometer", 3 old industrial buildings they re-done and build
appartements, offices and a mall in. We went to visit it when we were in Vienna first time, and had dinner there.



With the help of a very friendly guy who worked at the Arena, we found a parkingspot just around the corner, and we
sat down in the shade (and met Turka from Finland) The friendly guy kept saying "but the doors only open at 6!" :-D The place looked very alternative, and all the people that came to work all had dreadlocks/piercings/a lot of tattoos!
It reminded me of the old days in Amsterdam, the small alternative venues where we went to see local bands!
(and I talked to several people who said that when they saw the place they thought "oh, Petra will love this" :-)
When we sat there, some coins dropped. Then I remembered: after we visited Gasometer during our trip 8 years ago,
we heard a band play, and just for fun, we decided to follow it to see where and what. We walked two blocks and ended up...
right where we were now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If we only knew back then :-D

As there was nobody there (....) I decided I go to do some shopping in the Gasometer mall, cos I needed new sunglasses
(the old one got seriously injured during KOC in Cologne and finally felt apart yesterday)
At the mall I saw one of my favorite shops having sale so I ended up trying on dresses and shirts and everything
and aahhhhh after spending all my days in the car or waiting, it just felt good! Bought sunglasses there
and went to a different shop to buy short socks for Robert cos he is wearing his low shoes now because of his
foot (its getting much better by the way, thanks everyone for asking!)

back at the venue, the "dad with the kids" arrived (dont know their name but they're at all Austrian shows)
The kids had American flags with them and banners.
After a while Allen (Chickenschoolgrad) and Aarno arrived. The venue was next to a gasstation and we went there
frequently to get cold waters and icecreams. It was a BP, and when we joked about it to Allen, we discussed what
Robert and I had been discussing a while ago, if you boycot the BP gasstations, it will probably only effect the
people who work there and lose their job, and not the big guys at the top.
Martina was so smart to buy a bag of icecubes, we first used it to cool our drinks, but later we just let them
melt in our hands and neck, that felt so good!! Robert spent quite a while with melting icecubes above my head,
it felt like a very local refreshing rainshower :-D
We could hear soundcheck very well and you can imagine our suprise when we heard Zanz Kant Danz !!!
We were all looking at eachother thinking "if that only can be true" Later we also heard Saw it on tv!!!
And, Summertime blues, but we heard that before.

Around 6 it got very crowded and we were all pushed to the gate, and everytime people had to pass!
it was very annoying, especially cos there were TWO OTHER gates!!! sheesh!!!!
Some drunks pushed their way up front, but Uwe blocked them for me and thanks to him we were able
to get in normally when the gate opened.
We got in two by two and very slow, so that was good. While they controlled my bag, I heard some discussing
behind me and looked, it was the "dad" of the kids going "where does it say that you cant take it in??!!!" I had no clue where the commotion was about, but it continued as I entered the field.
When they finally arrived on the field too, it was impossible for them to stand at the front anymore and they
went to stand on the balcony.
After the show they told us that it was about the flags, that it wasnt allowed to bring flags in?!
Thats a first.... and a pretty stupid one too, if you ask me.
Aarno got us some cold drinks, and the waiting started...



I sat down as long as possible, cos I think you can better be bored while sitting than while standing ;-)
Robert started chatting with the people behind us and turned out they came from MOSCOW !!!!!
We told them to make a sign for John and they did.

short story of the concert:

Oops, will add it later :-)









Have to add: a very annoying drunk pushed way up front during RT and tried to get between Uwe and Martina.
Security arrived but the guy stayed.
I asked Robert if I could throw his beer in his face (it was actually a joke) but he didnt like that :-D
He went back a bit, but then later all of a sudden he got violent!
It looked like a fight was started, and I thought this is my change and I poured the beer over him, but half
of it landed on Martina!!
Now the securities jumped over the fence and pushed him away. I looked over my shoulder and saw he started to
fight with them but they got him out. we thought, after a few songs he came back AGAIN, but they kept an eye on
him and everything stayed calm.
I dont understand these people, really....
But, only a minor minor on the so great concert!!! I really had a great time dancing! we were also getting a bit
silly in the end (lack of sleep etc works in funny ways) I had one of those light sticks with me to wave with during
slow songs, but then I found out it made a very cute "nightlight" (schemerlamp) too with a cup over it!
Well at least I didnt put it in my nose LOL


with Lena and Pavel from Moscow!!!

After the show we went to buy guitarpicks and a bandana (I needed one cos we drive with all windows down cos we dont have
airco in the car and my hair is flying in my face all the time). Some more cold drinks, aahh, and we went to the car.

We had to pass the buses, who were parked at the side of the street, and ran into the "dad with the kids" who where
buisy collecting everyones autographs!
They just got Jasons when we arrived, and while we just stood there Hunter arrived, he was very impressed by the
enthousiastic kids, that was so cute!




Then James came out and after they got their autographs I had my pic taken with him! *yay* !!
He was very friendly!!!


He had to sign lots of other autographs too, as did Hunter, and we stood there a while watching everything
and waiting for Kenny, but we left cos we didnt want to be to pushy or stalkers.
We dropped Allen of at his hotel, and went to ours, and what a surprise, a nice big
room with airco!!
(and a little candy on our pillow :-)
After we took a shower to wash all the mud and sweat away, we jumped in bed under the comforter (sp?)
and it felt so good!!!

had a good but short night, found out that also this time we had a supermarket near the hotel and I bought
our daily fresh supplies. Its going quite ok, but its very annoying that you cant keep anything in this heat!
And all the water in the car is warm all the time!
Anyway at least I am getting very good in finding the right yoghurt (there are so many differnt types of yoghurt
an I normally only eat the smooth one)
I try also to buy as much local stuff as possible, and had a lot of delicious fruits and food allready!
Still, as soon as we're back home next week, I am making a big pan of Korma beef with brown rice... ahhhhh...
and when there is left, I can put it in the fridge and eat it next day!
wonderfull how you start to apreciate the small things in life when you're on the road!!! :-)

Think we're allmost there now....

thursday, july 15th: Salzburg, Austria > Zurich, Switserland.

Ah! We're in the car and we're NOT overheated or sweating! No sun out there today! Maybe in Zurich,
but not here for sure and for the moment I am pretty happy with that!
We just left our hotel in Salzburg, the same as we had last sunday. this time we had a room that was
cleaned, but now the internet didnt work. Its always something!
As we're not in a too big hurry today, cos Zurich is seated, we took our time, slept "late", and did
some shopping. Still cant believe that I manage to get my yoghurt every morning! :-D (so far, knock on wood)

In Vienna, we had to drive a big part through the city, and it was impossible to operate the GPS while looking around
at all these beautifull buildings all the time!! It drove Robert crazy (sorry honey) but there was just too much
too see out there. At the same time, the traffic in Vienna was like Paris, so I am glad we got out ok!

Yesterday, we found the venue very easy. It was a big contrast with Vienna, this was a convention centre again.
Also in the middle of nowhere, so we just sat down in the shade in front of the doors.


having a chat with Henry and Joe

Nothing happened... then, nothing happened...nothing....tumbleweeds....
Unfortunately the shadow was getting smaller and maybe around 4 o clock, we were in the hot sun!
I always thought that it was supposed to get cooler in the evening, but it only seemed to get hotter
and hotter.
There was almost no one there because of the heat, just some other crazy fans and familiar faces.
The big bottle of water I had with me had turn into teawater, and Robert and I had a waterfight :-D
Good to kill the time! (but not very refreshing)
A local TV crew (ORF) showed up, probably to interview John, and when they came back, they interviewed us!!!!!





