Hamburg

Rusty and I walked to the town square in Hamburg today. It was a bit chilly and rainy but it was nice. I ordered in German and it felt great (my German is not good at all) But I can order a soy latté and ask if they have soya milk. And thank GOD a cream cheese bagel is eine creamcheesebagel! And that they understand it if you say "TO GO" I always forget the Germany words for it.

Mannhein

Very nice here.

When we arrived there was a great street festival happening here. We walked around and ate Corn on the Cob, Potato Latkes and I had a Nutella & Banana Crepe.

Michael Bublé about to be arrested...(for looking so good)

That's Jann, our driver, Torben, Jody and Michael.

It was a triple birthday last night so michael took us ALL out for dinner (40+ people)

It was FUN!

Just having lunch with Jody (free internet here) and we are BOTH on our laptops.

I told him to email me when the bill gets here.

Rusty and I sat in the dressing room today staring at each other in silence, for some reason today at the venue dragged on and on. But when we finally got on stage we were ALL exited to be playing. Jann was really funny and talked more (and we managed not to go over our 20 minutes). I think it was the best set we played so far!

Jann sang beautifully and the audience seemed to really get it!

The drive

It was a long (almost 600km) drive to Hamburg after the show, and it was raining really heavily at times. Our driver Torben is really great. I couldn't do it. I watched all the fast parts of the drive (i couldn't look away from the road) it's amazing how fast you go. I thought I try to share with you what it feels like, so I took a short video of it. But it seems SO much slower on the video than in real life. But here it is anyways...

Autobaun


When we arrived at the hotel we went to the bar on the 26th floor and watched the people dance and laughed. It was a lot of fun, we needed to unwind after the drive for some reason. It seemed a little intense...

Rotterdam

Munnich Second Day Off

Jody took us to an amazing Italian restaurant for our last night in Munnich. it was really good food. And the owner recognized us and told Jann how much he enjoyed the show! Then, if you can believe it, we ended up at the Hofbräuhaus again for another gigantic beer. We met an american couple from san francisco and a couple of nice german guys, who taught us drinking songs in Germany. The beer is so good there. It was a nice last night in Munnich.

Munnich Day Off

What a great city this is! I walked to marienplatz today from the hotel, it was a long walk but it was beautiful. I walked through an area called Schwabing and found a great café, they had soy milk!

Munnich

The Drive

Was uneventful and pretty short from Stuttgart to Munnich. We were determined to go out on the town when we arrived in Munnich.

Munnich by Night

We went to this really great touristy typical German pub with a live band in Ledderhosen playing "oom pa pa" songs in 3/4 time. The beers we ordered were in HUGE mugs (see photos) it was a litre of beer! Jann and I danced to the last song of the night the band played. We ordered some food (yes they had something vegetarian for me) I had potato balls in mushroom soup! It was HUGE. We just got our order in 1 minute before the kitchen closed and we were promptly kicked out 5 minutes before closing time. They seem to be very 'time efficient' here in Germany.

Then we stopped off and one more NICE bar for a last beer before we called it a night.

The Venue

Was built for the 1972 Olympics. It's pretty NICE!

Russ and Jody went out to do some laundry and I am just hanging out in the hotel lobby trying to decide if it's worth the 20 euros for the internet before I go to the venue (in three and a half hours) I think I can wait for the free internet at the venue....

I held out and I am enjoying my free internet here at the venue.

Paris

The Drive

Right after we got off stage in Luxembourg, we hopped in the van and drove to paris. We arrived in Paris at 1am on a Saturday night. I can't believe how BUSY it is at that time. It was like rush hour. And those traffic cirlces are absolutely insane! There are NO lanes, just people cutting across traffic. I was glad to not be driving. Although I have seen so many Vespas and SMART cars, that i sometimes wish I were driving!

The Next Day

I went out exploring. I found one of those big traffic cirlces we went through the nigth before and they had closed it to cars, and they were having a great market there. It seemed much more peaceful without the traffic.

