Altusried, Germany - July 23, 2004


Ina Stöcker:

Hello :-)

Jutta, Ela and Heike authorized me to write our reviews and so I 
try to do it again. Warning... it will be long...

For me it was the first time that I would do a journey without my 
husband or my family for more than 15 years and so I was very 
excited long before our journey started! Heike - our perfect driver 
- had the longest way, she came from her hometown in the north of 
Germany (she crossed whole Germany the last days), accompanied by 
her twins Ruben and Lukas. They arrived at my home (in the middle 
of Germany ;-) !) in the evening of thursday and we could hardly 
wait to start our tour! It was nearly midnight when we went to bed, 
but our night was short, half of the night it was raining very hard 
and long time we could not sleep because of a thunderstorm. Early 
in the morning we were very tired but thinking about the evening 
took back the smiling in our faces. After breakfeast we drove about 
70 km to meet with Jutta and then our big adventure started! 

There were still about 500 km to drive and it was very hot, but we all 
were in a good mood and laughed a lot, we had a lot of breaks and 
made the owner of the petrol stations rich with buying something to 
drink and ice... So it took nearly 9 hours until we arrived at 
Altusried. Fortunately my handy had the game "Monopoly" and a good 
accu so that the long time was not so boring for "Lu-Ru" (most of 
time I still do not know who is who and with Lu-Ru I´m right ;-)...). 

But as I wrote - we all had so much fun and I suppose sometimes the 
boys were a little bit excited about us "crazy mums". We arrived in 
our private hotel at about 6 p.m. and took all a shower to get 
"human" again - the sun was shining the whole day we were driving 
and most of time it was about 35 C in the car. Then we drove to a 
supermarket buying something to eat and drink for the night after 
the concert and after that it was time to drive to the 
"Freilichtbühne" in Altusried where we wandted to have something to 
eat and to drink. There we met some listmembers as Claudia, Chris, 
Dani and we could hardly believe - we were there!!! 

The weather was fine, the venue was fine and we were waiting for a big party
- wow, what a evening! Our seats were on different places - we all booked 
categorie 2 (which was right in front of the stage) but at different 
times. But - what a surprise - there were 6 or 7 free places in the 
first row and we could sat down there all together! Then the show 
started and it was great to see - and hear! - Chris again! 

He seemed to be very relaxed and was in a very good moode, joked and 
talked a lot! I had constructed a car of pasteboard for giving it 
to him. It was a little gag about "our tour". Some of you have seen 
"Rufus" sitting at the stage at the concerts. Rufus is a big toy-dog. 
Ela and Jutta bought him before the Düsseldorf concert and he wears 
a t-shirt with "Read my name" and our names. Rufus should be a 
present for Chris in Düsseldorf but he gave him back and said that 
we should give him again on another time. The next show (I was not 
there - I think it was Dortmund or Bielefeld) Rufus sat on stage 
but now Ela, Jutta and Heike decided it was not the right time and 
took Rufus home again. Since then Rufus visited many shows - always 
sitting at the side of the stage and most of time getting a grin 
from Chris. At the car that I made was outside in the front a photo 
from Rufus and written "Rufus travel service". Inside of the car I 
made pasteboard-figures from Jutta, Ela, Heike, Jutta, Rufus and me 
and sat us into the car. The car stood on a road which was called 
"The road to freedom". At the end of the road was a picture from 
Chris in concert playing the piano. At the beginning of the road 
stood a german "town-sign-post" on which were our hometowns written 
and then crossed out (as it looks when you leave a town) and "It´s 
such a long way home...". At the end of the road next to the concert 
photo stood another sign.post with all the towns written on, in 
which we visited a concert.  In the beginning of the show, when 
Chris had finished singing "The road to freedom", one Ru-Lu ;-) and 
I went to the stage and gave it to Chris. He was a little bit 
excited - a present in the beginning of the show is a bit unsual 
but "The road to freedom" was the best moment for it and he smiled 
while having a look at the car etc. 

The concert was great - his voice so clear and the audience clapped 
hands and sang from the first moment everywhere in the venue! I missed 
"Songbird" and "Rose of England" but I was happy to hear "In a country 
churchyard" which I like very much. While his Britney-part everyone 
stood up, some people jumping over chairs to see him near or take photos,
all were dancing, clapping hands, singing - it was a great atmosphere! The 
big surprise was, that Chris introduced his son Hubie to the 
audience, joking, that everybody in his family is taller than he... 
He said that Hubie is a very good guitar-player and the audience 
gave many applause - especially as Hubie and Chris started playing 
"Blackbird" together, Chris told us that it was the first time that 
Hubie was on stage. It was so great to see them together on stage! 

There was so much love between them and Hubie played the guitar very 
good! Something very different from the other shows and I can only 
say - it was great! Hubie got much applause after finishing the song! 
Time went by so past and after "Lady in red" the big run to stage 
began! We all enjoyed to dance and sing - Ruben and Lukas were 
sitting on the side of the stage (after some discussions with the 
security), the stage was very high and they could not look at it 
while standing in front of it - and there were so much people 
dancing! They enjoyed their place very much and we all had fun with 
"Read my name" (yeah!!!!!!), "Don´t pay the ferryman", "Living in 
the world", "Nothing ever happens round here" and "High on emotion" 
and so fast it was time for "Snows of New York". But the audience 
was very high on emotion... and so we all shouted for giving us 
more. Fortunately Chris came back on stage and sang his party songs 
like "Hard days night", "Obladi oblada", "Pretty woman" etc. and at 
the end of the show "Hey jude" while saying good bye. It was a great 
show - for me the best of this tour! We all were tired and it was 
still hot, but also we were full of energy from this fantastic show 
and it was good to know that there would be another show in 
Emmendingen the next day! 

Back in the hotel the boys went to bed, falling asleep very soon -
it was a hard day for them. Heike, Jutta and I talked and laughed 
until 3 o´clock - knowing that every driven km was worth to see
this show and we fall asleep with our big CdeB-grin in our faces...!
Our night was short again - but never mind - we knew that we would 
meet with Ela and her daughter Jacqueline in Emmendingen to see another 
great show. And this review will follow tomorrow! :-) Sleep well all - 
as I will do now! 

Ina


Questions or comments?

File last modified on November 20th, 2004