Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Wagamama!

Sitting backstage in Antwerpen, at the... Twix? Or Trix?
Nice place, cool people.
We had dinner catered tonight, which was nice (usually we opt for a "buy out" meaning "no, don't order/make us food, give us money and we will do our own thing") tonight, we couldn't care less. I don't want a Belgium experience. I don't want to be bummed I'm leaving or see stuff I don't have time to enjoy. I'm just enjoying my family, the backstage and my kids hangin' with the Bellrays. The singer is beautiful. She is whistling and walking around, she seems cool. I didn't meet her yet, I am trying to get our crap organized. We have to unload EVERYTHING in the car and pack it all up, because we are getting in the car at 5 a.m. and heading straight for the airport. Our flight isn't until 2 p.m. but we have to ride a ferry for nearly 2 hours and drive for 2, so we will get our travel on once again but this is the first time in 6 weeks we will be heading somewhere we don't have to unpack!! It's the little things people. I am not glad to be leaving so I don't have to drive all damn day or sleep on a European hotel bed. It's not that I don't want to eat at ANOTHER restaurant, it ain't that I don't want truck stop coffee (sounds bad but in Europe- it is SO good). I'm not glad to get out of fighting with Elvis to eat when we are eating, trying to keep the milk cold (HA!) and the candy for Q to a minimum (way too much candy over here). I am not glad that I won't have to pretend to understand another "foreigner" or try not to feel bad for being a stupid foreigner "do you speak english?". It's not that I am too lazy to walk up all the fucking stairs they have, or sweat and cuss trying to squeeze one toddler, one 10 year old, three rolling luggage, a guitar, a stroller, a purse, two backpacks, a diaper bag AND two full growns. Nope. Its not any of that. To put it as simple as I can, what I am looking forward to the absolute MOST.
Not unpacking a thing, not for at least a week.

The last dance.

This morning I am waking up in Paris. Again.
Yesterday we left Barcelona, Spain and drove our asses off. If you have ever seen a map of this area, you will know, it is not close.
I'm guessing nearly 600 miles.
It was a good drive. There were a lot of kid movies going on in the backseat and good music and conversation in the front.
It was a day off so we were in no hurry to get anywhere. In fact, we had no where special planned to get to. We just drove. We stopped, we drove, we ate- we drove. Around 1 a.m. we knew it was time to pull it over. Elvis was still awake (Quattro had been asleep for hours) and I had a feeling she was not going to go down until we had a cozy spot in a bed for her. She's like that. It's a good thing.
We rolled into Paris and found a hotel. It's a no fills chain, the Ibis. I call it "I bis this will do.". It's not exactly what we love or are use to but at this point, we just want to go home with as much $ as possible and we consider our luxury accommodations card punched. We stayed at the NH in Madrid. It is awesome. In the morning we woke up to a futbol teams bus, tons of polizei, it was quite the scene. Madrid played Zaragoza. Parking in Madird that day was insane, there were cars all over sidewalks and in the middle of streets. Insanity yet somehow it all seemed okay, like not ridiculous- just pleasantly odd.
I was sad to leave Madrid. We didn't get to spend enough time there but we walked along the river or whatever and watched the bats fly around and the fish swim. There was an amazing kids playground (seriously, we need to take playground notes from the Europeans, they do it better, plain and simple) so we of course went to that. Elvis ran around and Quattro made friends. He doesn't speak spanish and they didn't speak english but that doesn't ever seem to matter. Kids are wonderful like that.
I will have to tell you about Barcelona later. I am getting hustled out of here and we need to get to Antwerp, Belgium where Eddie is opening for the Bellrays and I am sad to say that we will not be watching them play, we will be peeling out as soon as Eddie is done. Our hotel is in Calais which is in France. Another 2 hour drive. We then wake up (at 5 a.m.) and jump on a ferry to England and drive to the airport. Seriously. It is hard to wrap my brain around this being over. Sad. Yet so fucking happy to be going home.

Saturday, August 27, 2011


Some wacky clowns Elvis and I watched (for too long).


Q waiting in line for the jumpy house. Classic.






My kids in a nutshell.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Bilbao... never wanna go home.