I also saw lot's of scooters here! And had a nutella and banana crepe!

The Gig

Was good, I thought, although I rushed good mother a bit. The crowd seemed to like us even though for a lot of them, it was probably the first time they had heard of Jann Arden. Jann ALWAYS sings SO great, it's so inspiring just to close my eyes and get caught up in the music. I did that for the first time on tour tonight. I also, looked out at the audience, they seemed friendly looking back at me.

We also said goodbye to Nikki on her last night in Paris.

As usual, we ran off stage, dropped of our ears and packed into the van. We probably were on the road a mere 10 minutes after we got off stage. We are getting really fast at that.

The Drive

Our diver Torbin, is a really good driver. He drives FAST but he is very careful. He is just describing a horrible accident he witnessed, pretty gross. Jann joked with him tonight "Hey Torbin, how's the tour bin'?" He didn't get it but even after we explained it to him he didn't laugh! Ha ha ha. He's German but speaks perfect english, just doesn't get our sophisticated canadian humour I guess.

We play Stuttgart tomorrow and Munnich the next day, then we have a day or two off in Munich. Michael has a Hugo Boss sponsorship (i think) so they are going to take us to the Hugo Boss outlet to get some cheap clothes (relatively).

I just noticed that we are going 190km/h. I have NEVER gone that fast before and been on the GROUND. But we did make the last stretch of the drive through germany pretty FAST!

Luxembourg

The Flight

We flew in to Luxembourg the night before the show. The flight was the last one to leave before the weather turned bad in London and when we landed in Luxembourg it was in the middle of a downfall. You could see the storms on either side of us as we landed. We were lucky to make our take off and landing and not be delayed. We will be traveling mostly by van now until Rotterdam where we fly back to London then Toronto on June 1st.

Immigration was a breeze as apparently Luxembourg is a tax haven, so people often work in Germany or France and live in Luxembourg. Not sure if it's tax free or just low taxes.

The Hotel Bar

The hotel was up on a hill, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. There was a beautiful forrest all around the hotel, and a beautiful light rain was falling. We imagined the local Luxembourgers lived in the wood with bows and arrows (probably not entirely accurate). Russ ordered and entire bottle of smirnoff vodka and Nikki, Russ and I sat around for hours drinking it, as the Bublé crew slowly piled in to the hotel bar. They all seem very nice and seem like they are a real "team".

Nikki, laughing until she cries at the hotel bar.

The Gig

The next day we took a 30 minute van ride through town and into a really industrial looking area. The venue is RIGHT next door to what appears to be an abandon steel factory.

The catoring is amazing. I had a great soup and nice bread. Bublé travels with his own catoring. While we were eating the sky turned dark and it started raining, then it turned to a hale shower, it was quite intense. Our sound guy is doing sound for brian adams in florence tonight and apparently brian was rerouted due to weather, we're not sure if he will make it to the gig.

London

The Gig

It was at a club called Dingwalls (The Jam have played there) in Camden Town.

This is Camden Town.

A friend of Ron Chamberlain's, who i had recently met on myspace, came to the gig and she sent a bottle of Champaign to our (tiny) dressing room. Her name is Kirstn. After the show I went out and met her and her two mates (that's what they call friends here). One of her mates, Russ, turned out to be Ron Chamberlain's (Jann's production manager from the last tour) brother. We chatted for a while and then we arranged to meet at the BEST coffee shop (near Carnaby street) the next day.

Kirstn, Jann, Russ Chamberlain & Nikki

Covent gardens @ Night in the rain

Jann Arden, London, 16 May 2006

Jann Arden, London, 16 May 2006, originally uploaded by Francis Storr.

Russ, Jann and I in London (at Dingwalls)

Jet Lag

Sitting in the bar at the City Inn in London, drinking.

We are determined to stay up late tonight!!!

It's nice here, a bit cool and overcast.

We had a really nice walk around today, mostly in Chelsea!

Loving it!!!

Gp