They interviewed Lukas, the young guy that was traveling with Uwe and Martina, and then ME!!!!
I am still surprised that I was able to do that in German! She asked about how many concerts, where,
what is so fun about John and the traveling, and who's better, CCR or John, etc.
You can find the item on the website of ORF, will post the link later!
Then she interviewed the others and they filmed their Fogerty shirts.
Its supposed to be aired thursday evening, some friends promised to record it, so I am curious!
At least I didnt go "special, special" all the time (or "Spezial").
We found out that there was another entrance too, via the bistro, and we split up.
Allen, Robert and me went to the Bistro (taking a risk) and had a sandwich and a drink,
that was good at least!

Then we went downstairs to stand in line, there was already a crowd, it was very messy,
there were little children between us that sat down, it wasnt really fun.
Then they let us in, no one got hurt, but we had to wait for another entrance!!!!
There they were, three times a double door that opened to the outside, and a big crowd
pushing against it. Was this the first time they organised a concert or what?!
Why not open the doors, and place a fence in front of it or something??? how where they going
to open the door into the crowd???
While standing there we saw Babounet, who came to say BONJOUR! (not hi, he's French!)
We made sure that we were in the middle of the opening doors, so that we wont be stuck between
doors and wall like in Montreux last year (when a woman got injured with similar entrance)
I even thought of leaving, cos I just didnt want to get ran over.
The kids were sitting against the door and on the floor, we had to tell dad to tell them to
stand up,...
Then the left door opened! It was on our side, and we had been hoping for it,
and Robert is very quick and we got in just super!
No one got hurt as far as I know, and when I ran in.... I couldnt find the stage!
That was just sooooooo stupid.... I allmost ran to the seats on the side... stood there
wondering were to go for some seconds, looked around, saw the stage and ran to the others!
we managed to get everyone on the front row, but it got crowed very quick and you couldnt
sit down and we had to lean on the fence the whole time.
I went to get a drink for everyone, and when I got there, I wanted to know if you got cups or
bottles cos I didnt wanna carry cups, and asked.
Well! From the answer I got, I only understood "cup" and "bottle", the rest .... Chinese!!!!
I just looked at him, and smiled "I really didnt understand anything you said, but can you
give me the bottles?"
I hope I didnt insult him!
I cant remember I ever had so many problems understanding the Austrians as this trip!
They speak "German", but with an accent, some a bit stronger then others :-D
And now we're heading for Switserland, yay, nice people, but I only speak English there,
cos I might have problems with understanding Austrians, I just *DONT* understand Swiss!!!

The concert was great, but man half way I just collapsed, I couldt raise my arms anymore!!!
Goodness I was tired!!! I guess the afternoon in the hot sun didnt do any good either!
I didnt feel like taking notes, but ofcourse, John made me :-D



The guys who where singing all the songs when John got his new guitar were there again,
and first he said "the spy is here again" and later he went over there, took off his guitar
and "handed" it to them!!!
Then he said "where were we!" and I jelled "Austria!" and he said "I mean, musically" :-)
and then he started singing (a bit from) a song from Sound of Music!!!!!!
As I am the only person on the world who didnt see SOM, I cant tell you wich one :-D
Just before RAOTW he did it again!




Lots of contact with the audience, he said Hello Robert to Robert Boudens, gave pics to the kids left of us.
Cross Tie Walker again, but this time he sang it different, he didnt go "low", cant explaine it, this was
more like the original, and in Vienna it had a touch of Johnny Cash :-)
Somewhere halfway the show we noticed the stagemanager on the right, he was smiling and smiling and singing
along and playing airguitar all the time, never seen him THIS happy, guess everything just went OK tonight!!
We were happy that he was so happy. Dont wanna have his job!

After the show I went to ask Felix why it gets so loud at the end, and saw Henry and Joe, the truckdrivers/
spotlight guys, had a chat, and were sweaped out.
I had a big problem with walking straight, I felt drunk! Sat down on a stairs while Robert mingled with the others.
I am not sure how I got to the car!
We missed Lukas, who was going home :-( took Allen to his hotel and saw the old castle on the rock (it probably has a
name) that was lit up nicely.
And now were on our way to Zurich!

16.10hrs, Switserland!
We just passed the beautifull lake "Bodensee". Tomorrow we will spend half our day off there, and we're looking
forward to it!!!!
we've been here before on holiday, its very pretty out here.
We just went from Austria to Germany and back to Austria again and now Switserland. They dont use Euros here
so I hope my numb brains can remember exchange rate! something with 10 and 7 ...
Because we're in the mountains again, we have lots of tunnels again! Not as much as when we went to Vienna,
thank goodness, cos that were way to much!!! I lost counting, but over 20 for sure! All kinds between 100 meters
and 8 kilometer!! Its very hot in those longer tunnels and smelly and we have to close the windows and they just
give me the creeps, its a good way to create claustrophobia!!!

00.40 at the hotel!!!

WOW what an evening!! it started so bad, I was convinced this was my LAST Swiss seated concert,
but it ended as a big huge rocknroll party!!!!
I never expected it to turn like that!!!

SHIT we cant go online here and the sockets (?) look really weird and my plug doesnt fit so I cant
get power so I cant write very long!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, we arrived on the hill about 5, found a parking spot in front of the door, and walked to the
restaurant of the swimmingpool (!!) to have a drink and a warm meal.


all kinds of funny looking drinks, hero Robert picked out one he never heard of :-)



We took it reallly slow.... just great... no hurry.... had a great asian rice dish, mmm!!!
We met the others, who teamed up with Peter Sutler, his wife and two little sons.
We just all sat down and drank and ate and had a very relaxed pre-concert gathering!
We also met Helene and Jacques from France, and they brough flowers.
I think 30 minutes before the show started, we went to the festival, ha!! seated gigs DO have
positive sides!! where we met Allen and Robert B.
We went to our seats, mine was right in front of Hunter :-D and were a bit worried about the crowd that
didnt look very rocknroll, and last time in Zurich, we were the only 4 standing!!
We decided to see what would happen, and I didnt want to get into a fight, so if they complained
behind me, I would sit down.

The band kicked off with Up around the bend!!! we stayed seated, a bit weird, but waved our arms and clapped and
jumped up and down in our seats (yes, I kinde hoped we would break everything down :-D
Martina and I looked at eachother, we looked at Allen, we MISSED DARLENE, our superhero if it comes to not sit down!! :-)
We tried to stand during LOMBD, it lasted 20 seconds, and then someone pulled my dress and shouted "sit down!"
Raaahhhh!!! well as promised, I sat down, but not very happy...
We tried to convince them to stand up, but itjust looked like it would be Zurich all over again...

teeheehee, I just slammed my computerplug in the socket, I am not sure what will happen if I try to take it off again,
the whole thing might come with it, but for now I have power!
We just turned on the TV and Neil Young is in concert with Emmy Lou Harris, its the perfect "background" to
work on! Just like the (very) old days when I used to play Harvest when I came home late late saturday night
from a wild night out :-)

Anyway....
I was writing down unfriendly stuff on my paper and the least unfriendly thing I wrote was that next time in Zurich,
they all have to sit down on their butts without me!!
They werent really into in either! I mean its not a good sign to hear yourself clapping or singing during a show :-)
Sitting down on Lodi is one of the dumbest things I ever done, but we decided to see if the time would turn.
During Pretty Woman everyone stood up and I danced a bit and Robert said "if you go two steps to the front,
they cant reach you from behind" HA! so I did!
After PW Big Train came, and everyone sat down again, sigh...
This time Jason played a bit of Day Tripper in his solo! Love it how he always put things in like that.
At the side there were some (maybe drunks) dancing and singing along and John came to them all the time!
The security had to stop them all the time and we kept on waving to them to join us :-D
At some point, Helene finaly saw the chance to get Johns attention and she gave him the flowers, what
he gratefull accepted!