We are in Bilbao Spain today and if you have never been here but have a hankerin' to get out of town- look no further people, I have the town for you.
It is perfection and that is hard to come by.
We showed up today and were greeted by about 20,000 people walking the streets in front of our hotel. There is a massive festival going on and you know, that would normally make me hate a town, but this festival was different. These people are different. They are happy. They are sweet, lovely, kind, generous and the cops even let us go down a closed street, and drive right in front of a stage. Take that Switzerland.
Our hotel is amazing with a jet shower and two balconies facing the center which is where, now, about a million people are walking around. I wish I remembered the name of the event that is taking place because for once it is important.
We were directed by the hotel receptionist to walk down the street and choose any restaurant, she said they are all great. We have heard this before, every day in fact for the last 5 weeks but this time she was right- well either that or I just have a nose for this sort of thing. I saw a place, that looked great and even though all the tables out front (in the adorable alley that was packed with people and people playing instruments, singing and dancing) were dirty, we walked inside and were sat in the back. I like to sit outside but it looked like we had just missed the made rush for dinner. We are always a little later than everyone else, which in this case and many more, was good.
The food was amazing, Basque food is like that. We had marinated artichoke hearts and lobster salad, steak and risotto. I picked out a great bottle of wine, I'm pretty sure there were no bad bottles on the list, that is Spain.
After dinner we walked the streets and made our way back to the hotel, where Eddie hurried me to get out the door. That is a daily (and Daly) occurrence, I need to wash the road off of me, change baby clothes, make sure everyone is packed up- it takes a lot. You may be saying "why doesn't Eddie take care of the kids while you get ready?" well... because he is a man I guess. I'm kidding. Sometimes he is helpful, sometimes I tell him to do this and that but other times it is me getting ready while he is on his phone and telling me to hurry up... then I come out and I'm like "where's the baby's shoes?" "is Quattro's bag packed?". Then there are a lot of "no's" and then 20 minutes later we are out the door. Which to tell you the truth is not that big of deal, I mean, rock n roll is a lot of what we call "hurry up and wait". That is the name of the game. You hurry to make "load in" and then wait around for sound check. You hurry back to the club to hear that the set time is moved back. You just deal with it and over the years Eddie has learned to just deal with me needing some time alone in the bathroom to paint my toenails or take a shower. Even though he relentlessly bugs me to "hurry up!!".
We left the hotel and had to go get the guitar and merch from the car. We were in a pickle with what to do, either drive to the club (more favorite) or walk. Our parking garage closed at 9 p.m. and if you know anything about Spain, you should know that these people stay out LATE! Except, apparently, the parking garages... so either we take the car and then after the show drive around and look for a parking space or we get the shit and hoof it to the club. Luckily it was like a 15 minute walk to the club, by way of the parking garage. Finding parking is usually not a big deal for us, even in the middle of the night with a baby buuuuuut, there are a gazillion people on the street, so I'm guessing parking would not come easy- or ever. And there would most certainly be a ticket, if not a towing on our hands tomorrow. I don't know if you read the Basel post, but homeboy got the shaft in Switzerland, so we are all about following the rules (except for accidently blowing through a red light at 11 p.m. last night pulling into Bordeaux, France.
So we chose to walk. Baby,, stroller, bags, check! Merch, guitar, Oprah, check!- the works. (Oprah is Elvis' baby). We had to walk straight through the madness which drove Eddie crazy, Q and I loved it and Elvis fell asleep. There were freaky street performers, the kind that look like statues and then move. Yuck! Breakdancers, the absolute best I have ever seen! and I have seen a lot.
