Hello! Finally!

So much for the weekly blog! I wish someone had told us it would be this hard to get things done when you're travelling and working and sleeping and trying to find food and beds and venues and headspace!

We're currently in Nieuwerkerk aan den IJssel in The Netherlands and have just played live ont he radio here. It was so nice, the whole team at the station sat around drinking wine and listening to us play, and we enjoyed playing for them and hanging out at the station.

We've been back in the Netherlands for a couple of nights after doing two quick but successful shows in France and we only have 3 shows to go! How is this possible? It feels like we've been on the road forever and we are absolutely exhausted but it still feels like surely this big event that we've been planning for so long can't really be coming to an end? Well it's not over just yet so we'll save the tears for the next blog!

Last week we spent several days in Amsterdam and after negotiating the traffic and expensive parking we settled into a stinky hostel i  Vondelpark with a couple of bicycles to get us around town. Boy did we love those bikes! At home I (Liesl) used to ride my bike to work and get shouted at on a daily basis - by everyone! Motorists, pedestrians, colleagues! But here I am like Moses parting the sea, my bell making a path through the cars.

The shows in and around Amsterdam went really well. We discovered that the Dutch crowds are not as silent and respectful as the German crowds, but they like to join in more. We quickly got used to the backtalk, the yehaa's in Shack in the Bush, and the occasional over-opinionated yet friendly drunk at the end of the show.

We have met so many lovely people too. So many people who have organised the shows, put us up for the night, fed us and best of all shared their lives with us for a day or two. With all the sightseeing that we manage to squeeze in it is still the people that we get to know and the personal connection to the  places that we go to that stick with us the most, and that matter the most. No amount of looking around or reading guidebooks (and all gothic cathedrals start looking the same after a while anyway!) can give you the insight and understanding and personal impression of a country the way living with, working with and just getting to know people can.

Anyway, enough philosophical bla bla from us! Thanks for reading our blog, we promise it won't be too long till the next one!

Bye for now!
Nick & Liesl