Then John saw Peters little kids dancing like crazy, and went to give a guitar pick "for the little girl"
aww, but thats is a little guy, with long hair!! I stepped forward and yelled "ITS A GUY!!!!! ITS A GUY!!!!"
Finally he heard it and went "oh, its a guy?" then he gave the guitarpick (Peter rised the kid) and went back,
saying "its a guy!" to Hunter and James :-D



dancing Sutter family!!

Everytime we sat down a bit and waited what would happen, but with songs like Summertime Blues, ahah, just jumped
up and daaaaanced!!! It was really fantastic, I had all the space to dance, not only to jump or move!!
Did my silly dances, there were a few others on their feet too, like the woman next to me, and some guys on the left
Then KOC... Robert and Uwe were both, accidentially, wearing their KOC shirts, and when John walked up front with
the blue guitar, Uwe went up front too and showed his shirt and said something. John replied something and
I gave Robert a huge push in his back to shove him forwards too, and yelled "heres another one for ya!!" and
John said something about Chooglin together. We really had to laugh!!



Helene and Jacques from France won the dancing contest!!!

Bit by bit the audience came a bit loose, it wasnt like the first Zurich concert.
Dancing all alone at the front on KOC felt very special by the way...
I was a bit scared that they would throw things at us from the back, and at one point
Robert said "I am scared that they will throw bottles at you!" (yes, glass bottles allowed inside)
I said "me too! or cheese!" (instead of tomatoes)We just got more and more silly...







everytime the security politely told us to go back, but everytime we politely went up again :-)
it was clear it was just a matter of time!
I cant exactly remember but I think it was at DOTC allready when all of a sudden everyone walked up front
(walked yes, not stormed, we're in Switserland! ;-)
and there we stood, against the stage! It was pretty high and we just could reach above it, like the picture
inside th Pendulum album.... Wow....



John was running up and down before us, geez, he REALLY CAME CLOSE!!! And by close, I mean *CLOSE* !!!!!!!
Closer than spitting distance!!
When he went away, I put my camera onstage, and directly, stagemanager Tim told me to GET IT OUT OF THERE
and 10 seconds later, John came marching back, omg, if he wouldnt slip, he sure would have crushed it!!
Now it might be a funny story with a flat camera, but still. SORRY!!
But ahhh, it felt so good to have the band that close! Finally!!!
After PM the party was over, and we stuck around with everyone, had a beer, etc.


Peter and his family with some souvenirs

there were people from
Germany, Holland, America, Belgium, France, Switserland, and we were mixing up all the languages all the time
but I was able to have some sort of conversation with our french friends!


GOTCHA!!! :-D Uwe is drinking Dutch beer! :-)

Then we left, the french took the "funiculaire" down hill (thats a way to go to a Fogerty show!!) I am not
sure what the english name is, its like a streetcar on a hill??
We took Allen to his hotel in downtown Zurich, what ended up a bit messy with our GPS completely freaking out!!!
It was going "turn left-wait-wait-turn right-turn left-wait-Turn left in 2000 meter-turn left NOW- wait-wait,
please return to the road, wait, turnrightturnleftturnleftrightblahblahblah please find out yourself, I give up, goodnight!"
I was screaming to Robert "LEFT HERE NO HERE NO HEREEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!" hahaha poor Allen!!
it also told us to take left turns through buildings, take turns onto wrong way streets, etc, I think we need to have
a good word with it!!!

Ok level is dropping very quickly now, think I need to go to sleep. Have to be carefull with those Jet Alerts ;-)

Friday July 16th, Winterthur Switserland > Konstanz Germany > Karlsruhe.


This morning we tried to sleep late, but when Robert went to replace the car (it was standing in front of the
entrance, on the sidewalk, blocking everything, owner told us to put it there) he quickly checked internet and
got connection, so he woke me up to say that I could update, wich I did.
Didnt get a lot of sleep anymore after that, we just lay down on the bed, I love beds that are that big that you can
lay down in both directions! :-)
It wasnt very easy to pull the plugs out of the sockets :-D but we managed AND we didnt break the wall or the socket down.
I hope both plugs still work, but we'll find that out later today...

We checked out last moment, and went to the Mac Donalds in front of the hotel cos Robert was starving and didnt wanna
look too long for a restaurant, and while we entered, we saw... the supermarket across the street!!
So after his McChicken menu we went there, oww, interesting, never been in a Swiss supermarket before! :-O !!
Found the right yoghurt after all, some snacks, and we looked around in the small mall around the supermarket.
I still needed to buy some things, but as Switserland is HORRIBLE expensive, (we payed about 125 euro for the concert
ticket, an absolute record!!) AND as I couldnt get the exact exchange rate right (Swiss francs!!) we just left.
We planned to spend the afternoon at the "Bodensee" /Lake Constance and we drove to the cute city of Konstanz, just over
the border in Germany.
It was still brainmelting hot, but this time no standing in line, no; swimming in water!!!
It was soooooo goood....
We found a place called "Freibad Horn" (I think) spent some hours in the water and some on the grass in the sun (yes
we used sunblock, and yes we felt asleep)
I only have a bikini top and thought that I could use some old short leggings thing as swimmingshorts.
Well, I couldnt. First of all, when I got it on I noticed the size: it was way to big, and as soon as
I jumped in the water, the thing lost its shape. Lucky I was wearing fresh undies underneath it!!! :-D



I'll spare you the details about changing wet clothes into dry clothes IN OUR CAR ;-)

Lake Constance is very impressive, we were on the German south west side and on the Austrian eastside you see mountains, and all along the
shores are cute little towns!
we've been at the lake before on holiday, (on the other side) its so pretty!


the pretty town of Konstanz

After the relaxing afternoon, we went into town and found a local restaurant that served excellent rosti, salad and pizza!
I had the vegetarian rosti, so not TO greasy, mmmm, and some superfresh salad.


i picked off all the cheese!!

We bought an icecream for Robert at an italian icecreamparlor, so authentical Italian, the guy spoke italian to us! we just answered
italian back (a few words) and when we walked a head we went "just a second, he spoke italian?!"


yes thats a Belgian flag :-D

Then back in the car and on our way to our hotel in Karsruhe, halfway Mainz.


Sunday, july 18th: Wiesbaden > Leipzig.

Somewhere in the middle of Germany!
Its very pretty here, even on the highway, hills, forests, valleys with cute villages with white houses with red roofs,
wheat fields....