The club is cool, the staff is nice. That is what I love about Spain, they really care about how you are doing. And throw a 10 year old kid and a baby in the mix, these people really know how to treat people. Why don't I live in Spain? Oh, I will... this is where we will retire. And even though Eddie will never officially retire (ever heard of Willie Nelson?) we will move here when our kids are grown. This is where we will start a new chapter and it might just be in Bilbao. Really, it is that fucking cool.
I"m backstage now. Eddie is playing "Dead Homies". I was walking out to watch the show but I keep getting locked out of the backstage where Elvis is still asleep in her buggy, so I'm staying back here. I am comfortable leaving her back here while I sneak a peek but not if I have to keep getting Q to sneak through the stage door to run around and let me in. I'm a chill Mom, but not ridiculous.
What else? Not much, I mean, I am really just kind of shocked that this trip is almost over
(Eddie is playing "On the Couch"!! I had to run out and risk another lock out but my reentry was a success). I has been nearly 5 weeks and we are home in a week. I am SO excited to get home and yet really sad it is over. We have been planning this trip since the end of last summer.. there's so much work that is involved. It's a bit like Thanksgiving. All the prep, the recipe search, the shopping, the hours of cooking and then BOOM 8 minutes later- it's over. This has been (and felt) like more than 8 minutes but in some ways I wish it could go on forever. I guess it kind of does, so that is why I can go home with a smile on my face and a tear in my pocket. I alway miss the road. Always.
Today Eddie and I made a bet that in 6 months that if he can't do 10 pull ups (and me 5) he has to wear a speedo to the public pool in our neighborhood at family swim time. He hasn't decided what he wants me to do, I'm completely comfortable taking my clothes off (have you seen the cover to his solo records) so he will have to dig deep. He on the other hand is not really a take your clothes off kind of guy, never has been so this should be good. We started talking about it because our friend Jordan got in kick ass shape doing that P90X and he has been talking about it. And I like my body, I would just like to be stronger. I want to know I can kick someones ass in a dark alley, not just feel like I can.
In other boring news, I miss my animals SO damn much. I laid in bed not sleeping (oh, did I forget to say I'm an insomniac? I'm off the sleeping pills on the road for some stupid reason I forgot to pick them up before I left. Which is good and bad. I am happy not to take them every day, I don't like to take anything every day) and thought I felt my cat, Elwood, walking up from the end of the bed like she does every night. She waits about 5 minutes (I'm guessing she is making sure I am really going to bed and I'm not going to get out) and then like clockwork, climbs into bed, sniffs my eyelids and lays down next to me. Awwww, I miss her.
Now I'm going to go since I'm all sad and weepy and to top it off Eddie is playing "Roadworn and Weary".
I was thinking about what to do with this here blog (that I love so much) when I get back home. I tried to keep it going last time but when I got home I just felt like I was way too boring to write about. If anyone has any ideas about an angle I can exploit while I'm not on the road, things that might be interesting to a reader, please tell me because I really do enjoy writing. I am wouldn't care (lying) if 12 people were reading, getting this stuff out there- thinking about in 10-15 years my kids can read about their life as children and my life when I was young and maybe, possibly entertaining a fan or two or a mother or father- I'm cool with that. I'm a writer man, it is what I love to do. I have things pulse through me all day, things I can't wait to get on paper or in this piece of shit computer. I wait and wait until I'm not behind the wheel to get a chance where a tiny girl is not climbing on me, Quattro is tired of playing UNO (our road game from way back) and Eddie doesn't need me to "HURRY UP!", so sit down and empty myself, to rid myself of the words trampling my mind.
Good night people.
Thank you Bilbao.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Bordeaux

