Wed Feb 22 – Thursday Feb 23 Off to Zurich with Las Lluvias Del Norte
(Lindsey Chance)
Leaving today for the 37th Internationale Country Festival in Zurich with Las Lluvias Del Norte. They are an all girl band out of Mexico. We originally had them playing in 2022 but it was cancelled because of Covid and rescheduled for this year.
Flying on American this time so I could meet up with the band in Philadelphia and all fly together into Zurich from there. The flight out of BNA was one of the small AA planes and take off felt a lot like being in a sling shot. Very quick and straight up. I landed Philly on time and have about 2 hours before the band arrives from DFW. Went to the AA lounge to catch up on emails and grab a quick bite.
Met LLDN and entourage at the gate. Everyone is so nice and super excited to be going!
Flight left Philly on time but once we were up in the air, the wifi on the plane wasn’t working. I hate not being accessible to my kids! Watched a movie while they served dinner then slept off and on for 3 hours.
Albi met us outside of baggage claim with our driver. This is the first time I have seen Albi since 2020 when I was here with Runaway June about to do a show but instead, we had to change our flights and go home due to the boarders about to close due to Covid!! I rode with Albi to the hotel while the rest rode with the driver to the hotel. Got to the hotel around 9:30 am. Thankfully all the rooms were ready, and the group was able to go put their stuff up and grab a quick breakfast.
The rest of today is an “off day”. I unpacked and checked emails and decided to take the tram into town for a little bit. Trying to stay awake as long as possible to adjust my sleep. It was raining this morning when we arrived, but the sun has come out and it is almost “hot”!
Grabbed dinner on my way back to the hotel, tried to stay awake long enough to talk to the kids when they get out of school, but doesn’t look like I will make that.
Friday Feb 24 – LLDN first show
The forecast I saw before leaving the US said “Highs in the mid 40’s and lows in the low 30’s” but they were wrong…today we actually reached 60 yesterday and today! I had my window opened all night and around 5 am I awoke to birds “squawking” tried to go back to sleep and finally gave up around 6:30. Got dressed and went downstairs for breakfast.
Other than a quick walk down to the grocery store, I stayed close to the hotel today.
Today is the long day at the venue with soundcheck at 3:30, dinner before the show and then showtime is 9:30 pm. Soundcheck went well and took all of an hour.
We walked over to the restaurant at 6:30 for dinner, I haven’t been here since they remodeled the restaurant. Looks completely different. Same menu though 🙂
After dinner the girls went up to the dressing room to get ready and around 8:30 they realized they had all left their boots at the hotel. Thankfully Sebastian here at the venue offered to drive Raul over to the hotel to get grab them! The girls are so nervous and excited. This is their first time playing in Europe!
They took the stage at 9:30 and did a phenomenal job! The crowd absolutely loved and them. Their stage presence and harmonies were amazing. They even learned a couple of country songs for this performance. We finished around 11:30 and back to the hotel at midnight. I believe Albi was very pleased with his choice to bring them and everyone is looking forward to their 2nd show tomorrow night.
Got to my room and checked in with the kids. They had just got home from school. Zoe was trying to take a nap but said JuJu didn’t understand what “downtime” meant
Going to get some sleep, we do not have to be at the venue until 7pm tomorrow.
Saturday Feb 25 – LLDN 2nd show
Slept until 8:30! No “singing” birds, or at least I did not hear them. Went downstairs to grab breakfast and saw a few of the girls already in the restaurant.
Back upstairs and tried the shower thing again. My room is on the top floor, so the ceiling is slanted, as well as the shower ceiling, and it’s tiny. I have flooded the floor each time I shower. You would think by now I would know how to master them!
We do not leave for the venue until 6:45 tonight, so I took the tram into town to walk around a bit in Old Town and grabbed the kids some chocolate.
