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First leg - Lake to coast adventureDeparture, September 30, 2008As we started from Düsseldorf, Germany, Sid arrived on Monday, September 29. Lars had already a free day while I made sure that everything in my office was clean and well-organized. Not that it is not always clean and well-organized, but if your supervisor is going on a Tina-tour than everything must be perfect. Therefore, Sid first went to his place after his arrival at Essen main station and we teamed up for dinner at my appartment for my famous vegetarian Indian soups. We watched later on as a preparation for the oncoming weeks the "One last time"-video and were again amused about seeing ourselves being featured in the DVD and the concert. Our very first long day was mainly dominated by our two flights. Right after breakfast we departed from home and had to find our way through the construction site at Essen main station. Sid and me, we were that early that we could have taken two trains earlier than the one selected so that we had enough time to watch the gray overcast sky we had to leave. It was a pity that we had to make transfer in Detroit because after the first nine hours of our long day we had already the feeling of having travelled enough in order to reach our final destination. We were also too tired to make fun about the delay of our connecting flight which was caused by a metal object (or something else) on the nose of the airplane which was removed by a mechanic. During our various flights we had three times a mechanic onboard in order to fix and repair different parts of the aircraft but, of course, we could not know, that this would be a common situation in the country of non-stop security checks.
As soon as we had entered the room everyone started unpacking his technical equipment. We planned to provide the world with the best pictures of the concerts and needed for the expected huge quantity of data a good internet connection for the FTP servers we wanted to fill up. As we saw our incredible mass of technical devices, cables and the electricity converters and transformers (one of them burning up the first and the second one the next day) we had somehow the impression that the immigration officers had done a very good job when they asked us very intensely about the Why´s and Where´s of our journey. Terrorists could not have had a better equipment and would not have shown a different behaviour when installing their home base. October 1, 2008
Even our first American breakfast which was advertised as a continental one, is worth mentioning. We were not quite sure which continent they meant when they designed this breakfast but apparently it must be a continent whose inhabitants mainly live on sugar and sweets. Apart from muffins, danishes and somewhat greasy honey buns they offered also a small variety of marmelade and honey. The bread was, of course, only completely white and made of wheat. As we are all somewhat more or less addicted to organic and health food, this was a rather funny breakfast as everything had its own dangerous aspect. After the strange breakfast we wanted to conquer Kansas City which turned out to be a major problem. When we had checked in at the hotel we had already seen that it was not that easy to find a supermarket in this hotel-dominated neigbourhood but could not completely understand if that would cause any severe problems. Now, in broad daylight, we faced the problem that the airport was connected to the city but the hotel was not connected to any public transport. Apparently, all other guests were the proud owners of rented cars. We simply had to abuse the hotel shuttle bus to the airport in order to embark on bus 50. Imagine, a bus service with two buses per hours connecting an airport with its city. Is is sad that we do not have a picture of our astonished faces when we understood completely the meaning of the timetable on the bus stop. As we had to ask the bus driver about the correct station or maybe a possible transfer he found out that we were not even strangers but completely torn out of their normal world. Apparently, tourists are not that common in Kansas City, at least not in this part of the city which belongs to Missouri. Despite our high level of interest in sociological studies, we could not find out, if the situation is different in the other part of the city. Because of this we had to explain what we were doing in Kansas City. Flying over the ocean for Tina Turner caused raised eyebrows but he was absolutely sure that this was a good reason to come to the US and to use his bus as the only passengers. After the first station the second passenger, a young girl who had transfered her bathroom resp. her dressing table to the bus, asked us about the reason for our stay in the city. Lars and Sid had talked shop about their cameras, taking pictures in dark concert halls and the best approaches in obtaining super-perfect Tina-images so that she had apparently noticed that we were neither on our way to work nor in the city for a trade fair. As soon as we had explained the reason for our stay, a second lady got on the bus. She worked for the local library, found our type of vacation somewhat strange but gave an example of her vocal qualities with "Proud Mary". In the end, the girl, the lady and the bus driver were talking altogether with us about the best attractions of Kansas City which gave us a good insight of the city. As soon as we had left the bus stop behind us we were sure that within few hours the whole municipality was up to date with our arrival. This insight turned out to be a very strange day morning because Kansas City does not offer very many attractions which a tourist can find easily. Far from it! Downtown is indeed very interesting, clean and modern. But as soon as one leaves this inner circle resp. the square of blocks which form downtown, one has to search for the city´s beauty. We gave up as we had found out that the famous shopping mall offered only a strange combinations of special shops who would become an amusement park but not a city: a strange chocolate shop with a very small selection of chocolate types and special flavors, a cat-specialist and strange fashion stores. In case the mayor or the tourist responsible read this diary: don´t be afraid, we had found your famous Plaza (another Spanish-Mexian-style shopping district) during our second stay. We decided to get back to the hotel. There was still a major problem to be solved: our hotel was not only not connected to the public transport network but the bus service to the airport ended far before the end of the concert. Either we would miss half of the concert (what was completely out of range) or we would have to take a taxi (what was completely out of money). In the end we decided to inquiry about a rental car at the airport. The smallest one would suffice so that the price should come close to possible taxi costs. Furthermore, this car could give us the opportunity to cruise around during the afternoon or what was left of it. Apart from the fact that the final price incl. insurance and taxes was much higher than the one indicated in the phone call with the car rental company at the airport it took a while until we were ready to depart. Therefore we decided against our joyriding and opted for a quick and very early start to the Sprint Center.