Tonight we lay our heads in Bordeaux France. We drove most of the way to Bilbao, leaving only 3 hours for tomorrow.
I can't believe how awesome our kids are in the car. We are so damn lucky.
Now as I sit here in our hotel, Elvis is bouncing off the walls... so there is a little payback I guess.
Tomorrow we hit the beach. With only 4 shows left of the tour we are all looking forward to having a little fun in Spain and then go home and roll around in our cozy sheets. There's one thing in common with nearly every hotel in Europe- the sheets are so stiff!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

European porn and kids.

These two things do not go together but apparently no one has told the television folks in most, if not all, of Europe.
Every night we hid the remote. Lets face it, if kids can't find the remote they are not watching TV. Unless they are hardcore, which Quattro is not. He likes TV like anyone like but in an average week at home, he watches it maybe one night during the school week, on the weekends it depends, could be one movie or a Sunday in bed with me for 3 hours.
Anyway, I lost my thought.
So every night we have to hide the remote, otherwise there is no doubt going to be that time he turns on the TV and sees full on porno. There are plenty of people who think it is okay to have on TV- obviously, because it IS ON TV.
I am not one of them.
I hear a lot of Americans say that Europeans do so many things better and that America is struggling with their youth. News flash. Everyone is struggling with our youth. They are losing. They are not being taken care of. They are growing up on someone else's dime. They are being brought up too fast, too fat and too stupid. Sad but true.
I read an article about todays youth not being protected. How big corporations have all the laws protecting them, like children used to have for them. Remember "children are people too"? I feel like even my kid needs more protection, the constant need to be plugged in and now what? turned on?
I don't think so.
I am taking a stand. I am going to make some changes.
I know this conversation started with the porno on TV and I don't like that but when I get home to the glorious USA, I will not have that to worry about. But I will have these mass produced toys that are unhealthy for my kids. I will have constant advertisements trying to lure my children into their web of crap food, cheap games and lame cartoon propaganda.
I'm not saying that I don't want them to enjoy what's fun for them, I just want to be a better ref, I guess, I want to make sure they stay young for as long as possible and that they go without some of the latest greatest whatever, if even just once, so they can keep their feet on the ground. It will be hard but I'm always up for a challenge.
In other news, Eddie got arrested in Switzerland last night. Made for a great new tour joke "hey, remember that time you got arrested in Switzerland?" we are always on the hunt for a new one... fuckin' Eddie...
Tonight we sleep in Zurich, Switzerland where there's horse on the menu and everyone looks pissed off. The horse thing threw us for a loop... we got up and left the restaurant, Quattro looked like he was going to cry. I almost passed out at the thought and just thought about how much I miss the states where that kinda shit is very, very illegal.
We are setting out tomorrow for our second to longest drive. Where we will lay our heads somewhere in the South of France and then make it to our beloved Bilboa, Spain where the wine is good and the people are beautiful.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Poolside in Bresica, Italy.





