Originally, i planned to go see Guano Apes in Berlin & Leipzig. Then travel to Amsterdam & have “a day off” on Saturday, before the GA show at Melkweg on Sunday. Was gonna do that with Marc, but, even though he was initially interested in doing Berlin/Leipzig, he lost interest. I didn’t fancy doing the shows on my own,partly because of my illness & partly because i’m not as confident doing stuff out of the UK nowadays (This is coming from a guy who made multiple flights & train rides to see all the “final” GA shows back in 2005). Oh another thing, due to my condition, i cannot get any “holiday” insurance. So in the end, i had to cut it back & just go to GA in Amsterdam. However, my local mate Andy (G) kinda came to the rescue. He’d booked 3 nights hotel in Amsterdam whilst i’d only booked 2 nights (Sharing with Jorge). Andy suggested i fly out with him & i could share his hotel room on the first night (+at Gatwick as well). He’s a good mate for sure. As i’d waited so long for Marc to decide, flight prices were going up & i really needed to get on with things. So i took up Andys offer & booked train tix & flights to Gatwick.
This whole trip started after Curry Night on Thursday 2nd November. Went staight to Boston train station to travel to Gatwick airport.Was a smooth journey, with no hickups along the way.Soon got checked in & once in the room had a good, if short, nights sleep. No snoring either 😉 The flight went well & we quickly got into Amsterdam. Bought a 3 day travel card as Andys hotel was quite far away. I fancied walking it as it wasn’t too far from the area i know & it’s always good to have a packup plan if trams have any problems. As we walked along Damrak, i decided i need to start the day with some chips & mayonaise ! (Didn’t have any on last trip to the Dam, so had to have em this time!) We walked the route we’ve done many a time & soon got to Leidesplein. As we were there, thought we’d quicky go to Melkweg. (Backtracking a bit… before we travelled over to Amsterdam, Andy had mentioned that “Wolf Alice” were playing at Melkweg on Friday. I immediately thought “Hmm that would add to the trip”….but i wondered if i’d be knackered already & didn’t wanna wear myself out on the first day, which could potentially ruin the whole weekend for me. So decided to make up my mind once there). We then carried on to find my hotel. Once again, it was in the pefect position for Paradiso/Melkweg/ Rijksmuseum etc. Then carried on to find the hotel Andy had booked. Having not been there before, it took us a while to find it. Funniest thing was we actually walked right past the place & didn’t realise it ! When we doubled back, i said ” Andy, see that big sign that says Hilton?” was funny at the time. We soon got checked into the hotel by a lass that Andy took a shine to. Didn’t quite catch her name, but sounded like “Urethra”. Hence forth that was her name 😉 Whilst we were in our room, there were some chaps outside cleaning the windows! I also noticed, down below, a boat connected to the hotel (i assume) Hilton Marina .
I decided to stay in the hotel for a while, to recharge my batteries, whilst Andy went out for a while. (Any excuse eh mate ? ;-)) I think Andy came back just over an hour later. We then went or our usual pilgrimage to the various bars etc. Mr T. wasn’t with us this time, but he’d sorted out Andy with his infamous stickers on the the map 🙂 First place we had a beer was Cafe Hoppe. Later we went to Tomaz Restaurant for some grub. It was busy, but managed to get a table. Had a good old chat with the waitress & i said something like “When i think of a pie, i imagine it to be some pastry with a filling”. What she recommended , was actually a tart, but they called it a pie! Apparently, she’d been saying this to the management for a couple of years, but they wouldn’t change it to what it really was . She even suggested i should review the place & mention about how people visiting expect a pie (as i previously described) So, that’s where my comment of “When is a pie not a pie? When it’s a tart!” came from 😉 After filling ourselves, we went for another wander & somehow we ended up back at the Melkweg 😉 We decided that as we were here, we might as well go see Wolf Alice 🙂 It wasn’t sold out, so getting tickets on the door was a doddle. Maybe it was because we got there early, but the place wasn’t very busy. Managed to find a nice spot on right side of balcony & we stayed there all night. 
Tonights gig was good, but not great. I couldn’t put my finger on it,but, i kinda felt that something was missing. Andy seemed to enjoy it, so that was good to see.