Dortmund Quickie

It was one of those typical days on tour, that basically consists of getting up early, getting a quick breakfast at a random bakery (no, not at the hotel, they charge more for a breakfast then they do for a room :-/) and trying to be back on the road as quick as possible.

While weather had been picture perfect since Lee brought it with him from England, things started to look more grey by the minute now.

When you have to go 420 km (260 miles) on the Autobahn, things can get a little bit boring. There are folks who keep themselves entertained by producing funny 'tales from the Autobahn' videos and others who think it would be a good idea to start writing the blog post for the day.

Arrived in Dortmund after a good 4 hours to a hotel- and parking-situation that would almost cause a nervous breakdown on the next day. The hotel - Mercury Dortmund City, and no, I won't link up and give a recommendation - while being located rather good in the heart of the city, very close to the main station and shopping areas, is accessible only via elevator (we rode elevator more often in 1 day than normally in 1 year). First hotel floor is located on the 3rd floor of a large building. They don't have their own parking garage but you have to use a public one. "Nearby".

The point is: "nearby" is a flexible word, depending on how much luggage, camera equipment bags and handbags/purses you carry ...

The rooms were alright though. Just please stay away from that place when you have to haul large and heavy bags from the nearby parking garage.

We wanted to avoid the almost-starving problem from Stuttgart and looked for a nearby (in the true meaning of the word) restaurant and stumbled upon Mr. Truong, a Vietnamese restaurant that had it's, um, grand opening (in the not true meaning of the word) on this very day.

Stefie chose Chicken Madras (she said it was yummmy)

me Crispy Duck with Peanut Sauce, which was meh. Bad case of very dry meat. Sauce was ok.

And since there hadn't been any other opportunity nor time for ST work once again, we left them at least something in the ladies room ;-)

Back at the hotel I had to finish the blog... more or less simultaneously with getting ready for the evening (speaking of women and multitasking), and I uploaded it while walking out the door. Kinda. Without proof-reading and link-checking. Aaaahhh well... ;-)

Meanwhile some heavy rainshowers ha come down but as if by magic, when we left the hotel to walk to the venue, it stopped.

The lady at the hotel reception had told us, the FZW would be in close walking distance (aka "nearby") to the hotel. Flexible word. As I said.

Arrived there at around 7:30pm and got a good spot on the left hand side of the stage. We were almost sure that Lee would be the first again this evening... but then Sarah & Rich from Paper Aeroplanes came upstage shortly after 8pm.

:-)

They already mentioned during their performance that today's set would be short and after approx. 45 minutes PA left the stage again. After the usual break Lee came out at close to 9:15pm and the crowd enjoyed Lee's performance as much as they had PA's one. Then again... there's no way anyone cannot enjoy Lee, right?

Nothing new to report about the setlist, other that he didn't play that brandnew song. Also absent was Falling In Love For The Last Time :-(. But at least we still got the two songs he performs together with PA.

At 10pm everything was over, although people desperately wanted an encore. Which we perhaps would have gotten... but the problem was, that there was another event scheduled for that evening. Sucked for those who could only see that one show in  Dortmund.

It may have been shorter than ususal, but nothing short of awesome nonetheless!

Back at the nearby hotel, a relaxing drink at the bar ended another great day on tour.

And now, as usual, some photos. Enjoy.