Tonight I'm going to bed in Italy...


I have never said that before. I'm pretty happy with life right now.
I did a lot of things early in life so it isn't very often I get to experience something new.
Moved out at 17, I got married at 23, had a child at 24- I did all the bad things early too.
Italy has been grand. We had the day off today, we are actually driving to Basel, Switzerland for a show tomorrow night.
I drove us 5 of our 12 hours, stopping in Brescia, Italy. I have only been in Verona once, we pulled it over but were unable to stop... lets just say our driver was very impatient back then, we don't travel like that anymore.
I knew we would never want to drive the whole way. We are pretty good at clocking miles but we stop for pictures, ice cream, diaper changes... you know, rock n roll stuff. The drives are so beautiful, there is no way to just blaze past everything. I want to make sure the kids have fun and get to play around. When I was traveling constantly as a kid I don't remember ever stopping. We probably did... maybe, anyway, I try to keep them entertained. They are both so good in the car. It's amazing.
Speaking of the car. It is a total dump. There's so much crap every where. We may have purchased every kids magazine in the UK and Europe. We have them all. Some in German, Austrian, Croatian.. is that their language? Croatian? No one really talked to me while we were there, so I don't know. Eddie says it's "Moose and Squirrel" accent, you know "must get moose and squirrel". I don't get the reference really but it is funny anyway.
So Croatia was great. The flat was amazing and exactly what we all needed. I would love to say that we have a super full day of seeing the sights of Zagreb but we barely did anything at all, which was perfect.
We woke up super late and decided to take a walk and get some things for the day. We had a full kitchen, it was like a dream! So we all got up and got dressed and headed out the door, all smiles and then BOOM! the heat hit. It was so cussing hot outside, I felt like I was back in Arizona. Ugh. We all started bitching immediately- Q the most. That kid has never been able to take the heat, I can't blame him, plus he was born in Seattle. It is hot there for like 12 hours a year.
We walked to the store anyway, much to Q disliking. At this point he was hot and hungry, not a good combo for a 10 going on 14 year old.
We got to the store and it was very... Croatian. It was huge and bizarre, yet in some ways very much your average store. It is just strange to see the milk on the end cap and 5 isles of sliced meat. And so we went straight to the bakery. I am not sure you know this but the Croatians have their pastries down pat. They are delicious
We grab some pastries and start eating them immediately as we walk around the store. I picked up fresh bread, cheese, milk, cereal, water and some fruit and diapers (of course, we are always buying diapers- it seems as thought this chick never stops peeing!). Eddie and Elvis met up with us and then we noticed a security guard following us around. He as being very obvious but I believe he thought we had no clue. I started opening things in our basket, just to fuck with him. It was fun.
Back at the flat we had the entire day to ourselves. With sound check about 5 hours off we thought we would drive tot he lake or something but walking back into the flat with the a/c blasting... we decided to stay in. We had a ton of laundry to do and guess what? there was a washing machine!! What a beautiful sight for us. We did about 3 loads and it took about 6 hours. Those machine in Europe are slow! Everything in Europe is slow though, going out to eat! Forget about it. It will take you 3 hours and with a toddler that is a ridiculous thought, even with our toddler who is perfect in every way (NOT!)- ya the long eating thing I can't get behind, I mean if I didn't have kids, sure but I do, so I can't.
The day was spent without a second thought of what we could be missing. "What did you do in Croatia?" Eddie will no doubt be asked in an interview... "laundry" he will reply and it is completely true.
Eddie took Q to sound check, I skyped with my family while Elvis took a nice long nap. It was nice to talk and SEE my family. It has been too long, once again.( I will see them at Thanksgiving, yay!) Afterwards he came back to pick us up and we all went to the club. The owner was super nice and had a cool name, something like... Pishta, I dig it. He as awesome, really nice, has a baby- I guess he is a legend in those parts, he looked like Lemmy's cousin or something.
They had a "BBQ" and it was more like crockpot dinner but it was good nonetheless. It could have been goat, it was dark. Q was eating it with his hands like an animal and then he got a bone and game over.
I kicked his ass at foosball. We have been playing a lot of that lately and I usually have Elvis in one hand (she likes to "help") so I am guessing I am like a world champ or something. I can do anything with one hand.
After the kill, I decided to take Elvis back. Really I just wanted to get back to the TV they had at the flat. It was real english and I was ready to veg the cuss out- so I did. We had parked out back of the club in this dark alley and when I fianlly got the big rig turned around we noticed a little white mercedes was parked like a real dumb ass, totally blocking everyone in the alley. Eddie ran inside to see if he could find the owner, which was hilarious in itself because we are in CROATIA, where they do not speak the english (well, some do but you know what I mean). He comes out and looks at the Mercedes and our car and I am thinking he ridiculous because there's no way we will fit, you couldn't fit golf cart through there... then before I could say anything sarcastic, he walks to the passengers side of the car and pulls the emergency break, puts it in neutral and pushes the thing out of the way!! It was SO cool, he got major points for that... whatever that means.
There was a guy walking up to help and he noticed it was "Eddie Spaghetti" and he thought it was pretty cool too.
So he saved the day and we made it back to the apartment. Eddie and Q went to the show and E and I hung out and watched some crappy movie but it was in english so I was down.
And now I am about to lay my head down on Italian soil for the very first time. I feel a lot of pride tonight. Getting to be somewhere new and making an effort to find this lovely little town. Our hotel has this fantastic pool on the roof, that overlooks the mountains and a castle. We all jumped in as soon as we got here, ,drank a Peroni and watched the sun set. We had dinner tonight in the city center, the wine was superb and the food was hit and miss. Elvis got the best pasta and Eddie got the best sauce. But the wine, oh ya... it was tasty.
Tomorrow we say "Ciao" to Italy and go to Switzerland. We found a toy store that we will stop at before we leave in the morning and then it is about 6 hours to Basel.
Enjoy the pictures.
XO

