Amsterdam, Holland 14 May 2013

We'd checked in late the night of the 12th after the show in Antwerp and I spend a good half hour trying to figure how things in this room work.  Completely over engineered and tricked out, push button curtains, lights that go on and off by touch and more.  An internet system that is not Mac friendly requiring a trip to reception to get on line but not after a lot of head scratching.  Finally got a bit of it sorted and down to sleep.

Monday the 13th was a day off here in Amsterdam.  Went down to the very well equipped and large gym and apart from the blaring shit music these kinds of places still think is motivational, had a great work out.  Hit the street and turned in to the Small Talk Cafe for a delicious cheese omelette, a side salad and coffee.  Perfect.  Fortified, I walked the streets for a couple of hours finally making my way to the Van Gogh Museum.  I'd been many years ago and was happy to take it in again for another couple hours.  A band dinner and an early night in.

The gig on the 14th was at the Ziggo Dome, a brand new facility specially built for shows and it was a capacity crowd of 12,000.  It was our first show of the tour with Ruth Moody and her band opening.  Ruth is a fantastic singer, songwriter, has two solo albums out and several albums as part of the female trio The Wailin' Jennies.  Ruth & Co. will be joining us for all the Albert Hall shows as well as several others.  Her opening set was great and she returned to join us on stage for three songs.  Brilliant.  In spite of some technical difficulties it was a great show and a thunderous audience.  Always good to play Amsterdam.

Back to the hotel for a full attendance night cap and a good night's sleep.  Tomorrow we play Luxembourg then fly to Glasgow where we'll begin a long series of dates through the U.K.

So long,

Richard