Caught up on some emails and started packing my stuff up. I have to leave at 6:45 am tomorrow for the airport and it’s going to be a late night tonight. Not sure how much of this chocolate is going to make it home… 😊
Met everyone down in the lobby at 6:45 to drive over to the venue. We put our stuff in the dressing rooms and walked over to the restaurant. Same menu as last night. Girls ate very quickly so they could start getting ready. They are doing a short radio interview at 9pm in the dressing room. Our friends, Marcus & Bridget are here tonight as well as my old friend Annalise. Heidi, Joe and Elsie from the Gstaad festival also came to tonight’s show. So nice to see them all. I also got to meet Albi’s youngest daughter, he has 3 daughters and I thought I had met them all but he assured me I had not met her yet.
The girls did their radio interview and at 9:20 they were ready to walk over to the stage and took the stage at 9:30. Their songs are all in Spanish except the 2 country songs they learned for this festival. The audience loves it and the dance floor is packed. It is not just their clothes, talent and harmonies that made these 2 shows so special. You could feel it from their heart how excited they were and to be able to bring a part of their culture with them. They made us feel like we were getting a glimpse of what a festival in Mexico would be like.
We were all wondering how their show would go over and if it would be accepted. We had nothing to worry about. It really could not have gone any better. My friends that I spoke to said it was so nice to have something a little different and we all knew it was a very “special” night.
I think I forgot to mention that the girl’s parents and some family members also came to Switzerland for these shows. They rented an Airbnb near the hotel, but it is above a night club ☹
Their Dad is the one who taught them how to play all their instruments. He is so sweet and even though he does not speak Swiss German or English, he made friends with everyone at the venue!
After the show we did several photo’s and then packed up so our driver could get us back to the hotel. Said my goodbyes to everyone in the hotel lobby as they will be snoozing when I leave for the airport. Most of them are heading to Italy and France Sunday evening and then flying back to Mexico next Sunday.
Sunday Feb 26th
Left my room at 6:30 to go downstairs and wait for the Taxi. Small hotel. small elevator, 4 floors and basement. Took the elevator down, doors open and as I walk out, I noticed all the doors to the hallways are closed and locked and say “private” I am thinking that one of them has to open into the lobby. Finally realized I went to the basement level instead of the lobby level. Get back in the elevator and hit “1”, get off elevator and all I see are hallways with rooms, no lobby. Get back in elevator and finally dawns on me that Lobby is on “0”. Not -1 (basement) or “1” (first level rooms) Needless to say I am tired.
Taxi was outside waiting for me. No traffic early this morning and I was at the airport by 7:00 am. The American counter had just opened for check in. Checked in and walked toward the gates. Last time I was here that was a very long line to go to the “E” gates which are the international departures. Not so much this early. Went ahead and went through security and took the tram to “E” gates. There was a “Prime” lounge near my gate that I had access to so I spent 2 hours in there and grabbed some breakfast.
Flight boarded and left on time. I am in the same seat as I was going over and I think I had the same flight attendant as she said “nice to see you again”
I had wifi on this flight but with the time difference mom and kids were sleeping so not much work stuff coming through. The flight attendant and I started talking about the different wines we buy when we are over here. She told me about a White Merlot that the sell in Switzerland. I told her about my Amarone that I buy. Buy the end of the flight she had given me a bottle of red that she said was going to have to be thrown out if I didn’t take it.
Landed in Philly, grabbed my bag at customs, stuffed my wine in my checked bag and rechecked it. We landed in Term A so once you clear customs, you have to go through security again then catch a tram over to F terminal where my flight is leaving from.
The security line was very long and no TSA pre check. I walked over to terminal C where the pre check was and zipped right through.
Mom and kids picked me up once we landed Nashville. Very surprised that all my flights went off without a hitch! Very thankful too.
Very quick and successful trip to Zurich. Great seeing old friends and made some new ones. They invited me and the kids to come to Zacatecas, Mexico where they are from, which we would love to do!