The bakery.


Eddie's meat pie.


How she spends her time in Stuttfart, Germany.


Our Croatian kitchen.


This face...

Heading for Italy

I have never spent much time in Italy. I love the food and have seen it from the window of a bus a few times but tonight, I will be sleeping on Italian soil.
We are heading to Switzerland, which is about 12 hours from where we are right now. We have the day off so we will be doing half the drive today and sleeping in a town called Brescia. The hotel looks fabulous and it was about 1/3 of staying in Verona or Milan- of course, so we will stay there. Sleep just as well and I am sure the sights will be just as lovely.
Keep reading folks, I will have more time to write from Switzerland.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

4 countries, 11 hours.

I am so tired. I could barf. And I almost did a couple times today.
I am sick. A little virus got up in me and died.
We are in Croatia. So happy.
That's all I can say tonight.
And thank you for my kids for rockin' the 11 hours with smiles and very little tears.

Essen

Today was a long drive. It was one of those drives that you just wanted to get over. Construction, stupid drivers, slow drivers, you know- just want it to be over. That was today.
But we had a great morning in Erfurt, after a less than stellar turn out, we made the very best of it. We walked around last night after the show. We walked to the Dom, checked things out and shared a beer, in the dark. It's pretty cool that you can drink and walk around. Pushing a stroller and walking with a beer, reminds me of Vegas.
Anyway, after a very German breakfast (ham, butter, bread, museli... wha?) we packed up and thought we would walk around, find a park and then hit the long road that waited for us. Then we stepped out of the hotel, after walking down about 65 stairs, loaded the car and thought better of the park- it was HOT! Like real hot. Like, "I need water", hot. I need shade, a/c and definitely some ice cream! So we scrapped the park, walked around the center a bit and found the best gellato and cheap! We paid 3.40 Euro for 4 cones, that is incredible. Anyway, we walked around their little farmers market (man, I miss Ballard farmers market..) bought some fruit for the kids (to break up all the currywurst and potatoes...) and just thought we should get the hell. It was hot. Our car had a/c- and it was done. We left.
Arriving in Essen, we were greeted with the nicest group of people and two kids! How exciting for my kids to see kids. You forget after all these longs days, and evenings filled with grown ups, they need to see their kind. Elvis is too young to really care but Q is very hospitable. He immediately started playing foozball with the girl, she was 7. I would put her name in here but I would butcher it. Her Mom is reading this, so "HI" and "thank you for everything!"
We checked into our lovely apartment. Yep, you heard me. Not only was this place NOT a dump (which we were growing very accustom to). It was an apartment. With a livingroom, separate bedroom (yay!) and balcony. And kitchen! Too bad we aren't here long enough, I would totally love to go to the market and make some dinner. That's not happening.
As I type I am backstage with my little chicken. She has grown tired of the club scene, she prefers the backstage. So if you are out here and wondering what we are doing, we are usually face painting and watching "Fantastic Mr. Fox", eating chocolate... that sort of thing. You know, rock stuff.
The owners of the club sent us across the street for dinner. It was a fabulous chinese/thai place that was lovely and the lady that served us was awesome. We had fried udon noodles, duck salad, eggplant, scallops and beef wrapped asparagas. I wish I would have had room for dessert but none of did.
Before we walked over there someone told us to take an umbrella because a storm was coming, we said we were from Seattle, so we were good- and you know what? We should've brought the damn umbrella. We walked in and sat by the window and immediately the sky grew dark and the lightening started. Q was counting, you know, to see how far away it is (I wonder if that is true?). It was like 3 seconds away (so 3 miles?) It was awesome! The thunder was so loud it was shaking the floor. We sat right by the window in the back and eventually they closed them because it was raining sideways. It smelled like rain and was a beautiful lightening storm to watch. We then enjoyed our dinner and beer... what I didn't enjoy was Elvis first restaurant tantrum. I knew it was coming. It was bound to happen and now we have checked it off the list. She would not sit down, she would not eat, she wouldn't drink- she just wanted to get the hell... she wanted to sit on my lap and I denied her. It is sad but Mommy needed to eat without someone on my lap. I mean, I am still breastfeeding, so I feel like I ALWAYS have her on my lap. I love her. I wouldn't trade her but man, if I don't want to walk into a restaurant and drop her at the coat check sometimes... that's mean right? Oh well. I'm mean. I'm just as evil as I am good.
Good night Essen. You rocked!

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Erfurt...






Well, you can't win them all. We pulled into Erfurt today, were we, once again, got shot down in our quest to do some laundry. I am not sure if it will ever get done. We have 14 days left before we are home and I tell ya, waiting doesn't sound too bad. Laudrymats take up your afternoon, you have to go find it and sit there for the entire time and that just doesn't sound like something we are prepared for. Not with all the roamin' round to do.
Today I took Q out to ride his skateboard. Eddie stayed in and wrote some music while Elvis took a nap. It was nice.
The turn out for the show was not so hot. But you know that is what we have to deal with sometimes. I don't know how Eddie does it. Night after night. It is one thing to come on the road and go through the motions everyday but to slap a smile on his face every night, no matter if there are 25 people... I would never make it.
It reminds me of this Bill Hicks, when he walks out to a pretty quiet audience in the south, I think, and he talks about "slap a smile on my face and plow through this shit one more time".. I mean, if that is not spot on to how I would feel.
But Eddie is a road dog. He was born to do this. He is just as good to watch with 1 or 100 people, I just don't get it. Where does that come from? And why aren't there more people in Erfurt coming out to watch him?? Seems like a quiet little town, he's not exactly quiet.
Elvis and I watched the show from the balcony near the backstage and took turns between Daddy and "Fantastic Mr. Fox". Eddie pointed out on todays drive that it was pretty cool this was her first favorite movie. How... fantastic.

Cody. Heidelberg and a great big castle.



We met this guy named Cody as we were getting on the train to go up to Heidelberg castle the other day. He was a retired, widowed man from Seattle but had been living in Atlanta for the last 16 years. He was staying with his son and daughter in law in Germany for the summer and has a daughter that lives near Tacoma.
This man was the nicest guy. He was sweet to the kids and we chatted until the train stopped at the top. We got off the train and that was that. We all disappeared into the castle and I wish I would have seen him again. He was so cute with his backpack and being alone, still on his adventure in life. If anyone out there knows Cody, tell him we say "hi".


