Nuremberg, Germany 7 November, 2011

Running on less than 4 hours sleep today, finally drifting off sometime close to 6 this morning and up again just before 10.  Coffee/gym, both will get me through.  My thinking on these
after-show bus journeys and early morning arrivals has been to stay awake on the bus so I'd be ready to sleep when we hit the hotel.  Problem was, I drifted off for 20 minutes on the way into Nuremberg, a power nap.  Got to the hotel fully refreshed, wide awake, tossing and turning 'til dawn.  

I was glad to zip up the bags this afternoon and get to our gig, the Nurnberger Versicherung Arena. Several of us coping were with sleep deprivation today, we made a bee line for catering for a pre-sound-check bowl of mushroom soup, bread & butter and a cup of tea.  Feeling slightly better I listened Bob and Co. running some songs on stage then it was time for our very brief sound check, 10 minutes to be exact!  Dinner and back to the dressing room where I dropped into a chair and promptly fell asleep for a half hour.  Woke up feeling loads better and just in time to get changed for the show, our final in Germany on this tour.

Loads of energy on that stage tonight considering the lack of sleep.  Ian Thomas really blasting through with some fantastic drumming and all in top form.  The usual stage change then Dylan and band take the boards along with Mark who played the first four songs with him again tonight.

The bus ride to Innsbruck was shorter and delivered us to the hotel lobby around 1:30.  I was so knackered that I fell asleep a while on the bus so no telling what the rest of the night will bring. On arrival, tour manager Tim Hook warned me this was an "electronic hotel" meaning overly complicated gadgetry for operating the lights. He wasn't wrong. After entering the room and inserting the key card into a slot by the front door, one is confronted with a panel of unmarked buttons and I simply began pressing them all... lights coming and going, curtains opening and closing 'til I figured out which button did what.  That sorted, it was a real struggle getting and staying hooked up to the internet as my room is the last one down a long hall way, the wireless signal being weakest there.  In order to get signal I had to hang out near the lifts on my floor.  It was 3 when I made my way to the bed where I was faced with another touch panel.  At least this one had icons on the buttons.  Lights out.  Wide awake. 

So long,

Richard