Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Leaving today for Zurich, Switzerland with Lorrie Morgan. Lorrie is playing Albisguetlie on Friday and Saturday night. I am so excited to get back to Zurich and see some people that have become good friends. Also excited to see Lorrie and her band again.
We are flying on 2 different airlines, mine on DL through and Atlanta and Lorrie and the band on AA through JFK. I leave 45 mins before they do and land about 10 mins before them. By the time they all made it through security in Nashville, my flight had boarded. Called Jeff, her tour manager and let them know I would see them at baggage claim in Zurich.
So, the long flight from Atlanta was on one of Delta’s new planes..new configuration for business class..very nice..my seat was by itself and you have a whole little cubby area..oh.. and a massage button on your chair..and it works 🙂
Watched a movie through dinner (only way I see movies these days are on flights) and got about 3 hours of sleep. Flight landed on time, grabbed luggage and waited for the others. They were on time and all luggage arrived.. yay.. one hurdle down.
Albi and Ernie were there waiting for us, Lorrie and Marcia rode with Albi to the hotel while the rest of us rode with Ernie.. ran into some morning rush hour traffic so it took a bit longer than normal to get to hotel. Checked everyone in and I think they are crashing…I however, have to head into the city and shop. Mom bought the kids some clothes when she was here a few weeks ago and they were to small so I have to exchange them.
Speaking of kids.. when I landed, I had a text from Christy saying she had met my nice neighbor, the policeman, last night when she set off my house alarm 🙂 Talked to her this morning and she asked me when they got so ‘”bossy”. Hmmm..I don’t know.. do you JuJu? But they are fine and missing mamma 🙂
I forgot to mention, this hotel has 1 tiny elevator. You open the door, get in, push the floor # and it goes up and stops at your floor. No sound, no buzzer. When it stops, you just have to open the door to get off. We had a few in the band that rode the elevator up to their floor…and back down to the lobby, not realizing they had to open the door 🙂
Met up with Lorrie, Jeff, Kelley and Mark to go eat. We were going to walk down to this little Italian place, but on our way we passed a Chinese / Thai place and saw the rest of our group just finishing their meals. They said it was very good so we joined in.. I had the Red Curry Chicken, my mouth was on fire but I ate almost every bit it was so good. Finished dinner and made a quick wine run at the grocery store next door.
Jet lag is setting in, going to catch up on my sleep. Soundcheck and first show tomorrow!
Friday, March 15, 2013
Slept like a rock till 8:30. Seriously I don’t think I moved all night! Went downstairs for breakfast and ran into Mark. We both sat there eating with our hair sticking straight up..yeah.. we slept well!
Went back up to the room to get ready. The showers here are little “squares” in the corner of the bathroom with a thin little curtain. You have 2 choices. Keep the curtain inside the foot tall “edge” at the bottom and have the curtain stick to you most of the shower or you can pull the curtain outside the “edge” and flood the entire bathroom floor, but no curtain clinging to you.
Since we have to leave the hotel at 3 to go the venue for soundcheck and then dinner and show, I decided to stay around the hotel. Lorrie is on the hunt for a new Cuckoo Clock so I have had Albi and my friend Joe that lives here give me some suggestions on where to send her. Not sure if she and Kelley will venture into town today to look or I may end up taking her tomorrow.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Thank God breakfast at the hotel is open later on weekends! Went downstairs around 10 some of the guys started coming in around the same time.. guess we are still trying to catch up on our sleep.
Bill, our friend that has the club in Germany came over to Zurich to see the guys and is also friends with her opening act tonight. He and I went into town and grabbed lunch at the famous Swiss restaurant, Zeughauskeller. It use to be an old arsenal warehouse, one of the decorations was a huge cannon! We didn’t order it, but one of there famous dishes is the “mayors sword”. The meat is served on a sword the length of the table! I have passed the restaurant many times while shopping on Bahnhof but never had the chance to eat there, glad I finally got to experience it.
While we were out, Albi took Lorrie, Kelley and Marcia out to lunch and help Lorrie find her Cuckoo clock. Ran into Marcia around 5 and she said they had the best time, however she was not going with us at 6:30 to eat but rather stay and go over at 9 with Lorrie and Kelley, so I got to have dinner with the guys. We usually have to order from a “set” menu instead of the restaurant menu, so Mark and Jeff asked our waitress if they could order something off the normal menu tonight.. our waitress did not look to pleased with this.. you could tell my the way she slammed down her menu pad on our table. Oh well. Jeff got his chicken breast and I think Mark felt so bad he just ended up ordering off our selection.
Albi brought Lorrie over around 9:00…again another sold out show. Lorrie did another amazing performance. I know her and the band were very happy with everything and want to come back soon.
Back at the hotel around 1 and we have to leave for the airport at 6:30 am 🙁
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Everyone was downstairs and Ernie, our driver, was waiting for us at 6:30. I don’t think anyone really got a good hour of sleep, just worried they would miss their wake up call, so we are all very, very tired. I fly out on Delta and the others are on American. I showed them the AA check in counter then went downstairs to Delta to check in. Came back up and Jeff was still checking in a few people. Marcia and I were walking ahead of Jeff, Mark and Roger toward the security line, got in line and I turned around to say something to Jeff and the guys were gone! We have no idea where they went. Marcia and I made it through and went to catch the tram to the international terminal. My flight was starting to board so I said my good bye’s, boarded the flight and within minutes I was asleep. I slept the whole flight, woke up about 50 mins prior to landing… and starving!! No problems with my connection in Atlanta and landed in Nashville at 4:30. Nothing better than having your kids run up and hug you as you walk down to get your luggage 🙂 Of course the first words were “you got me a toy?”
I called Jeff around 8 to see if everyone made it home and they were sitting on a plane in LaGaurdia about to take off for Nashville. Ummm.. they were suppose to be going through JFK. He said their flight out of Zurich was delayed by 4 hours (mechanical) and didn’t leave Zurich until 1pm..missing their connection in JFK. Had to pick up all their luggage and gear and shuttle over to LGA to catch a flight home.. landing Nashville at 11 tonight. But.. everyone was good spirits..even if tired.
I could not have asked for a better trip. Had a few hiccups, but for the most part everything was perfect. They were all such a pleasure to work with and I hope we do it again soon.