This is such a great picture of them. It really shows who they are and how they feel about each other. I love it.



This is the shot of the trip, so far. This is the bench we sat Q on when he was 5 months old (one of us had to stand just out of the shot then, so if and when he tipped over he didn't have a royal fall), we have a picture of him on it when he was 5, 8 and now with his little sister at 10. Heidelberg is very special.




This time we couldn't find our names in the castle. There's an area where people sign in this little turrets or something... anyway, our names are long gone now, and it was kind of sad.
But hte castle was still beautiful and the walking around was superb.
Quattro got his very first Swiss Army knife and he is a new man because of it. My baby has a knife... I hear a song there.

Sitting in the "hotel" room in Halle. Waking up was not exactly the same this morning as the one before.
The place we are staying at is no star(s), it is not a dump but it is not up to par either. In the contract we have a star rating for our rooms, when the venue signs the contract they are stating that they will accommodate, that they understand what we are up for. This place is not it. But I will chalk it up to the language barrier, as I have found in my short time in Halle, these people are strictly German speaking. And that's cool because we are in GERMANY! Duh. The show last night also made it easier to swallow these digs, it was exactly the kind of show we are hoping for out here. A full room, nice food and cold beer for us, Apfelsaft for Q and milch for Elvis. That's all we really need, the hotel room is just a minor set back in an otherwise perfectly played town.




Before we checked out, I decided I would do Elvis' nails. In the states I had picked up some Sally Hansen nail strips, I bought them for Q and then another box for Elvis. She held very still the entire time it took me to put them on. I was pretty impressed and thought of all the mani/ pedis we could get when we are back home... then when we stopped for a snack I noticed she had one nail still standing. All the others she chewed off.
Note to self, she is still a baby.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

What a difference a (good) bed makes

I don't know if you have traveled over here. Whether you stay in 1 or 39 beds in Europe, there is one thing they all have in common and that is, they all suck. All of them. That's why we stayed here, it is not very European, we could be anywhere really- I just couldn't take a single, old, soggy mattress another night.
Even if you have a "big" bed on your reservation, you will no doubt get two single beds, pushed together with one sheet making them seem like one... which means no one can sleep in the middle, so we are on separate sides of the earth... err, um bed.
We have been putting our chicken on top of the covers, toward the bottom of the bed. It's nice because she thinks she is in her own bed, not bothering us at night but I wonder how comfortable it can be?
The sleeping arrangements are going to be something that we have to work out when we get home. Quattro loves sleeping in the same room as us. We all get to stay up and chat and then in the morning, we all get cozy in one bed. At home he is down stairs while Eddie, Elvis and I are all upstairs. She has her own room and that too might become problem but maybe not... who knows these things.
So this is the part of the trip when I am looking more and more forward to getting home.
I want my stuff. My face masks and the place down the street where I get pedicures. I want a different pair of pants, I only brought 2 and believe it or not, I haven't bought any more.
I want a different purse. The one I brought basically turned into a garbage bag... there are no pockets, the zipper gets stuck. It's pissing me off. I'm just starting to bitch, internally (and on here) for now.
I think we have something like 18 days left. I can do that. I think I'm ready to get out of Germany, then I will be recharged.
It's funny, when we come over here we all know how lucky we are. I mean, Eddie gets to travel around and play music for $$. That's insane, we all still know and think and appreciate how incredible that is. But the day to day is a fucking grind sometimes. Just like doing whatever you do for a living. If you like your job, then it's more similar than if you hate it, I guess, but it's all a grind somedays more than others.
3 more shows in Germany to go and I know we will enjoy them. The German fans are the ones you can count on. They know what is going on, they all still have their ear to the ground- which is more than I can say for the French.
I'm being pestered to get out of bed now, so we can go to the castle. I know, I should be more excited and I will be once we get there but you know- the grind. It has hit me. I'm grinding my gears, dragging my feet (and my ass).
XO

