running around & climbing

Today is Thursday. I feel like since Monday we've been just all over the place. We had the day off Monday & Tuesday so we took the subway into Amsterdam and walked our feet off. Central Amsterdam is pretty small compared to how I thought it would be from looking at maps. You can get totally get around on foot (or bike, if you've got one). And there's tons to see just walking down the street. The buildings are fascinating; they're narrow, tall, interesting to look at and leaning on each other.We really did manage to kill a day just hoofing it around the city.

The next day we also got up & went into Amsterdam. Our host, Sandra, knows a musician , Boudewijn Zwart, who plays the bells at the Westerkirk Cathedral. He invited us up for his daily noon performance. After the first long
spiral stair case there was a series of rooms, one above the other, most containing a piece of machinery for the timekeeping bells. And as we went up, each staircase got more narrow, more twisty, or more precarious in general. At the top was the Carillon, they keyboard instrument that he used to play the bells in the belfry just above. Hey played a few pieces for us.He then invited us to climb the last stairs up into the belfry and look around while he finished his performance. As I'm heading up he says "mind your head, and your ears". Up there it was low, loud, and amazing. Like standing on a rooftop at the top of Amsterdam, except there's someone hammering an half-ton bell just above your head and you have to keep out of the wires that actuate the hammer.

Here's me on a walkway lower on the tower.

The rest of the day we walked around and did a little shopping.

Wednesday we got up and rehearsed a bit, and then drove 2 hours up to Amen and played a show to a bar packed to the gills with 90 or 100 people. Here's the room just after sound check:
And an audience member took some nice pictures, they're posted here.