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!

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.

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.

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!