BELLAMY BROTHERS – EICHENDORF, GERMANY – ALOIUSIUS COUNTRY FESTIVAL – AUGUST 29, 2014 – PHOTOS
THURSDAY, AUGUST 28TH – FRANCE TO GERMANY:
Not a very “happy” Road Report tonight. I didn’t find my camera last night which means someone “picked my pocket”. The pickpockets in France are experts. When I arrived at the restaurant last night, I noticed that both the outside zippers on my bag were unzipped all the way. Freaked me out even though there was nothing of “value” in those compartments. I was SUPER careful the rest of the night to keep everything in front of me and my hands on it. When I arrived back at the hotel, my camera was in the front pocket of my jacket. I “relaxed” because I was inside the hotel. I walked through the lobby and then outside in the “garden area” to get to my room. There is a huge Bridgestone Convention taking place there and a large group of people were coming up a short flight of stone steps as I started down. Someone bumped into me and I stumbled on the steps. That had to be the pickpocket and he took my camera. I didn’t even realize it until I was ready to download all my photos. I can easily replace the camera but all the photos I took yesterday and last night are lost forever. Even though I am furious and feel “violated”, it could have been much worse. I could be sitting in France at an Embassy having a new passport issued and cancelling my credit cards!
On the Metro last night, there was a pretty girl in a wedding dress, another girl in a bridesmaid gown and two men in suits, plus a photographer. Strange that they would be on a Metro. When she got off, she lifted her skirt and she had on white Vans. LOL
I met our promoter for breakfast and he is a super nice guy. We lamented the sorry state of country music in France. L I had planned to take Susan shopping after breakfast but she wasn’t feeling well. I answered emails and then went in search of something for lunch. It had started raining again. When I got back, David knocked on my door and said Susan was really sick and he wasn’t sure she could make the flight. We talked it over and she wanted to try. David could have stayed in Paris with her and flown to Germany tomorrow since our show is on Friday. But he didn’t have a room there for tonight and hated the thought of trying to get her into a Paris Emergency Room.
I have never, ever seen her in such pain. She has had a kidney stone before and was convinced that was what it was this time. She threw up all the way to the airport and then again on the flight. Once we landed, our promoter was able to call a doctor in a town near our hotel and get her an immediate appointment. We actually just stopped by the hospital en route to the hotel. Turns out the doctor is a world-renowned Urologist working in that little village! He did a scan and immediately located the stone. He said it had already dropped so he put her on a pain and nausea IV and put in an expander to try and help her pass the stone tonight. She had to stay overnight in the hotel, so of course David stayed with her. If she doesn’t pass it by early morning, he has to go in and retrieve it. OUCH. Hopefully she will and can fly to Zurich with us on Saturday morning.
We arrived at the hotel and even though it was dark, it looks beautiful. Howard, David and Susan’s rooms are in the “castle”…literally. Our rooms are huge and very, very modern. We had an amazing dinner that tasted “home cooked”. The only negative about the hotel was the fact that the internet didn’t work. Norwood and I climbed up and unplugged the router and plugged it back in. Works like a charm now. I’m telling you…I can rewire a hotel to get the internet working!
Filter landed in Kuwait and all is well. Their first show is tomorrow at Camp Buehring. HATE, HATE, HATE that I can’t be with them for the Afghanistan tour. But they are in great hands with my dear friend David Beecham.
Going to get in bed before 3 am tonight….maybe. Still depressed about my camera. I just bought it in April.
Jude
FRIDAY, AUGUST 29TH – PERFORMANCE AT THE FESTIVAL:
Breakfast buffet was pretty “sparse”…not very good at all…certainly NOT 4 Star Hotel quality. Worked out in the fitness room after breakfast and it was great! Really nice machines.
Next on the agenda was my shower. After washing my hair, I realized there was no soap in the soap dispenser. No idea why housekeeping would not check the dispensers.
It was brutally hot in the bathroom and I had the air conditioner turned down to 20. But it was not cooling off. I called the front desk only to be informed there is no air conditioning. I called the promoter and told him he would have to find us some “fans”. He was shocked because he said the hotel assured him it was air conditioned.
I sent David a text to see how Susan was doing and he said the stone had still not passed. It moved 1 centimeter overnight and still had 1 more centimeter to go before passing. The doctor wanted to wait until 1 pm and then make a decision.
I rode in a huge stretch limo with Howard to a little press conference and a meeting with the Mayor. It was a nice little gathering. They gave Howard a huge umbrellas as a gift and I told them that was bad luck. They should give him sunglasses! There was an artist there named Peter who has been commissioned to paint portraits for famous entertainers. The one he made of the Bellamys is amazing. Howard was “charming” as usual and the entire event – interviews and everything – was over in about 30 minutes.
Had a text from David saying they were on the way to the hotel. I thought that meant she had passed the kidney stone, but it didn’t. The doctor gave her two options – stay at that hospital for 3 more days in hopes it would pass or go into Munich and let the doctors there retrieve it but that meant a week in the hospital. She made the decision to have the doctor give her lots of pain medications and checked herself out.
I worked for a while and then had dinner. Dinner wasn’t nearly as good as last night though. Went over to the “Castle” to stay with Susan while David went to the performance. We had a nice long chat and she drank water non-stop in hopes of flushing out the kidney stone. It didn’t work…at least not tonight.
Bellamys said the tent was packed – around 2,000 people. He only had 1300 sold yesterday, so this was a huge success for him. Evidently I missed a great show…but then they always are.
Have an early call time to get to the airport so going to close. David let me know that Filter had a great show – about 750 troops and that their call time to depart to Afghanistan isn’t until 5 pm tomorrow night. Good news is they are on a C17 instead of a C130. C17 is a 3 hour flight with airplane seats and a C130 is a prop plane with “sling” seats!
Jude