"On the Third Day God Created the Earth and called it Dry Land and he created the Waters and called them the Seas. On our Third day We drove to the "Chunnel" and went across the English Channel.
But first I awoke sweating with that horrible deafening silence again! Duncan had pulled over at about 6 or 7 am to catch some sleep. No AC, no sweet sweet bus rumble to lull me to sleep.... just Joe snoring and snoring. Oh the Noise noise noise noise!
I sat in an utter vaccuum, sweating and slowly going insane. I kept thinking "please please please get up Duncan, please for the love of all that is holy, get up".Finally, after about an hour and a half Duncan got up. We were right before the "Chunnel" entrance. By the time we boarded our train to carry us and the bus across the channel everyone was awake.
You could get out of your vehicle and walk around inside the strangely lit yellow glow of your transport. Thank God!!! I hoped to look out the window of the train, peer into the blackness of English Channel and catch some epic sea battles between Sperm Whales and Giant Squids... no luck! You could only see the interior walls of the tunnel passing by. Damn. The whole trip took about 30 minutes or so. Before we knew it we were back on dry land and cruising through France.
Duncan had to get something looked at on the bus so he wanted to drive to the bus company in Germany. Driving from France to Germany was like driving from Philly to The Jersey Shore, it didn't take long at all.
He dropped us off in some German town and said he'd find us.....
So here we are walking down the street of some town in Germany (that's all the specifics we knew). What do we do? Let's look for a Bar and get a German Beer! After walking about a mile we found a place. No one spoke any English but by using or fingers we managed to order 9 (neun) beers. Then another 9 beers. They had a nice bathroom too. We didn't want to leave but decided to see if we could find a beer garden because everyone knows that in Germany there's a Bier-Garten on every Corner. After walking about 3 miles we got a call from Duncan that he was done and wanted us to meet him back where he dropped us off. 4 miles later we found him. Luckily I picked up a bottle of Wine on the way back. I opened it on the bus and we drove to the nearest grocery store for more supplies.
As I was walking past the door to the store I noticed a hair saloon. My hair was getting long and was starting to aggravate me with the heat and tangles. I went inside and asked for a hair cut. No one understood me so I made the universal finger snipping motion through my hair. Ja Ja. Now we were on the same page. I had a great time while two very nice German women shampooed my hair. I could tell they wern't digging the tangles either. They wanted to know how much of my hair to cut (I think). I tried showing them with sign language but we weren't on the same page. Finally they gave me a book with pictures of good looking guys. I picked a guy whose haircut was kinda cool? They seemed to understand. The one woman cut while the other looked at the photo I picked and laughed. Man I hope she was laughing WITH me and not AT me. I don't think a lot of people use deodorant like we do here. I could be wrong. The woman that was close to me had a very natural body oder that was strangely compelling. It made me want to eat meat and forage for stuff and pee out side. Very Nice. Anyway, she did a grand job to one ugly mug. She even trimmed my Viking beard.
We all got back on the bus and had many beers and wine as we drove through the beautiful German countryside. This was a very long day so bear with me.
Duncan took us into Holland and to his favorite Cafe. Need I say more. We hung out there for many hours taking in the sun , drinking Tea, Coke and Coffee. The nice thing was when we wanted a beer we just walked back to out parked bus and had one! It was a beautiful day. I don't remember much or even leaving . I remember finding a great restaurant with excellent beer and food at some point in the evening....
Next thing I know we are parked in Amsterdam.!! It's 12 midnight. The night is still young. Dunk gave us a walking tour of the cool areas. Lots of pubs and cafes. We saw the Red Light District too. Finally we found a a place to settle in. I don't know what time it was. I remember singing Black Sabbath tunes with an Italian guy and getting the whole bar to sing War Pigs. Funny Stuff.
The next morning I woke up to sweat and deafening silence again! This time I went outside to get some air. Paul, Chris, Tom, Brad and I stumbled to a cafe for some Tea and coffee and a much needed bathroom. Your always looking for bathrooms when your on the road. We walked to a riverside cafe and got some beers to take the edge off. A little of the "hair of the dog" works wonders for a hangover. We were served by an extremely beautiful waitress. We couldn't stop staring. We could have sat there all day if we didn't have to drive to Zoetermeer. Tom tried valiantly to flirt with her but she was a pro and cut off his..... advances.
Back on the bus I slept till we got to De Boerderij. It was a huge rock club run by friendly Vikings. The sound crew were all over 6 feet tall with long blond hair pulled back in pony tails. The monitor guy was at least 6'6" and proportioned perfectly. Not long and gangly like some basketball players are. Freaking huge! Hellava nice guy. He grunted a lot and had a viking scowl most of the time but he was very helpful. They served us a home cooked meal that was much needed plus they had a shower for after the gig!!! The gig itself was OK I thought. The problem was the monitor guy was used to metal band volume on the stage. Don't get me wrong, we like it loud too but it was a bit too much for us to play well together. It felt a little loose. The crowd didn't seem to mind though. I've learned that even if you think your having a shitty gig usually no one notices. I've had people come up to me and say "That was the best I've ever seen you guys" after knowing it was a horrible show. This gig wasn't bad at all just not up to par for me.
The load out was fast and the showers were much needed. Duncan wanted us to wake him at 2 am so we stood out in the parking lot for a little while and had a few cold ones. At 2 am we woke him and went on our way. It was a good sleep filled with buss rumblings and gentle rocking. We wanted to be awake for the Swiss border. We heard they could be a pain sometimes."
