18th April, 17:54
And here we are in our old "home from home" the Maritim in Gelsenkirchen! Makes a change to arrive in daylight!

19th April, 14:47
FINALLY in Lubeck.... after having left Gelsenkirchen at 9am... We got stuck in a TWO HOUR Stau (traffic jam) on Autobahn 1 south of Hamburg. Bloody nightmare. Mind you, it gave us the chance to listen to some CDs, not least the Bateman Brothers new release! Wow! Or should I call it the Alan Bateman CD.... Great jobs all round to everyone, but blimey. Alan is fantastic on it. Check it out everyone!!!

20th April, 08:28
Sloping off to Aurich in a minute.... Have a sneaking feeling there isn't any internet there, and I know there isn't the following day in Ladbergen, so this may be the last update for a few days.... Ho Hum.

13:00
Well, I was wrong about the internet in Aurich, cos here we are, and here am I!!! Also tomorrow is no longer Ladbergen: we're going to Goes in Holland instead... where I believe they do have WLAN in the rooms.... So the updates shall continue for a couple of days at least!

21st April, 14:59
Here we are at Goes, in Holland... which turned out to be 100km further than the office told us. However, would like to say a big congrats to Helge Lorenz who sat in on guitar for some numbers in the 2nd half of the show last night. Without any doubt the closest any of us have heard to the late John Slaughter. Well done Helge.

23rd April, 12:17
Great gig in Middelburg last night! Today we're in Almelo, which is still in Holland, but almost back in Germany. Nice hotel, which also turns out to be the venue for tonight's gig, so no more driving (for Pete or Dave) until tomorrow now!

16:23
Films/DVDs I have watched on the tour so far: All comments from my friends welcomed.... So here we go: 2001 A Space Odessy; A Clockwork Orange; Valerie and her Week of Wonders; Dr Who: The Space Museum; Dr Who: The Chase -- all top stuff (in my humble opinion).

24th April, 10:34
Here we are back at the Maritim in Gelsenkirchen for three days! Tonight's gig is in the Stadthalle, Bad Godesberg, just to the south of Bonn...

27th April, 07:14
Leaving Gelsenkirchen today, and going up to Hoorn, just north of Amsterdam...

13:07
Arrived at the hotel in Purmerend, about 20km from Hoorn only to find that some of the rooms weren't ready, including mine. After hanging about for half an hour or so I finally said I don't care if its not "ready" - Let me get in the room anyway". The reception girl then gave us keys for the "unready" rooms, which turned out to be all ready anyway!

28th April, 14:59
And now we're in another of our regular haunts, the Hotel Kuebler in Karlsruhe... Ali Jane Haswell, my partner asks: "What do you do on these long journeys?" ..I spy with with my little eye somethin' beginnin' with 'V'.....Volvo!!! Lol Drummer Richie Burns replies: "I think they listen to Dr Who stuff lol!!!!!!!!" To which I replied: "On yesterday's rather long journey we listened to a lot of 'Down the Line', the Radio 4 spoof phone-in show.... and also a variety of vintage jazz from Joe's iPod... all quite spendid! (and not a Tardis in sight lol). (Though it has to be said I have a number of Dr Who DVDs with me... plus the book, Who's There - The Life and Career of William Hartnell.

29th April, 11:49
A relatively short drive today.... just time to hear series 3 of 'Down the Line' and their Credit Crunch Special.... ("What is point, Credit Crunch?"). So here we are in Badenweiler in the Black Forest... In a hotel not in the town and with a closed restaurant.... Luckily I have some cheese and biccies with me!

30th April, 12:27
Here we are in Bad Saulgau, at the Hotel Schwarzer Adler after a smashing drive through some typically southern German countryside whilst listening to Luis Russell's Orchestra... What a band! Louis Metcalf and Red Allen on trumpets and the unbeatable J C Higginbotham on trombone.

1st May, 05:56
And now a mere 1066km to do in order to get home... That's the european touring over now until the Autumn :-(

2nd May, 07:17
Got back around 7:30 pm last night, after a 12.5 hour journey.... Sterling work from the drivers, Pete (Bad Saulgau - Verdun, Folkeston - home) and Dave (Verdun - Calais)... well done chaps. Hope Jackie made it to Luton on time to get his plane back to Belfast....

Comment from Richard Exall:
Jax missed his flight to Belfast! Trouble at Eurotunnel and a wrong turn stuffed it for us.... Still recovering now!