I am still smiling about yesterday!!!! what a funny night!!
It started a bit annoying but everything ended up just fine :-)
We arrived really early cos we knew there would be lots of fans and we sat down in front of the gate,
met the usual suspects, also Ottmar and Ushi, and Martina had spread out a blanket where we sat down on.
The gate was at a small street in a park, and we sat down on the grass, but as the crowd started growing, we
moved the blanket to the gate, left enough space for people, bikes and cars to pass (it was a pedistrian street,
but anyway...) I was very tired and layed down most of the time, even managed to sleep a bit.
Robert Boudens and his son and mom arrived, other familiar people, and every now and then a car wanted to pass,
so everyone had to move, and it was not a street for cars! (it were cars that had to do with the concert)
When a lady that wanted to pass said "and John Fogerty has to pass too!" we just said "yeah, and the pope too!"
so you can imagine our surprise when Johns big bus DID pass trhough the tiny street! We were all squeezed
together and waved.


this is what my view looks like while waiting before the gates open :-)

Second last car that had to pass was an (empty) red cross ambulance, it was allmost impossible,
and we all joked that he could take his own ran over victims to the hospital.
Last car arrived when there were 100s of people there, squeezed together allready, and when the idiot tried to
push his way through the crowd that couldnt move, they started beating on the car and such so he finally gave up!!!

After standing in line for so long, it was extremely annoying that some people tried to sneak up in front of us!
If you wanna get in as first, be there as first!! If you run faster than others, you're lucky, but just
WAIT UNTILL ITS YOUR TURN!!!!
Being a kid is no excuse, we had a kid with us too (Roberts son) and he didnt sneak up to the front either, and he
had been waiting longer than the other kids.
He started screaming when I didnt let him go in first, I know I didnt have to do that with my mom near when I was his age!!
Many times I let kids stand before me or get in first, dont get me wrong here. I just wanna say that there were MORE kids there,
who all nicely waited in line, some of them were really early.
And I absolutely dont have a problem with people who come early with their kids, sit at the front, let the kids play in the shade
and then reunite when the doors open.
Anyway, the let-in itself went smooth, (apart from the fact that someone started kicking Robert like crazy a few seconds
before the gate opened....)and we had all the time to pick our favorite spot.

It was still very early and light and I was happy, this was the first time I was going to be able to take decent pics!
Unfortunately, when the band arrived, and after I took my first decent picture of Dave of this tour, I heard the dreaded
"NO PICTURES" again!! Sheesh!!!! Me, with my El-Cheapo pocket cam! i mean comon, its even PINK :-D
Security was hyper active in stopping everyone on to the 20th row.
That was a first this tour, and I had to be really carefull cos I didnt want to be kicked out!
In the end I was able to take a few secret shots, but nothing as cool as it could have been.
ButbutbutbutbutBUT: the show was so fantastic, that it was quickly forgotten!


YAY!! the first focused picture of Dave!!!

I just had to start taking notes, and the only paper near was my "WOOOHOOO" sign :-D
just when I needed a whole book!! I just kept on scribling notes,and while I did that I missed other things!
John was in a very very very happy/silly mood! Must have been because he had such a good view on the audience :-)

(AHAHAHA we are driving on a new highway that our GPS doesnt know and he's going completely hysterical again!!!!
"please return to nearest road" and nonstop "waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait" when he is recalculating
a "new" route
We could turn it off for a while but we now just let him SUFFERRRRRRRRRRRRR
cos yesterday in Mainz he completely lost it again, when we took a wrong street! when he has that, we really
wanna KILL the thing, its going "waitwaitwaitwaitturnleftwaitwaitgotonearestroadgoleftrightwaitwaitwaitgowait
towaitroadturnleftturnrightwaitwaitwait")

anyway, the concert ;-)
just some funny stuff:
He saw Sary's banner and reacted on it, kept on coming back to him the whole show!
Then he saw Robert (B)s banner or they asked for a pick and he went to get one, and asked
whats your sons name or how do you prenounce it, and they kept yelling "JEROEN!!" what is prenounced
something like "yeh-roon" in English, I guess, but John didnt get it and was saying very weird things like
"wewoo? yayhoo? wawoo?" in the end when they yelled it one more time he said "Bless you!" hahaha!!
Later he pointed out at Roberts mom and asked "is that your wife?"
we just all had to laugh!! Well quite a compliment for her ;-)
Everytime he got a new guitar we yelled the songtitle or started singing, and when he had the goldtop
first we yelled for coming down the road and then BOTB, and he said "how do you know???" and then
he started playing all kinds of songs, like the beatles :-D while pulling "wise ass" faces :-D
At one point he said something like "my wife told me to be more spontaneously! So, this morning,
I changed breakfast cereals, for the first time in 17 years!!"
Ahhhh, thats what happened!!! hahahaha!
Later, he pointed to his right, and said "wait a second, I see a lot of people under those threes there
and they didnt pay to see the show!" cos they were standing in the distance, outside the area.
He started waving at them and they all waved back like crazy!!! then he told us to wave at them too, and the
audience just turned one quarter to the left like one massive movement and waved like their lifes depended on it!!!
and the people underneat the trees waved back again :-D for me it didnt feel like "nanana, we're here at the show and
you're outthere in the distance!" but more like "now you're part of it too!"
When he took his paisly guitar and walked up to us again, I shouted "pretty guitar!!!"
he went "what?!" and I said "nice guitar!" and he smiled and told a story about it. If I get it right,
Brad Paisly had two of those made, and he said "and I got number 3" he also mentioned Buck Owens.
Somewhere in the beginning of the show, a woman showed up at teh front trying to convince photographers
and securities to give her flowers to John, didnt work offcourse, and in the end she just threw them and they landed
right in front of Johns monitor, out of his sight! we tried to get his attention to it during the show
but that didnt work, and much songs later, stagemanager Tim saw it and picked it up, and then John went
wait a second, where are you going with that!"
So he gave them to John and he asked who gave them and we pointed at the woman and tried to convince her to
step up to the front but she staye behind us, with a big grin. John said he would give them to Julie and then saw
there was a card attached ("feels like a book!") said "I am going to read it right now!" or something and in the end
put it aside.
He had so much contact with the audience all the time!! One time he was going (after a while) "oh right, I am supposed
to give a concert!"
And some music stuff: during Big Train, in the start when he started his solo; he played something weird and looked up
to us and gave us a look.... !!!
And did I hear a piece of Allmost saturday night in the intro of Down on the Corner??!!
During the show he kept on waving to the soundguy at the side, but not as much as others. One time
James picked that up and translated it as "come!" and stepped up right next to him!
That was really cool those two there in the middle!!!
I think it was KOC, when the ever-anoying mouthharp mic just wasnt TURNED ON!!!
I looked at Sary next to me, and he looked back, and the look we shared was "OMG"
Luckly it didnt last too long!
The show didnt last too long either :-( I think no one of the crazy audience would have mind
at least one or two extra hours! I know we wouldnt....

10 seconds after John left the stage, we saw the big black bus leaving the area!! :-O !!


After the show the roadies got onstage to clean up and when Henry the truckdriver appeared to help, a girl
came to the front and shouted to him "you didnt play Run through the jungle!!!!????" Henry just went "huh?!"
and I said "he never plays Run trough the jungle!" hahahaha sorry couldnt help it :-D

Then we had the luck to run into (both superfriendly) Hunter and Mike! When Mike asked me "how are you!"
my answer was a flashlight right into his eyes, SORRYYYYYYY!!!!


Robert B's mom Jeanne, Hunter, Robert B's son Jeroen, and Mike.

