European Tour Diary: Day 15 - Lindau, Germany

When you’re away for so long, it’s pretty difficult to pack appropriately. Some of us have brought way too little (Fraser…), some of us have brought way too much (Simon, I’m looking at you here…) so there is always shit everywhere, wherever we go. We put stuff back in our suitcases, and try to salvage what we can find that’s clean enough to wear. Luckily, the mini kitchen we had access to had an antiquated washing machine and dryer so we’ve managed to wash some clothes at last. Thank god. We drag our suitcases downstairs and into the van and set off to Lindau.

The journey is long and uneventful and we spend it on our laptops or reading or whatever, but after a few hours someone looks out the window and exclaims. In the distance, over the hills and almost invisible, are The Alps. No way! We crowd the windows taking pictures like the tourists we are. Such an iconic sight, silver-glass-blue mountains with white peaks on a clear afternoon. I’ve never seen them before, or even mountains like these anywhere. Awesome.

We cruise along and The Alps settle to our side, visible every now and again through glimpses in the roadside trees/rocks/hills etc. It’s easy to forget where you are and then things like this bring you back to reality with a jolt.

More tags in the venue, I spy The Blackout’s handiwork on a couch, NOFX and some other cool ones. We play then load out our gear at the back of the venue. Heading into Switzerland (which we are tomorrow) can be tricky – if the border authorities suspect you of being a band with merch they will make you take it all out, they will count it all and tax you for the privilege of taking things across the border that you intend to sell. In itself not unfair, but the tax is super high, so people stash their merch where they can in the hope that if they are searched, their haul won’t be found. We pack some into our home made stage boxes that we use, and put the rest in suitcases, mostly in Simon’s as his is massive.

Lindau is a great little town but being a little town it doesn’t really have much to offer late at night, we leave the venue and head into the outskirts of the town to try and find some late night dinner as we didn’t really get to eat tonight. All that’s open is a McDonald’s, so as depressing as it is, we pull in and go to grab some food. I don’t know if it’s because there isn’t much to do, but it seems like every young person in Lindau goes to McDonald’s to hang out on this Friday night. It must be said, though; even the McDonalds is moderately decent-ish.

We stay in a quaint B&B style hotel for the night. Simon has to drag his suitcase up 3 floors, which at this point is so heavy with all his clothes and extra merch that all the handles snap off. I can hear him rattling up the stairs as with his coffin of a suitcase as we get into our hotel room.

In bed I read for a little while. I am reading a Stephen King book on my Kindle called The Last Gunslinger, about a man named Roland wandering a foreign land looking for answers and chasing something he’s not even sure exists. In many ways I feel the same.

We fall asleep to the sounds of rats scurrying through the walls all night.

-Gus

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