SPANGAL and Spangdahlem Air Base

DAY 4

I got up pretty early and took a final stroll around Rotterdam before we had to take off. Bussing it across Holland toward Germany, listening to music, and just enjoying the countryside. Life is pretty good. I couldn’t quit smiling. I love being in love, listening to music, and all this beautiful countryside just heightens emotions, and I couldn’t stop thinking of Angie. I wish she was here to experience this with me. She would really enjoy it.

Now I mean Bidnes bear.

We are staying off base because they are in a training session to see if they could be ready for another war and test everything. Our hotel is off base, it looks like a small villa in a movie (maybe an old bond film) Its surrounded by nature, lush German forests and a children’s park and zoo in the back. Rico hung witch today was really cool; he is so laid back and chill. Rico grew up in East Germany, and he spoke a bit to me about what it was like, it was great stories I wish I wrote it down.

Walking to the hotel

Our Guide here is a guy named Tony, Complete salt of the earth… Whatta guy. We are heading into Speicher. It is a quaint town with narrow streets and old buildings. We took the B-50, which is the most dangerous roadway in Germany. Apparently, soldiers get used to the auto bond and get amazing fast German cars, and this is a narrow windy road, and they lose control and go off the road and roll into ravines.

The winding roads along the rolling hills with villa-style houses makes me think this could be my favorite part of Europe. The Quaintness of the towns here in Germany are so peaceful, I get the vibe and really dig it. After an Amazing German meal, Tony asked if we wanted to take a ride on the Auto bond in one of his sports cars, and I couldn’t think of a word quicker to mean YES. We did right around 140mph, and he said that’s nothing.

Rotterdam

DAY 3

This is the view from our friend Andreas’ apartment. There is a Phili 76er who lives right below him.

Rotterdam am hungover as I can be. I skipped breakfast and just got on the bus and slept the whole ride. I felt much better when we got there. Our hotel is right on the river, and it is excellent, this is a very different trip than IRAQ. We overlook the river and one of the bridges I saw on extreme engineering. Very cool. The tour Defrance is starting here in 3 days, so we saw the Good Year Blimp the North sea jazz fest is next week as well. The fest is fantastic: Joss Stone, Norah Jones, Stevie Wonder, Al Green, Elvis Costello, Herbie Handcock, the Roots, and a ton more.. all in a couple days.    Yes, it is the Good Year Blimp in Rotterdam, just getting ready.

Andrea is our guy here; he is a very cool dude originally from Nashville. We had to cut the show to 1 hour because Holland was playing in the world cup. It was split crowds again, allot of Dutch folks in the audience but afterwords really seemed to enjoy it. We chatted it up with the guys had a couple Heinekens (we are where they make it!) and watched soccer. Andrea rode back with us to the hotel, he lives just over the bridge.

As we drove through Rotterdam, they explained the reason Rotterdam is so modern is that Hitler fellow bombed the crap out of them. Do not bring it up to someone who is Dutch, they are still pissed.



Snoop dog owns a house in Rotterdam, and he was going to do a free concert but had to cancel it because the bloods and crips showing up in Holland.


It is a small base, but they were friendly.

Coolest dutch wooden shoes ever.           

Andrea’s apartment overlooks the city and the New York Hotel that is the place where celebrities from the states stay (Lionel Richie, Beyonce, and such). This hotel used to be the port where the ship would set sail to NYC. The place is a fantastic boat themed expensive restaurant. We ran into a couple folks having a picnic, and Andrea knew them, so we started talking. They were so lovely. Still, as we walked away Andrea told me she is the “Hilary Clinton” of Holland, and I wondered where her bodyguards were, and he said my they stay hidden she doesn’t like their presents so they were up in the buildings and we probably had a gun on us at all times.

We watched Brazil and Chili at a bar who are mortal enemies, and there is a significant Brazilian population in that neighborhood. I got explained to me why the Holland team color is orange. Their flag is red, white, and blue, but the royal family color is orange, so they are the Orangemen. It was getting dark, and we decided to split, it doesn’t get dark till 10:45ish. The city is cool as hell at night, the lights are very artsy.

Here Andreas Apartment.

I really wanted to go to a coffee shop with pot just to say I did and see it. It didn’t really impress me, it looked like if a head shop was in an OTB that had steady customers that look like they were on the cast of Rotterdam shore. I’m sure there are cool ones, but this was the only one we knew.

We stopped at a bar called Hotel Bazar, it was a funky stained glass and funky chandlers all over. I got home and past out with the TV on. I woke up to pee the TV was full of nude women selling phone numbers and websites, I laughed and went back to bed.