Later we also met the ever friendly, funny and talkative Kenny! :-D
yeah I just have to smile again :-D :-D :-D he is just such a supernice fantastic guy!!!
He took all that time to talk to us about music!!! I can never repeat how he explained how focused
he is onstage with John. He also told a lot about playing with other bands and about his "classical"
period, and he signed the drumstick Jeroen got from Uwe (who catched it)


When I took a pic of that he went "yes you need pics like this too, not only from up front!"
HA!!! He understands it!
Also a lot of really silly stuff hahahahaha that will keep me smiling for at least half a year!!!
When we finally said goodbye to him, we all left with a smile on our face.
It was the perfect closure of a perfect night!!

I think we are in former eastern Germany now, just passed the city of Jena, all we saw were blocks and blocks
of ugly appartement buildings!
We will stop in a few moments to have a bite at a truckstop, no supermarket food today cos its sunday.
I am getting slightly enough of the German Aldi we run into all the time, their idea of "fresh" isnt really mine!
But, still, always better then festival food.
Dont know if I allready mentioned it, but I keep on running into people that freak out because of my weightloss!!
such a good feeling!!! :-D


Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!

woohoo en tralala!!! fantastic night!!! superb show!!! made some great pix I think,
will post story and pics here asap but that might take a while cos I had to go downstairs
cos we dont get connection in our room.
So maybe tomorrow morning or otherways tomorrownight when we are home!
Had really a super night. Saw only nice people!!
(and two of them, recognized me from the RAH dvd!! :-D :-D
and, got some attention from John from the stage, and that never gets bored !!!!!!
I just get week knees as soon as he starts talking to me :-D
he is just THE GREATEST!!!!
Oh allmost forgot we got COMING DOWN THE ROAD!!!!!!
super super super fantastic!!! dancing and jumping along I just felt sheer happiness!!!!
isnt it FANTASTIC that we are getting that song!! Who would ever thought that, 15 years (or longer) ago, we would be
seeing John Fogerty live in Europe doing COMING DOWN THE ROAD !???
isnt it just superfantastic?!!!!!

And something I also have to share, tonight included the LONGEST BATHROOM LINE I EVER STOOD in!!!!!
:-O !!! I should have taken a picture of that!! It took me so long to return to the others, they thought I was
kidnapped by bandmembers and having a party backstage hahahahahahahahaha!! nono, just standing in line :-D
Oh and also, we had just soooooo much fun before the doors opened... so fantastic... will post pictures...


monday, july 19th, Leipzig, Germany > Home, Belgium :-)

yes going home for now, tomorrow will be the Belgian concert!! Looking forward to that!
Owww we just passed the town "Schafstadt"... translated "Sheeptown" !!! :-O !!!
We just took a small detour (2miles) to visit the Lidl supermarket we saw yesterday!!!wooowww!!!
Across the street was Aldi, but we turned our backs to that. Hmpf!
(at home we always shop at aldi, but *our* Aldi is way better than the ones we visited here!!)
Huu I keep on moving the food we bought, its on the floor and everytime we make a slight turn its in
the sun and then I have to re arrange everything, wouldnt be a problem if there wasnt so much STUFF in the
car, our shoes and (rain)boots are standing there too, bags with stuff that dont fit in the trunk, etc...
And our GPS just took revenge on us, we were looking for a gasstation off the highway (much cheaper) and
although its a feature on it, he sent us through some weird tiny open-mining villages in the middle of effing nowhere
(STEPHEN KING ALLERT!!!!!)
and everyone we passed stopped to look at us! they never saw a foreign car
I guess. But, found one in a bit bigger village, and its very cheap, (22cent per liter cheaper, we took 50 liter!!)
so lets hope we'll get back on the highway in one piece!!
Yes we did.

anyway... yesterday!!

when we entered Leipzig, it wasnt love at first sight! All we saw were old appartement buildings, lot of them
abandoned and looking like they were going to collapse. But as we got closer to the park, the neighbourhood changed
and we finally parked our car in a very nice looking street, next to the park, just behind the venue.
And ahhhh... a sunday in the park, as a sunday in the park should be! We sat down on the steps of the entrance,
just a few meters in front of us was a restaurant with people sitting outside, there was a jazzy band playing, and
everywhere in the grass were families picknicking or just laying in the sun.
People were riding their bikes and having walks....
The weather was just PERFECT, it was sunny, warm, but not scorching hot!!!
we took turns to walk to the restaurant to get coffee, beer and bratwursts.


All the people that passed the entrance of the venue looked at us, and started looking on the posters to see who we could
be waiting in line for. As they stopped to look, others stopped to look where *they* were looking at, etc etc!!
it was really funny, there was a crowd looking at us all the time! :-D
But, when they found out we were there for John, most of them went "who is he" :-( and we had to tell "CCR" and then
they went "AHA!" so, after explaining 10 times, Robert decided that the poster needed some modification....
and they added "CCR" to Johns name :-D




well then the ball started rolling.... we took some other posters, turned them around, put them under the John poster
and we made our own posters!! LOL LOL
we had so much fun, it atracked even more people :-D and made jokes like "tomorrow will be in the newspaper: the concert was
fantastic, but the posters looked a bit weird" hahahahaha!!!!





Unfortunately, someone didnt get "Dark Train" and erased it :-( :-(
Guess that never reached Germany!!! (hey start reading the official forum, Germans!!!)
when it got more and more crowed, we saw many people looking at the "setlist" one and going "i know that one, that one, that
one, that one...." !!!! hahahahaha!!!!
I saw some people staring at me all the time, thought that had to do something with the bags under my eyes (its getting worse and
worse here!!) but then a guy came to me with a big smile and asked "can I ask you something? Where you...."
I thought he was going to say "on Austrian TV" cos a lot of people come to say that they saw me!! :-D
but he said "were you on the Royal Albert Hall DVD? in a pink dress?"
WOW!!!! I was completely STUNNED!!!! I smiled "yes!" and he shook my hand and returned to a woman, who then
came to me with a big smile and said "I told my husband straight away but he didnt believe it!"
If she would have ad "cos you look much thinner now!" that would have made my YEAR, hahaha, well she didnt :-)
she went away and then came back with a guy that looked like Felix the PA man's twinbrother, and asked
for a picture to show her daughter!!! :-O :-O :-O !!!!
I was flabbergasted, but just said yes and had my picture with her :-D
Then offcourse I had to hear it from the others, who were making funny comments (one of them was to start a facebookgroup
wahahahahaha)and said I better kept my ego small, etc :-D

The doors opened at 7, and allthough they opened towards us, it all went quiet and relaxed. The waiting crowd
wasnt pushing at all, I think at 6.30 they were still sitting, and even just before they opened someone still saw
the chance to walk up to us, so that was nice for a change!
Ivo from Austria or Switserland (not sure) was so kind to let me in after Robert, the securities looked through my fannypack
but not good enough as they didnt find my pink camera.
Inside the venue it was a surprise how small it was, I ran down to the front, carefull with the steps, and sat down next to
Robert, just right of John, left of James.
we all had good places and after a while I thought lets visit the bathroom, well like I said before, WHAT A LINE!!!!
At least it was moving, and I thought "as soon as I hear Steamtrain Mary, I HAVE to go back!"
(as its the second last song before the show)
One more thing about Steamtrain Mary, they play it everynight as second last song, and everyone in the crowd likes it!
Its always so funny to see all the people start wiggling their feet or swinging or rocking their heads!
(I mostly sit down with my back to the fence untill the show starts, thats how I can notice)

The stage was small and not far away and it was still light, so I had the chance to take some pics, but as I bought my El-Cheapo
camera with the thought in mind that taking pics during Fogerty wasnt going to happen anymore anyway, its not very
good for taking pics at concerts, or better, not good at all, with the slightest movement of the person its blurry!
(even the pics of Dave Santos are blurry, if that doesnt say it all....)
So, need a lot of light and luck, took a lot of pics and a few worked out. Always better than nothing!





