damomoo

The Netherlands

I really enjoyed the tour to the Netherlands. It's been a long time since we've taken a real "vacation" and although we were dancing on a daily basis, this tour had to be the most stress-free tour ever. I'll give it up to our KP peeps in Canada because those tours and shows were stress free but we didn't perform on a daily basis. But yes those tours were stress-free for the most part as well. This one was so different. We arrived a day early, made the trip to northern Holland, in the province of Groningen, to Warrfum, settled in with host families in Usquert, and since we were early, technically, it became a free day. We went into the bigger town of Groningen, shopped, ate, smoked, chilled. This was day one. Back at Usquert with our host families we were blessed with awesome hosts, Peter and Ria. They had a home that was previously a rest home with many extra rooms. They turned it into a bed and breakfast so the wife and I were treated like guests of a bed and breakfast. (Note: the last time the wife and I were at a bed and breakfast was in a town on the outskirts of Rome.) The next day we practiced a little, chilled in the town, did a small gig teaching school children, chilled, went to the festival, danced for 12 minutes, and were done. The next couple of days were exactly the same. Each gig was short and to the point, with the repertoire changing day to day. We always had a chance to chill. We shown the beautiful sights of the province, whether it's the dikes blocking the North Sea, the German island of Borkum just in view, the endless roads through farmlands, bicyclist and their bicycles, the huge windmills centuries old. It really was a vacation for us. Others will have more pictures for you to see which I'm grateful because there really was so much to see and appreciate. When we went to Amsterdam to perform we were able to again stay with a great host family. They really appreciated the show that we gave, mistakes and all, and are hoping we'll come back again. As far as going into Amsterdam, let me just quote Nate Dogg. "Hey, hey, hey, hey... smoke weed everyday..." That's the real reason that I'm not looking for work right away. I may have to give myself 2 months of recovery. Walking through the Red Light District was amazing. Sure you had some second tier professionals but some of them looked like they came straight from the movies. They were gorgeous. Also, the canals cut through the city and add so much character to it. We did a canal tour and saw the real grandeur of the city with mammoth buildings centuries old. It was nice to be able to walk, chill at a cafe, walk some more, chill at another cafe, enjoy the surroundings as well as the company and just really feel like a vacation should feel. I did want to be part of the world cup and it's fervor but we couldn't predict that France would win a game to make it to the championship. We were thinking of just going to Germany and go to a town hosting a match but that would have been too much time spent traveling as well as plenty of Euros. Speaking of which, the Euro is kicking the Dollar's ASS!!! That sure didn't help. But it did allow us to just enjoy Amsterdam. I will definitely plan on coming back here for a vacation. So, I know that this Netherlands tour will not match the previous Brasil tour because of the cameraderie gained with the other groups, but we did meet and hang out with groups from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Romania, Russia and New Zealand. I got to see the South Africans do their thing although I'm sure it didn't have the same effect as in Brasil. I look forward to doing other tours in the future although I think I prefer it as a dancer. I love playing but I started as a dancer. Let me just get my fat ass in shape.

posted by DJ John @ 12:32 AM