Rough Shop: Unscheduled sightseeing and a fantastic first night of the tour
By Andy
After breakfast at the Hotel Sternen (a favorite and familiar place for me and John) at a very agreeable 10:00, we headed to our first gig presented by the Folk Club at Werkstatte in Chur, a beautiful place and one of the oldest settlements in Switzerland. We found out that it’s harder to find the club when the map has no street names. It’s also harder to find the club when there is a lot of road construction. But we got some unscheduled sightseeing in.
Daniel, who is with the Folk Club, was our host. He worked at the Werkstatte for seven years, but has mostly passed the duties on now that he has a family. We met at the club, where Nico set up sound, and then Daniel took us to our hotel, the Hotel Marsol. We had dinner with him (he recommended the Indian dishes). We talked politics and we found that Daniel keeps up on what’s going on in the U.S. as well as the rest of Europe and the East. A bit of a world citizen.
Back to the club. Daniel gave us directions, and said that it was short walk from the hotel. It’s harder to find the club when you don’t really listen to directions. But we got some unscheduled sightseeing in. The club is in the old section of the village, which is pedestrian only for the most part. It’s a maze of cobblestone alleyways and corridors. It’s very cool, but hard for us to find our way around.
The club has a regular crowd, though it does vary from show to show. We didn’t know if we would just be playing to Daniel & Nico or not. We ended up with a pretty good turnout and had a great time. It was a listening crowd that enjoyed the songs and our limited on-stage banter. An old friend of Anne’s turned up (Wolfgang, Hazeldine’s greatest fan), and we talked afterward with a fan who I would describe as a Swiss good ol’ boy. He told us: “People around here eat this sh*t up”. Really, it was a compliment!
The next morning we were off to give a workshop at the Art Ministry. We asked Paul what kind of workshop it would be, but he just said, “You’ll be fine.” Ah, another adventure. Thanks to Google directions we got some unscheduled sightseeing in, too. More on that in the next post. We will end this post with a view from our window at Hotel Marsol
Nice recap and photos, Andy. Sounds like a wonderful adventure so far.
Keep the posts coming! Good luck the rest of the way.
Ahh, “unscheduled sightseeing.” It’s the best kind. (And you’ve got two women who can ask directions, too!) Sounds like fun!
I am very familiar with the European map/unscheduled sightseeing concept! Makes you wonder sometimes if they should even be called “maps”…..
Unscheduled sightseeing w/o a cellphone is the best way to live!
Are you cheekily trying to imply that you got lost? I find that very hard to believe as I am intimately familiar with Anne’s sense of direction. We used to call it her “chicken”, as in, “Anne’s chicken wants us to turn left at what’s left of the Berlin wall, then a quick right at the train tracks”.
Always, always just GO WHERE ANNE TELLS YOU TO GO. You can thank me later. And yes, that means you can drink 10 beers if you like–Anne will still get you back to the hotel. seriously.
Great, great pics. Am loving reading this!!
we need to get the chicken back for another Florida visit. — Rick
FOLLOW THE CHICKEN - you will never be lost. Anne even gives good directions while sleeping. not kidding!!!! love the clip - them swissies must love ya’ll. keep having fun!!!! we’ll be missing you this weekend annie!!!! xoxox
Ok I been thinkin…great gig ya got goin…getting paid and all for much unscheduled sightseeing…where do ya sign up?…Cheese looks killer. As I type… I’m livin and eatin vicariously …
Have fun but keep the homing devise on John (I think it is a Wendland thing…I tease Andy ALL the time!)