Hamburg

Gonna hit the tracks again

bruceonthefringe 2025, European trip 2025 Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

I returned from my European Tour today last year; I’d watched Eurovision in a hostel in Vienna, it was a very different experience! This year I’ll just be watching Eurovision in my cave, but then, excitingly, I’m off down to see Logan’s Close in London (they’re playing the New Cross Inn) before jumping on the Eurostar for another train adventure! Nothing actually booked yet apart from London and the Eurostar to Brussels, yes, it begins in just nine days time, but I do have lots of ideas bashing about in my head.

This time I have my experiences from last year, and the fact I made it home in one piece! I wasn’t going to bother with the discounted offer from Interrail earlier this year, but then, I was checking through, deleting emails, on what turned out to be the last day of the offer; it dawned on me that I didn’t have to have a plan right then! So I got me a pass for five days travel in a month. A wee while later Logan’s Close announced the London gig, hmmm, just a jaunt to London would be a wild extravagance, but if I used it as a springboard to another adventure, justified, yay.

I’m thinking Brussels, Bruges, Ghent (I’ve always fancied seeing Bruges but a few folk have assured me that Ghent is better), definitely a couple of days in Hamburg, I really enjoyed my very brief visit last year, so! I had wondered about Cologne but an older sibling has recommended Aachen instead, it must have made a big impression on them – it must be thirty or so years since they were there!

The only thing I must do soon is book the Eurostar back over, along with my train back up to Edinburgh, that’s all in the one day, the 3rd June. The following morning I shall rise and pop to the Fringe office to get two copies of the Fringe 2025 programme and start perusing! Ah, nearly midnight, time I was heading to Whistlebinkies for The Scat Rats, just one more thing, there’s now plenty more in my Instagram highlights of LC on tour ’24, I’ve been reminiscing how good they were 💛

Toodle pip!

More mail…

bruceonthefringe 2024, Logan's Close, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

Just a quickie (oo, matron). A postcard from Hamburg. Honestly, I will tell more once I stay still long enough to catch myself. Yes, I know there’s been no postcard from Berlin, look that was the shortest visit and things did not go to plan – buying a postcard was the last thing on my mind. I shall expand on my woes at a later date.

Meanwhile, my postcard….

Well. What else did you expect?! A guy in lederhosen?

Scotty gets plaintive, and a tad ‘armless

I was on a downward spiral.

Toodle pip!

Bruce calling Germany

bruceonthefringe 2024, Logan's Close, Music, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Hallo Germany! Have you heard the news? That’s the awesome news that Logan’s Close are heading your way at the very end of April to play seven gigs as part of a European tour! The tour dates were announced last Monday, starting in Odense, Denmark on Sunday 28th April, then on to Germany and Bremen on the 30th; a ten day wander around Germany (with a wee side excursion to Prague) finishing in Munich before heading south to Italy. Get your tickets now!

Exciting for yours truly too – I’m coming over! As luck would have it I’ve been invited over to the continent for a friend’s birthday just as Logan’s Close will be making their way to Odense, well, when the universe dishes out such an opportunity it would be rude to turn it down. Trains, it’s all just a train journey away, I can do this (he says trying to sound positive). Okay, so it’s many, many years since I went Interrailling, no mobile phones, no interweb, yes, we managed perfectly fine, thank you!

As yet I’ve only booked my flights – did that so I can’t chicken out of going! There’s quite a variety of Interrail passes these days, and there’s an app now, of course; there is still a paper version, I’m weighing up the pros and cons, and just how many days travel do I want? The beauty of Interrailling was always last minute decision-making, not committing early ’cause you never knew what or who may be round the next corner. So far I have planes and trains planned, just need someone with an automobile to complete the set 😁

I haven’t seen much of Germany, just Hannover and wherever it was that my school exchange trip went (it was a long time ago, somewhere in Westphalia is all I remember), so it’s all going to be new to me! Certainly I want to see the lads in Berlin and Hamburg; Bremen is tempting, not least ’cause they’re playing in a place called the Heartbreak Hotel! That would be a lot of travelling in a few days, oh I enjoy train-travels, that I’m fine with, but would it all pan out okay?

After Hamburg the Close head to Köln, then Mannheim the day after, I’m reckoning maybe one of those two, for no apparent reason I’m thinking Mannheim. Oo, I loved Prague when I went some years ago, a return visit would be grand. That leaves Ingolstadt and Munich, both or just one of them? From whichever I’d head back to my friend’s to chill for a couple of days before flying home.

I haven’t begun to think of where I’ll stay each night! And those days when I may have to be up early for an onward train! A bed near the train station or near the venue?! Should I cheap hotel it? There’s Airbnb, I guess, or maybe hostels. Oh, my head’s hurting just contemplating it all. Tips on places to stay or avoid, good cafés, cheap feeds, local transport are most welcome. This moose doesn’t really have a scoobies how this will work out! But hey, it’s gonna be an awesome adventure, a magical musical tour 💛

There is a mistake but can you spot it?