DAY ELEVEN & TWELVE: STUTTGART, GERMANY

6^th flight today and it feels like the flights are getting easier. We’re off to Germany to kick off the Christian Scott 2014 Europe tour….so basically, Kris goes back to work.

Photo by Arjan Aelmans

For this tour, there are seven in the band and I’m looking forward to hanging out with everyone.

Flying into Germany, we crossed over the Swiss Alps and even from above, they are so beautiful. Our “Swiss” flight also had lots of chocolate. Chocolate snacks, chocolate bread…hot chocolate. MMM.

Oh and did I mention that Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter are flying with us?

Kris spotted them in the Zurich airport and they’ve been with us ever since. Christian and the crew are opening for them tonight at the festival.

Once we landed, we were in full-blown festival mode. A driver was there to pick us up and we headed through town to the hotel. 

Germany looks just like I imagined... rolling hills, big houses, mountains….basically the "Sound of Music"...in person!

 Maritim, our hotel. Stuck in the 80’s but 5 star 80’s. Glass walls, wall paper, no wifi, but extraordinary breakfast.

Once we unloaded we walked into the main town square where all the shops are. Had a quick bite to eat and saw this monstrous kebab. Even King Gyro was put off by this one!

Later that evening, I headed backstage for a catered dinner and then the band got into it!

The show was great and the audience really enjoyed it. 

I watched a bit of Herbie and Wayne and then we hung out for a while while the band signed cd's. I wandered around a bit and got to see an authentic German Beer garden in action. ;-) After that, we all headed back to the hotel for the night.

DAY 12

Today is an off day and honestly, we’re still exhausted from Rome. We got up early for breakfast (so much chocolate, so much sausage) and then decided to walk into town. We walked a few miles and got some good shots. 

Got back to the room and CRASHED. Like…for 5 hours. We thought about swimming in the hotel pool butterumah...skinny dipping seems to be the norm here so we'll PASS.

We ate dinner at Vapiano's, watched a movie in the room and called it a night. 

Mmmmmm sleep.

ohhhh wait...donut pretzel...mmmmmm.