Scandinavia

Welcome to our new blog, I'll be waxing lyrical about all things we see and do on our travels, which are many and varied.
Right now, I am relaxing in the Lake District in the north of England, at this moment taking shelter from the persistent rain.
We had an intense few dates last weekend, our first shows in Norway and Finland.

First impressions - its cold! 

Second, beer is expensive. Sounds a bit cliched I know, it'll get better, promise!
We, comprising of myself (Billy), Andy and Shaun jumped the train into Oslo, the capital and most populous city of Norway.

Oslo was founded as a city at the end of the Viking Age in the year 1040 as a trading place in 1048 by Harald Hardrada. 

We spent our day in the museum, not very rock n roll but informative and interesting.

On days off it is to our liking to visit local places of interest. Last week, in Germany we spend all day in the local Schloss, which means a Castle of course. Dead boss that.

The reproduction of the Spear of Destiny proudly displayed. The spear of Longinus, which, as legend has it, is the spear used to have pierced the body of Christ on the cross.

                                     The Spear of Destiny

But that was the previous week, this week, the Oslo museum, where they had a wall dedicated to all things American, Photos of the good and the great, Presidents, stars of stage and silver-screen, including Marilyn Monroe and Sean Connery, bit surprised at his inclusion, maybe it was meant to portray James Bond, tho' that character isn't exactly American Tho'. I didn't realise Einstein was American either, oh hang on, he isn't!

Good museum tho' nonetheless. nice staff too, very helpful.

Good gig too, the band played well, as always, living up to our rep as The Number One tribute to the mighty Led Zeppelin, we got them outta the seats at the end.
As we did in Finland the next night; we were up at 5am for a flight to Berlin. For some reason, I woke up in the night and couldn't sleep. Reaching for the remote I put the TV on. I sat bolt upright at the shocking news from Paris. The terrible events at Bataclan filled the screen. I have a lot of good friends in France, I lived in Paris once for 6 months. So worrying times.

I watched the news as I packed for out 7am flight to Berlin, the mood was sombre within the band. 

So, we say goodbye to Finland, and hopefully we will return soon. we really enjoyed the gig, just wish we had time to see more of Helsinki, the worlds most northernly metropolis.

Most of the day in Berlin was spent catching up on sleep. There's a real buzz about the city and despite the dreadful news from Paris only the previous evening, we had a sold-out crowd. Nice to have our own gear again too, driven here by Tino out backline and guitar tech. Does a great job pouring the drinks too. 

We even found time for a few beers in a quiet bar after the show.
Now, I am relaxing in a farm house in the middle of nowhere, The wind howling and the rain rapping on the windows. and the log fire burning brightly... erm... it's gone out !! I've been to busy blabbering on I hadn't noticed! OK gtg, relight the fire and that bottle of red ain't gonna drink itself now is it.
Until the next time, please stay safe y'all.