John had alot of contact with the audience but didnt top Mainz :-D but thats ok :-)
Tom, a fan we meet every year with his dad (this time I WONT forget your name!!!)held up a sign saying
thanks for the guitarpick in Mainz and John had some funny comment about that I cant remember exactly but
it was funny and Tom was even more happy. He also wanted to give a guitarpick to a little kid, and then he came to me
and shouted "its a guy!! its a guy!!"
OMG....
I am not sure if I have to be happy or embarresed... :-D
then he said "dude looks like a lady!"
Then Midnight Special started and with the third WEEEEEEEELLLLL!!! he came back to me and pointed right at me and looked
me straight in the eyes the whole WEEEEEEELLLL!!!!!
Then he walked to the microphone and I felt through my weak knees :-D
Aaaahhhhh!!!!!!
Highlight of the evening was offcourse Coming down the road!!! WOOOO!!!













(huh???
the GPS is sending us to the city center of Kassel, I wonder why, cant be a trafficjam detour cos he said
this 100kms ago allready!!
I think we REALLY need to read the users manual when we are home! (that, or just give it a big KICK))

After the show we had a small afterparty, and went to our hotel.


Markus, Tom (happiest guy ever I ever met at a Fogerty show!!!) and Jurgen

It was a long ride home, but we made it, thanks to our outstanding driver Robert!!!


oink oink...

We had yummy italian dinner with my mom, repacked our bags, did the laundry, etc etc.
Now its tuesday morning and in about 2hrs we will leave for Tienen!!

SUIKERROCK, TIENEN, *B*E*L*G*I*U*M*





more pictures and story will be added later!! :-)

wednesday july 21, Hasselt, Belgium > Trier, Germany.

Today is Belgiums national holiday :-)
Many Belgians will walk around today with smiles on their faces!!

Suikerrock, the kickoff:
- The Doors with Ray Manzarek and Robbie Krieger
- Fogerty
- ZZ Top
Yesterday we arrived in Tienen pretty early, cos we didnt had a clue about entrances, ticket validation
and everything and we had to check out. We parked the car at the trainstation and on our way to the citycenter
(the festival was held on the market square in the middle of downtown) we walked into Uwe and Martine, who had
now their daughter Svenja with them, who last minute was able to get an extra day off from school.
Confudsion started as soon as we entered the square, everyone we adressed said something else about getting in!
And they all said it was sold out, so we had a problem cos Svenja didnt have a ticket yet.
Finaly they said the doors would "open" at two, and you'll get the wristband right at the door. (actually the doors were>br> allready opened and everyone could walk in and out. They said they would close the square later and then check everyone, but
for now everyone just walked around, neighbours checked out the scene and moms with childern doing shopping crossed the square
etc)
Someone told us just to get Svenja in, that she had to sit down and stay there and that it wouldnt be a problem,
but we rather had everything arranged properly!!
Anyway, so in the end, around 2 o clock, while allmost no one was there, they gave us a wristband, and we walked to the
stage, picked our place and that was it!!!!!! WTF?!!
Also, we all carried big bags with us and they didnt even look at it! Must have been a first time that I was able to bring
two 2liter bottles of water in :-D but we didnt complain!
So a perfect entrance! we could wait all afternoon right at the stage! No pushing, no rushing, no stress, nothing, we had
our spots and all we had to do was wait for Fogerty.


OLV ten-Poel Church is dominating the square.

We phoned some friends who thought the doors wouldnt open earlier than 5 o clock to tell them to hurry, and we watched
Johns crew doing the soundcheck.
O!M!G!!!! That Curtis can PLAY GUITAR!!!!!!!!
I was walking around looking for a salad or a sandwich at that time and looking at it from a distance, but the others
all stood up to look and listen! I should have gone back and look and listen too!!
Well everyone was very impressed, and I walked in and out of fastfood joints looking for a sandwich, while normally
in Belgium, every shop on the corner sells sandwiches :-D
Finally I found a sandwich shop, brought some cold water too (our water was warm allready) and went back.
Veeeeerrry slowly the first row started filling up and we met a couple from GREECE that came all the way for the Doors!!
We tried to get Svenja a ticket, and in the end, thanks to some *very* sweet people, we were able to buy her a ticket,
for the normal price!!! we were happy!!!

At one point, half of Johns band arrived onstage and they started taking pictures of Ray Manzareks organ
that stood there allready. (Doors soundcheck with Doors roadies was very funny :-) first we didnt really
get it, Mike Webb kept on taking pictures of it, but slowly we realised that it must have been the Original
Organ from the Doors era!!! We were looking at a piece of RNR history!!
when they had enough pics of it, they started taking pictures of us :-D that was nice too :-)
(I hope they dont show them at home with "look at those weird Europeans!" :-)

Offcourse, we saw lots and lots and lots and lots of familiar faces.... !!
We just sat there and waited. And waited. You know by now :-)
The floor was very filthy :-S, and that while it was the first day of the festival!!!
we divided the newspaper I had with me, to sit on, and sat on plastic bags too.
It was also very hot again, for the first time in days, but I did pretty ok, just as long as
you drink enough (and we sure had enough water with us :-) and keep it calm etc....
All of a sudden, a girl stepped up to us and said "sorry, just one moment" and she wanted
to talk to one of the securities so we let her, and as it turned out they were friends.
BUT: she didnt go away anymore!!!!!! HELLO!!???
what "just one moment"!?!
allmost turned into a riot, esp when Robert heared her complain about us (we were complaining about her
to eachother, we didnt do anything to her) to the guard and he replied
"if they make troubles I'll kick them out" W!T!F!!!!!
That was just a *bit* over the top!!! Martine and I were so angry!!
I was really getting ready for war, but after calming down a bit I told Robert (who didnt seem to bother)
to switch places with me, so he would sit next to her, but in the end, she moved two places away from us.
When she arrived, there was plenty of place left on the front row, she could easily stand somewhere else,
why push herself between us with an excuse?
And then complain about US????
Funny thing is that we later heard her complain to a guy who was trying to get up front.
Anyway, things calmed down.
In the end she didnt look like a bad person after all.

Around 7, the Doors started!!
My heart skipped several beats when I saw Ray Manzarek walk on stage.
Oh!!!

I dont consider myself as a huge Doors fan, but I love them and I do have a special thing with them!!!
And I was looking forward to this show!!
My heart skipped another beat when Robbie Krieger walked onstage, cos he was wearing the Ugliest Pants Ever!
But he also wore a Jim Morrison t-shirt, so I forgave him.

I have the setlist at home, (wrote it down during the show)cant remember from memory which songs they did, but they did for sure
Spanish Caravan, Alabama Song, and in the end Light my Fire
They did some slower songs, I would have loved to see a bit more of the faster songs like Touch Me.
The singer was a guy from Russia with a name I didnt get, but he was GOOD!!!
Phew, what a task he has!
He did sound like Morrison, had the stage presence too (though he didnt turn his back to the crowd :-)
but he didnt LOOK like him, thank goodness! He had short dark punky hair.
Great guy, great band!
The audience sang along all the hits and behind us people kept screaming "ROBBIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!" who
stood at our side of the stage.
He must be of Johns age, but he looks allmost dead!
But, great guitarist, and thats where its about ;-)
It was great to hear all the hits and to sing along everything!
(surprised Robert, who isnt really into the Doors) Light My Fire included a very dancable and cheery jam, with everyone shaking maracas and percussion things,
and the roadie joined them too, and then they left the stage.

