04/25/16 day 23: Steendam, NL

Had a good, long sleep. Walked downstairs to the restaurant around 11. Leni was busy in the kitchen preparing for the day. Peeled and cooked potatoes in a bowl in the sink. Diced beets on a cutting board. Peter (owner) was sitting at a table in the dining room with Jeff both engrossed in their cell phones. Good wifi is so seldom found I don't blame them. Peter D pranced off into the icey temps for a run. I waved from the table, sipping my cappuccino. While he was away I saw rain, hail, strong wind. I applauded my decision to sit and have another cappuccino.

The afternoon wasn't a total wash however. We did our exercises in the little kitchen in the apartment upstairs where we are staying. It wasn't as tight as the chicken shack experience, but still pretty cramped. We put on some Tribe Called Quest on though and got 'er done.

I randomly texted my cousin Alex who is somewhere in Europe and asked how he was doing... He was actually on a train to Steendam to surprise us. His train got in at 5:19 in the next town over. We made a plan to meet up.

In the meantime, Jeff and I had some serious work to do... Game of Thrones, season 6, episode 1. We recorded it on our hosts TV (it came on at 3am last night) and saved it for this afternoon. Gotta say it didn't disappoint. Although, the Danish subtitles were challenging... Did Kalesi just say something about stabbing a monkey?! Not nice Kalesi.

Swooped up Alex from the train station in Appingedam 10 minutes away, sound checked on the small stage, and sat down to a home cooked dinner. I went with Schnitzel in pepper cream sauce, pan fried potatos, and beet salad. Slamming. The schnitzel had less breeding then usual. It was a nice change. Leni also busted out some other tasty nibblets: small bite sized Kroketten and little fried cheese squares which she called Käse Souflé... The ideas are spinning for the restaurant which is now just called "Zum." I encouraged Alex to take this idea and run with it. He said he needed to do more research in between bites of his dinner.

The club sits below water level behind this here dyke.

Pre show selfie with Mr Bliss.

The show was great. Had a good turnout all things considered. Even had some friends from Spijkerboor (including Wilhelm the owner of Café t'Keerpunt) make the drive for the show which was awesome. I thought the performance was good too. We switched up the set list a bit, and had some fun with Printemps which had 'em singing.

After the set we chilled with our hosts and talked about coming back next year. Alex busted out some of Slovakia's finest spirits from his recent travels and we had a little taste testing. Alex then shuffled off into the night to catch a night bus to his hotel in a neighboring town. Good people here in Steendam and a great, warm club to play music in. Can't wait to come back!