Monday, August 15, 2011

Heidelberg

Shop, eat, drink, shop, eat, drink... that is what we have done today. Oh and walk about 15 miles.
Planning to swim and just lay around tonight. We are kind of sad our favorite restaurant is on holiday this week, so we will no doubt be complete sloths and order some overpriced, not that special room service. Hey, it's our day off, we can't expect too much from ourselves.
When we arrived our room was not ready. A total bummer because it put a hiccup in our rhythm. When you ar traveling as long as we are, with kids in tow- there's a certain rhythm you have to achieve. We didn't have it on the first day or the first week but you build up and then you find it and it's a constant struggle, albeit a good one to have, to keep it. So pulling into town and hearing it would be more than an hour before our room is ready was a bit of a bummer- but not at all a shock. It's a major chain, they are the ones that dick you around the most. There are a ton of cute, funky little hotels here but being a day off and such a special place for us, we just went with who had the best beds and other than the Crown Plaza and this other place that was 400 Euro a night- the Marriot won.
So we are here and the kids are swimming now with Eddie. I stayed in the room to have a little quiet time and time to blog. It is hard, some days more than others, to find the time to sit down and get my thoughts out. Elvis is almost 2 and every bit a 2 year old. She's great but there's only two positions on her switch "full blast" and "out of gas". Q is great to hang with. He is at that age where he can just lay around and relax. Read a book while I blog or play a video game. Sometimes it is just nice to lay around together, that is something we don't get to do a lot of... I think partially because I bought a new couch this year and it is not a lay around couch. It is too modern and stiff. It is for sitting and looking at (and apparently for cat scratching, man I hope my friend who is house sitting is putting the blanket on the ends of the couch...). So ya, we don't lay around together much. Eddie and I lay around at night. After the kids are in bed, we watch our shows and read and ignore each other.
Speaking of shows! How lame am I that I can't wait to get home to watch TV? I am thinking about it way too much. It's not stopping me from enjoying the constant roam around but I did have a little dream about Andy Cohen the other night. I was watching "Watch What Happens Live" and I called in.. then I woke up.

More pictures











Feeding the ducks after tea. In Llangllolan (sp?), Wales.


So cute.


This is how we do breakfast in Paris.


The Metro in Paris.



SeaFrance

Two of my favorite people. This is in front of Le Opera Metro stop in Paris.


Riding the ferris wheel. That's the Eiffel Tower in the back.



Bowling. French style.


Good morning Paris.



This is why we call her "Nick Nolte".

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Speyer, inspires.

We are just back from the club. In the nice room, Eddie's taking a shower, Elvis is trying to wind down and Q has found the beloved "Keeka" on TV. I swear, even in Germany kids like TV (I mean, American kids, of course German kids like their tv- we are all human). This show is the first thing we saw on TV two summers ago. We had flown into London and for some jacked up reason drove to Germany... look at a map, go ahead... it's far, right? Ya, it is.
So we drove and drove and rode a ferry and then drove some more. I am not sure what the thinking there was or if there was any. That's the thing about going over the pond, you always forget that jetlag is real and it sucks balls. It's like childbirth. You just think, "ya, that's cool, I'll be fine to drive 7 hours after a 14 hour flight with a 4 hour layover"... does not make sense but I think at one point it might have...
ok, so Keeka is this retarded show that Q fell in love with and has talked about since. It's in German so he has no idea what it is about. Now that we are watching it again, I am thinking this is an adult show, like Crank Yankers or something... I don't know, my German is bad. If anyone can shed some light, please do.
Tonights show in Speyer, at Flaming Star was great. They people there are so nice, it is sad to leave. They treated us like family and that is beyond kind, it is what we need. It's hard being away from home, from all of your comforts, so to go to a place and have them treat you like the radical people you wish you were, it is always a good feeling.
I miss home. It is starting... I am missing my animals and my bed. I'm missing my washing machine!! Everyone stinks in the car! We skipped the laundry in Koln because we were lazy and wanted to sleep in and have late breakfast and then get the hell out of town. So we suffer. All of us.
Tomorrow we are going to Heidelberg and I couldn't be happier. I have the best memories there. It is where we can all relax ad be a family. We will have two more days off before we hit Spain. That's where the party will start and just in time for us to go home. Spain is insane and I enjoy every second. I believe that one day, when our kids are grown and we have no use for a yard and a house full of toys, we will move to Spain and travel around and meet up with our kids for the holidays. Do you hear that Spain?? We're coming for ya.

Elvis' newest get-up. My boots, no pants and a Michael Jackson Tshirt.


Totally awesome car.


Cool street performer.


The Dalys must come from a long line of bee keepers. We have been noticing at every stop, every place we eat or drink we are greeted by a bee, or two.
This one was the most entertaining, he ate and later took off with a piece of pork.

Photos from Koln