We cheered and I got ready for the encore, BUT THEY DIDNT COME BACK!!!!!
What a dissapointement!!!! SO SHORT!!!!!
I think I stood there for at least 15 minutes with a sad look on my face!
They only played 45 minutes!!!! :-( !!!!
That wasnt right!!!

The roadies cleaned up the stage, grabbed all the setlists together and gave them to the security guy in
front of me, to deal them out, so everyone jumped on our backs!!!
that was kind of funny :-D
I was burried under 10 screaming Doorsfans, stuck out my hands to get a setlist too and got one,
and I directly handed it out to the guy with the guitar and the request sign and he was very happy
with it.
I know that people think that we "always get all the souvenirs" at Fogerty shows, but we give them away too!
I honestly dont need 500 drumsticks! Or, like I heard someone proudly say, 23 Fogerty guitarpicks, and then hold out
your hand for more and keep them too.
Anyway, because of all the pushing to get souvenirs, it now was very crowded in front of the stage.
John started at 20.45 sharp with Hey Tonight and got the audience on their feet right away!
I dont think he did a shorter setlist, he didnt even do only CCR hits, and he also did CDTR
The first 3 songs, there were about 50 photographers falling over eachother to make pictures!!!
Halfway the 4th song too, and then the tourmanager told one of the security guys that they were
supposed to be gone after the 3rd song, he even hold his hand in front of one of the cameras and the
securities asked them to leave.
The stage was "festival" sized and far away too, too bad, especially after the cosy "backyard feeling"
in Leipzig.
When I tried to yell "Welcome in Belgium!" he thought I was yelling songtitles again! noooo!

Some more pictures:



about 50 photographers fighting to get a picture!! :-O !!



















I am not really sure what happened here, but thats Martina's hair, I think when someone tried to grab Kennys drumstick...

about Trier:

Trier is only a 2 hr ride for us and we arrived around 14.00hrs. And I couldnt believe my eyes:
direct neighbour of the venue was a huge Lidl, my favorite German supermarket!! :-D
After running in to supermarkets next door to hotels and gasstations all tour, and now this,
I allmost started to believe in a higher power!!!! (if you just tuned in, I daily need a supermarket
for my supply of fresh fruits and veggies as I try not to eat festival food) Today I had sandwiched with me from home,
but not enough, and I went there to get some other stuff.

There was almost no one there yet, we found the usual suspects drinking beer in the downstairs sportsbar and we
joined them. (Terzenbach family, Peter Sutter, Ottmar Plewka, Merry, "Michi" Michael, I probably forget someone)
Some of the beers had little mountains of foam :-O !


Robert just asked for "a beer"...


Svenja, Uwe, Peter, Michael, Merijn, Arnold, Robert, Ottmar, Martina, Martinas brother

After about an hour we went upstairs and sat down in front of the four doors. and waited. And waited. And, waited....
The germans put on self printed posters, but I liked the first spontaneous time in Leipzig better!
We just sat there, time crawled slowly, boredom attacked, sillyness too....


ZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......


Lidl picknick!

I enjoyed my Lidl meal, and waited and waited and waited and watched the others getting more and more silly.
Then all of a sudden I had a mission! I noticed earlier that across the street was a big "DM" drugstore, and I thought lets get
there and fix my hair!
Amazing how such a simple mission can give you energy! Its just unbelievable how lazy and careless you can get when
your whole day excists out of waiting and waiting and doing nothing. Every time I try to convince myself to walk around
a bit, just to keep moving, or read a book, or what ever, but after a week or so, you just dont care anymore.
You're tired and walking around the block for no reason just doesnt work. But small missions do, like buy stuff
to fix my hair!
I mean I do care about looking good at a Fogerty show! (at least I try, but I dont know how to get rid of the bags under
my eyes)
Anyway, I walked there, DM is a nice shop to look around in and I took my time to walk through all the isles and check out everything
I usually my hairdye there too at DM in Aachen, cos its less than half the price then at home, but I wasnt sure what wouldn
happen with the dye in a over heated car.
I bought a comb that fits in my pocket, some hairrubbers, nailpolish and went back.
I made piggy tails at the bathroom that I took out after the 3rd or so song cos they were annoying me :-D
AND I painted my toenails! And when they dried, I put them back in my Allstars. So John, that was what you noticed
about me, my pretty toenails!
Why I took all the time to inform you about my hair and toes, well, cos I try to share how important doing
small silly things can be when you are so completely bored.
Peter Sutter invited me to paint his little toe so I did that too, for free, yes, I am pretty sure the pictures
that everyone took of that are on internet by now allready :-D


found this on my way to the shops

The group grew and grew and around 7, the doors opened and we went in.
Earlier there has been some confusion about wich stairs to take (I tell you, on tour small things take huge proportions)
and some "INSIDER" info didnt make it easier. "insider" was someone inside the building, literally, maybe more about that
later. Anyway, we ran down the stairs, me carefully cos I didnt wanna break my bones, others thought standing at frontrow
was more important than having healthy legs and took 5 steps at the time.
All the way (expect on the stairs :-) ther was staff telling you to slow down and not to run, I think it worked, well at
at least untill the next one.
This time we decided that we would try the "Dave" side, cos we have been staring at the guitarheroes all the tour. Some gigs
we didnt even see Mike!
Robert kept my spot right in front of Jason, and in the corner of the catwalk.

(Weeeeeheeeeeheee!!!! We're somewhere in Belgium by now and all of a sudden, when we passed a car, the car speeded up
untill he was driving as fast as us, beside us and Robert went "WHAT THE!!?? are that the Hendrickx Brothers or something?!"
We looked and looked and I said "no, there is just one guy in there. And he is Dutch"
We allmost decided that it was some weirdo midnight dutch cowboy, when the driver looked at us and started grinning...
And then..... (add twilight zone theme) then.... we saw it was Merry :-D :-D :-D)

Anyway, the concert, we had a nice spot and it was good to be at the other end of the stage for one time!
We had perfect view on everyone!
I sat down first and had a nice chat with Johnny Hendricks, I met him on the same day as I met Robert (and Arnold Z!)
and we shared memories etc.
Then I went to get a drink, but it took sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo long!!!!
A "pling, plung, plong!" sound sounded and I assumed that would mean "attention, 10 minutes before showtime!"
and the line didnt really move. My very own warning is Steamtrain Mary, and when that started I felt a bit nervous!!!
decided to give it a try, more "plingplungplong, pling plung plong!", aaargh.... time to go back, when Allmost saturday
night starts its to late!!
With my drink I ran back (no, I didnt drop it, would have been to funny) and the others kept my place
and ASN and the show started!

First thing that happened was that 1.5 second into the show, Mike saw us and started waving/smiling at us :-D
(or, 1.5 second into the show, we were looking at Mike allready :-D




It didnt take long before John came to our side and left of me a loud "guitarpick pleeease!!!" broke lose and
John said he'd be back (good Swarzenegger (sp?) imitation) so I wrote "guitar?" in big letters on my note paper and waited.
I think 3rd song in the show was Lodi allready! Woohoo!! great!!!
Another rare one (even rarer) was Somebody Help me, with great guitar intro by Hunterrrr.
John used the catwalk quite a lot and he looked like he was a bit more into it than yesterday.



