Tour Break in Amsterdam

After my last gigs in Germany (Hamburg), I had a two-night break before the next gigs in Belgium.  One major city was perfectly situated for a couple nights off, between Hamburg and Antwerp: Amsterdam.



I stayed at a hostel in Amsterdam, my first one in many weeks, and it was located in the Red Light District, with coffeeshops, headshops, and prostitutes galore.  Its actually not that seedy of a Red Light District, though, except for the streets where prostitutes actually sit in windows and make faces at you, that was pretty damn seedy.


A monument to remember the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam during World War II.


One of Amsterdam's many canals, with a tour boat zipping along.  Some call Amsterdam the "Venice of the North".  I call it not nearly as warm, but at least not sinking.


Some cheap rental homes on the canal.


I really enjoyed the charming, seemingly slapped together homes that line the canals.

Hamburg

After Berlin I took a bus to Hamburg, where I once again had two shows in two nights.


The first night was a show in a trailer turned music venue, the Mobile Blues Club.  Located in an alternative part of Hamburg, this was a super unique venue.  Unfortunately, it was the one sleeper show I've had so far on this tour, probably due to it being Sunday night and freezing cold.  My only audience was the bartender and her friend, but it was fine, because the three of us sat around the stove to keep warm and chatted in between songs.  I can't complain about only having one sleeper show so far on this tour, and at least I had good company!


Hamburg's city hall.  Impressive, no?


The ruins of a church that was destroyed in World War II.  It has been left this way as a monument against war.  Its amazing how much of this you see in Germany.


Apartment buildings on Hamburg's canals.  Hamburg is a port city in the north of Germany, located on a river very near to the Baltic Sea, so there is lots of water everywhere.


This is an entirely new part of the city that Hamburg is in the process of building.  A futuristic business center and downtown, within twenty years this should be an ultra-hip commercial area rivaling just about anywhere else in Europe.

Sightseeing in Berlin

One of the new cities for me that I was looking the most forward to  on this trip was Berlin.  I had two nights in the city, playing one show each night, and also was able to do some sightseeing with my couchsurfing hosts, Alice, Sophie, and Fachreddin.  The pictures from those city excursions are below.

As far as the shows go, both were amazing, and I was astounded with the Berlin audiences.  The first night I played at a place called Cafe Hilde.  For some reason, I had a really bad feeling about the gig beforehand, really felt it was going to be a bust.  The place ended up being packed with people who listened intently for the entire two sets.  And during set break and after the show, everyone I talked to said that they came out specifically because they had seen my name in the local music rag and took the time to listen to the music online beforehand.  It is a seriously amazing feeling to be in a gigantic city in a country you've never played in before, and have that sort of crowd, I felt very fortunate.  The next night was also an amazing gig and audience, and the venue was my couchsurfing hosts' flat.  More on that in my next post, for now enjoy Berlin...



Potsdamer Platz.  Before World War II this was Berlin's vibrant downtown, and became a no man's land afterwards as the Berlin Wall ran through the middle of it during the Cold War.  Since the fall of the wall, it has been transformed into an uber modern business and entertainment area.  This is the "ceiling" on the outdoors Potsdamer Platz, it kind of feels like you are in the middle of the Death Star or something.


The Brandenburg Gate.  The only one of Belin's old city gates still standing.  Napolean carried the equestrian statue on the top back to France with him, but it was later returned to Berlin.


The Reichstag, Germany's "capitol".  It was nearly burned to the ground in 1933, and this fire helped Hitler rise to power, as he blamed his political enemies, the communists.  Most historians think that Hitler himself ordered the burning.  It sat abandoned from the end of World War II until it was resurrected in the last decade or so, and now once again houses Germany's government.  It has a very elegant glass dome, but unfortunately I couldn't get a good vantage point to capture the whole building.


What is left of the Berlin Wall has been transformed into an art gallery.  Walking along the east side here would have been impossible 25 years ago, as guards and machine guns guarded its entire length.


A check point between east and west.

Dresden

After the gig in Chemnitz on Tuesday, I had Wednesday night off before crossing the country for a show in Unna on Thursday.  I decided to spend it in Dresden, which is only an hour by train from Chemnitz, and is the capital of the region of Saxony.  I set up a last minute couchsurf with the help of my friend Rolf (Prague), and had a lovely evening.  My host Maria invited some other cs'ers from Dresden over for Poker, and I even taught some of them how to play Euchre.  It turned into a bit of an impromptu house concert, as well.  After getting the hell out of Chemnitz asap I did a bit of sightseeing around Dresden before meeting up with Maria, and so below are some pictures from that.  



Dresden is a beautiful city in the eastern part of Germany, and is still rebuilding and re-inventing itself.  Towards the end of World War II it was the target of a massive bombing campaign by the British and American air forces, and the city was pretty much completely destroyed.  It remains a very controversial military operation, as 3,900 tons of incendiaries were used on a town that was not a strategic military target, and resulted in the deaths of an estimated 24,000 to 40,000 innocent civilians.  Kurt Vonnegut wrote about the firebombing of Dresden in his book, "Slaughterhouse-Five", and the author actually witnessed the attacks first hand as a prisoner-of-war at the time.  All of the buildings in the pictures have been rebuilt since that destruction, even if they look old.


The domed building in the background is the Frauenkirche (church), a proud symbol of Dresden's re-building.  More on that in a moment.





A piece from the original dome of the Frauenkirche, which has been set in this main town square as a memorial.


Ok, so the Frauenkirche is an important symbol for Dresden, because it was almost completely destroyed in the bombing and was only recently reconstructed.  Only one wall remained standing after the bombing, and the ruins of the church sat untouched under communist rule for nearly 50 years, and the ruins became a sort of memorial to the city's destruction.  After the fall of the Iron Curtain and the reunification of Germany, the city began to plan to rebuild the church.  It was only finished in the last few years, opening in 2005.  The few darker blocks you can see are the few usable pieces from the original church.

Warszawa - in Pictures pt. 1

Above is the "Palace of Culture and Science", a 1950's era "gift" from Stalin. Everyone I talked to thinks its pretty ugly, and I do too!

In 1944, after an uprising against the Nazi's failed, Hitler ordered the entire city of Warsaw to be razed to the ground. 85% of Warsaw was destroyed, and you will find many exhibits around the city showing that destruction, or showing what the city looked like before.

Piludsky Square, a very large open space that has served many purposes over the years, including the first appearance of Pope John Paul II in Poland (his home country) after becoming the Pope. In this picture you see Polish soldiers walking towards the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Some very pretty moss in the park behind Piludsky Square