Shopping in Belgium, Dinner in Germany and sleeping in the Netherlands

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DAY 2

It is on- a day off. We are up and going we are going to Luire to go to a street fair and shopping. I can’t quit saying “Belgium Dip” like in Gold Member. Rich and Bianca are our guides today, coming over and riding to go to town. We walked around, and people watched. Saw a man with an Abacus and monkey and a clown.. a real clown. We saw two great characters. They were memorable- one guy was a heroin addict who must not have enough to nod out, so he was walking around like a zombie, and another guy who heads looked like it got his head crunched and reformed, and he walked with a heavy limp.

This is Jazable she is our mascot, she needs a nap- she drank a little spilled beer.
After walking so much and seeing a fair that looked like it could have been in Queens, we stopped for a beer right on the sidewalk.

We coulda been in queens!

There is a monkey on my back and a hot chick on my shoulder. We also got to watch a clown, I think he stole my act.

The waterfront is amazing.

I went to dinner at a German restaurant in a park with our friends Chris and Charlean’s house. I had schnitzel.. just plain schnitzel, and it was goooooood. Melissa has a daughter, she is 17 years old who was busting my balls with Chris and Parker. They were hitting me left and right, it was hilarious how they all took to it. It was like they had it planned. Chris is an MP who was in Iraq, sounded very hurt locker life but for real. It was awesome listening to these stories. I drank way too much, the sun sets around 11 so you don’t think it is late till its too late. Chris broke out the nice scotch and beers. These 5 folks are some of the most beautiful people ever.

There was a ton of quotable, but my favorite line of the night was Brenda said she had to go to the US to get her license then back to get a German driver’s licensee- wow, and I thought the NYDMV was terrible.



TOMORROW HOLLAND.

Schinnen (Netherlands) This is Photo and captions section

DAY 1 The Netherlands

The first day was a lot of fun, it actually was 2 days smushed into one. I am going to pop this out there.

The photos are out of order on this blog.

Text in black

Captions in red.. We still good?

This is an old Church right by the bar district. We went and relaxed after the show and really had some excellent beers and some finger food that resembled fancy McNuggets.

This is a lake Parker and I saw as we hiked through the woods. Netherlanders love their hiking!

Here is the Shin Gang: Mark, Carol, Leigihan, Hitler sam(who is grabbing leigihan’s butt), Me Parker and Rich

I’m Being Mauled by our Mascot Jazabelle Rich and Bianka pup. Also the sweetest dog in Europe

Today’s flight was quite a tiring one- let me explain.

1st my flight to Atlanta got canceled the night before the gig, so we road tripped.

I got back to Jerz filmed (Drop Dead Twice) 2 days then drove to Ohio (hung with 4 generations of family) back then to JFK to head to Brussels.

I didn’t sleep much on the flight. In fact barely at all, we got off the plane and was surprised to see we are taking a tour bus.. like a celebrity tour bus.

We got to the hotel and had it to ourselves. Parker and I decided to take a hike in the woods and see the land. It was beautiful. It kind of reminded me of central Pennsylvania. The woods are full of trails that break off into other paths. We saw people on 4 wheelers, bikes, and horses. At one moment I heard something off in the distance, a horse must have got loose and took off, and it ran by us with a saddle and no one on it. I was tired and didn’t want to show off my superpowers, so I let them go. There was a fantastic lake with powder-soft sand. There where some people camping and swimming. When we walked back, a car pulled up to parker and i. It was two Dutch girls in swimsuits, and they spoke to us in Dutch. I laughed and looked at parker and said two kinds of movies start like this… Porno and slasher flick, and if this is a porno, I will be slashed when I get home!

It was now show-time. I went and showered up then met up with our leader Mark Bogges. We loaded on the bus (I forgot to introduce you to our bus driver Rico) and went to the base Schinnen. Its an army air forces base- and it was mixed countries- I think it has of had something to do with NATO. We chowed on great lasagna and hung out, waiting for the show to start. We found out the colonel who ran the base was leaving soon and it was her birthday, we had a lot of fun with her, Col. Sumter. The show was great, and we got plaques. The gang decided to take us out to eat and drinks downtown Herlen. It was a very hip cool area.

Here is our Tour Bus- these guys carted Willy Nelson, Paul McCartney, Sinatra, and Sammy around Europe. I think this el do! 

Here we are getting a Briefing at the hotel by THE MAN- Mark Bogges