Audience was into it as well!!!
But, not everyone, cos after Midnight Special, John took a moment, walked on the catwalk and said "you there, you didnt
sing "welll" when I asked you to!" and we all had to sing it again :-)








John did the "intro" thing again when he walked onstage with his goldtop, going "what song am I going to play?!"
Everyone was yelling funny titles and before I knew it I heard myself yell for "1000dollar Car" :-D
Oh just imagine. Just imagine.
At some moment, we noticed that Curtis Johns roadie, had the baseball bat guitar in his hands!!!!!!!

He put it away again, but later he had it again, and I tried to tell it to the others, who were on the other side of
the catwalk, and moved my arms like I was hitting with a baseball bat, but they just looked back going "are you ok?"
Maybe they saw it allready but I dont know.
Anyway, you can imagine how big our happiness was when Curtis walked onstage with it and handed it over to John!!!
Just LOVE LOVE LOVE that song!!!!!
It was so great to hear it again!!! Thank you John!!!!

Now we were on the otherside of teh stage, I tried to make pictures of Mike, Dave and Jason, but it was too dark and
especially Mike was still to far away. Well at least I tried!
John came to our side again and the guitarpick shouting began again, so I held up my little sign saying "guitar?" and
he did like he handed over his guitar to me (just happened to be the paisly, good timing!)
Big Train, again with new turns and bits and things!!!
I dont only love the fiddl/guitar battle, but also the drums!!
John picked a "string" from Jasons bow again :-)



Every now and then I heard John sing in stereo, a bit weird, and after a few songs I finally realized it was Johnny
singing next to me!!! :-D
I had problems with my camera, I had the old one with me cos it takes better live pics IF IT WORKS.
and it didnt wanna do anything!!
(that was the main reason I bought a new one)
In the end, the only thing left to do was slam it against the fence, (or throw it at the floor and dance on it)
and that worked!


Way way way to soon it was over :-(
We waved at the guys at our side, who waved back, and Mike even blew a few kisses in the air :-D
he was going "left-right-left" in the air, what reminded us of a happening earlier this tour,
(without going into details :-D
I am not sure what stories go around there but every now and then I think "what do YOU know about that?" :-D
Hahahahaha nothing bad, just silly, funny and/or sweet stuff.


Johnny Hendrickx (Mr Guitarpick), Ottmar Plewka, and Robert


with Felix "the Soundguy"


We tried to get home but our GPS got rebelious again ("go to highway". Ok, and maybe you are going to tell us
HOW we have to go to that highway?!) and we ended up taking a weird "shortcut" through the forest over b-roads
and such. We passed an american airbase and Merry and now we're home. Have to get up early tomorrow
cos Hamburg is pretty far!

The last concert allready, that just cant-be-true.....

friday, july 23rd: Hamburg > Pori, Finland

wahahahaha if that could only be true :-D

friday, July 23rd; Hamburg > home sweet home: Hasselt.

will post some pictures first; add more text later.
Soooooo.... i guess its overrr!!
well at least we go home with smiles on our faces :-D
We had a decent "goodbye party" yesterday after the show and laughed our butts off!!

We arrived at the Stadtpark pretty late, and lined up with the others. I brought chocolate with me
for Felix the soundguy(as promised) and when the stagemanager showed up at the backstage entrance
just 30 meters away, I stood up, walked to him and asked if he could get it to him. (and, if he maybe
wanted a bit himself)
I stood with my back to the street, and all of a sudden I saw something from the corner of my eye,
I turned around and saw Mike get out of a van!
I surprised said "hi!" and then....
Jason! Kenny! Hunter! James! Dave! ohohoh!!!!!
All of a sudden I was surrounded by bandmembers and I dont wanna know the look on my face :-D
They were sweet as usual, and I gave the chocolates to Mike in the end (everyones on a diet)
to give to someone that wanted it, and walked back to the others, with a big smile on my face.
Not too much later John arrived, in the usual van with black windows, and it went in so fast taking the
turn so fast, we almost feared they'll ended up in the bushes.
Carefull!!!!
We just waited and waited, and to keep things a bit short, entrance was chaotic.
At least 5 ran in without being checked (one of them was Robert) cos they thought it was time to get in and
it wasnt and I was the 6th that wanted to get in but was stopped, and the guy told me
I couldnt take my gasstation sandwiches in.
When I finally got in, the frontrow was allmost taken, but Robert had a spot for me, right in the middle!
Went to search for food, ended up with a pretzel again, have had enough of them for a year now!!!
(only alternative for bratwurst and hamburgers)

another fantastic concert!!!!!!! one more time Centerfield, Somebody help me, aaand, Cross Tie Walker, aaand, some kick ass guitarwork!!
and fiddle work.
John started shaking his butt like Elvis when he sang "tambourines and Elvis" and the "cancan" again :-D
during Big Train Jason mixed in a bit of Run through the Jungle!
John gave several guitarpicks and near the end, he realy took his time to thank everyone for the tour!
And all of that in a cosy and not to big outdoor park venue!
Too bad he didnt see our "thank you" signs (band did)





























After the show (only NINE O CLOCK) we stayed around with friends, said goodbye to everyone we met during the
tour, had a drink, bought a tshirt, didnt hurry very much, Robert was able to get his hands on the last two
pieces of food: 2 grilled chicken sandwiches with sauerkraut that tasted VERY good!!!
We teamed up with our group and said "lets wait for the band outside" and went there, and GOODNESS,
they were just about to leave!!! we shouldnt have been 1 minute later!!!!!!
It all went very chaotic too, we shook hands, said goodbye, Kenny came out to give hugs and
to sign the drumsticks he personally gave to us at the end of the show!!
We asked him to sign them, because Roberts godchild is a drummer and that was his wish.
Martina called me and I went over there and she looked in the back of the van, and there was
one of the bandmembers, lying on the floor hiding!!! :-O !!!
When he saw us he had to laugh and sat up straight, and stuck out his head over the backseat to
say goodbye.
All the time I was carrying my chicken/sauerkraut sandwich and Roberts too... luckly I didnt drop it on someone.
(imagine after a hug: "oops, sorry man, theres sauerkraut on your shirt!") The band signed some other stuff too, and when the driver closed the door (had to watch for
my arm! sheesh!) Dave opened it again and said "wait a moment, that guy still misses some autographs!"
Isnt he great!!
Then they left I think....

We just waited there to say goodbye to the others, and after quite a while, the same white van that
picked up the band came back... and half the band was still in it?! they didnt come out or anything,
it just stood there, and they waved at us an we at them (we didnt come closer, just let them) and after a
few minutes they left again.
Hmm!
We had the chance to say goodbye to everyone, had a good laugh, (no, no details :-p )but boy did we have
a good laugh!
Henry and Joe the truckdrivers left first, we waved them goodbye and they had to make a turn at the end of the
street, and all of a sudden there was an "POOOO-AAAAAP!!!!!!" honking that scared the hell out of us, we all
jumped in the air and started screaming, it were Henry and Joe passing us again!! :-D

We all waited for Bob F to leave so we could say bye to him too, he looked a bit surprised that we waited
for him, he got in the bus, when they left they started honking too (but we saw that one coming) and
now we had to say goodbye to the Germans... sigh!!!!

Well, my favorite quote is still

every goodbye is the birth of a memory (Dali)



more to come later!!!!!!