October 2, 2008 - Kansas City to ChicagoOur plane leaves directly after breakfast. This is the second domestic flight for us in the USA, and it will take us to Chicago. In Chicago, we saw very soon that the existing system of public transport will suit us well during our stay. The hotel is situated very close to the Museum Campus at the Roosevelt station and therefore at the southern part of the Michigan Avenue. As soon as we have unpacked our suitcases, we are out for a long walk. At first, we went to Chinatown because it seemed to be close by and we expected all-you-can-eat restos. In fact, most of the restos were still closed and this part of the city could not compare to London´s Chinatown. Furthermore, evidently all-you-can-eat seems only to be popular in Europe - or perhaps it is too risky to offer buffets in the US. Therefore, we quickly go back to downtown, leave the train in the middle of Michigan Ave and take a long walk along the shops and later on at the lakeside. Despite to all the many people and the heavy traffic we were very fast and got a good first impression of Chicago. MCI - ORD / 9:40 AM - 10:59 PM / AA374 / 1 hr 19 mins The first good thing about Chicago was that my cellphone started to work again. Somehow, it had not worked during our first two days and I had the peculiar feeling my super-new business phone would not serve my daily needs at all. But in reality, this was only due to the technical environment in Kansas City as it failed again during our second stay. People who know me, can estimate how tricky such a situation is for me because I make daily phone calls to my secretary and home and I am much more into phoneing than sending text messages. October 3, 2008 - First show in Chicago, United Center
You might not know it but Sid is a professional cook and was very eager to eat out while Lars and me were somewhat picky about not spending too much money. Lars is a vegetarian sinces ages (not that he is already ages old...) while I can survive several days without eating dead animals and keep to vegetables and fruits. This explains our "interesting" interest in other countries´ supermarkets which Sid had already experienced during our weekend in Belgium. Sometimes, you can find new types of vegetables, unknown specialities or simply attractive decorations in foreign countries - not in the countryside but in the grocery store, of course. Well, our regular visit to a supermarket is therefore an event of its own and lead to a massive shopping adventure as if we had to feed a whole vegetarian army. Before we could make a self-experiment with our shoppings we suddenly bumped into Hans who had paid a visit to our hotel. But the front desk had mixed up our names, too, so that the aim to leave a message as a solution to the busy connections on the grounds of the sea had its own difficulty. It was therefore only a miracle that we simply met directly at the hotel entrance. By the way: mixing up names seems to be a private fun with tourists. The town hall of Los Angeles registered us as visitors to their observation desk with such funny combinations of "correctFirstName Deutsch(=German nationality)" or "stadt(= city)AsFirstName Essen(=name of my hometown)AsLastName" because the poor officer was totally confused with our passports from Germany and Belgium and the German identity card which has a different layout than the passport. In addition to that, the running gag of "Sidney visiting Chicago or San Fransisco" was after the first dozen remarks not as funny as for the first time. We decided to meet again at his hotel which was very close to ours and close to the bus station which was served by the bus which delivered us serveral times during our stay to the United Center. When we finally arrived at the United Center we were astonished about its huge size. Later on, we were even more astonished when we saw its size from the inside. In Europe, it is very difficult to find indoor arenas with three levels of seats. Firstly, we took some photos at the main entrance on the opposite of a sports sculpture and were disappointed that the counters were not open and that there was no ticketmaster-machine was to be seen. From then on we were the witnesses of one of the most important developments of tiny coincidences of the whole tour.
Later on, we´ve met Hans again at the bus station for the concert and arrived very early at the venue in order to see Tina´s car enter the terrain of the United Center. This was somehow easy because her car arrived shortly after we were at the entrance where all the vans arrived. Unfortunately, there was not mutch to be seen because the windows were that tainted that one could only big hair and her silhouette. October 4, 2008 - Second show in Chicago, United CenterWe had a lie-in and Lars and Sid needed to go to a store where they sell electronical devices in order to have a better equipment for the hundreds and hundreds of gigabytes which were photographed every night. Therefore we departed only after noon, teamed up with Hans at the famous bus station which was situated on the way from our hotel to his one and which offered us all the possibility to take the same bus in order to drive the 19 blocks to the United Center. Our first duty was, of course, to upgrade our tickets. Today, we had to perform this miraculous task on our own. Therefore we chose the same poor guy as the day before who informed us that he was not supposed to upgrade tickets but he was willing to help in order to get us in front of Tina. After several comparisons and algebric calculations we ended up in a side block directly at the stage which gave us a full overview of the event and took us close to Tina. We were indeed delighted to have learned so much within 24 hours.
In order to celebrate Hans´ 50th Tina concert on the preceding day he had not only invited us to the stuffed pizza but invited us today to the famous Sears tower. As we had serveral hours left and the afternoon seemed to present us the city in a bright sunlight under a summer-blue sky this was indeed a very interesting suggestion. We took the bus back, got off at the closest stop to downtown and walked the small number of blocks to the Sears tower. It was a very fine promenade among the high-rises which entertained us with various beautiful spots like crossing a canal over a very old bride made from steel and circling around the famous buildings. The view from the Sears tower made the waiting time of an hour until we reached the observation desk in any way worthwhile. We took magnificient pictures of the skyline and identified even the block which was dominated by the United Center. Before the concert we were looking for a resto, were somewhat astonished that on a Saturday afternoon Chicago downtown is nearly dead because there are no people in their offices so that the blocks we were checking for restos were not abundant in them. Finally, we decided to let us feed again from the stuffed pizza pizzeria. October 5, 2008 - SightseeingWell, most tourists had lived one of their days during their stay in Chiacago like we did on this very Sunday but one has to admit that spending a day with sightseeing is not as interesting as it seems to be when you are waiting for the next Tina Turner concert. We embarked on our sightseeing trip with the museum campus which was only across the street from our hotel and visited both the aquarium and the planetarium. October 6, 2008 - Rosemont, Allstate ArenaBecause Rosemont is so close to O´hare airport and because the airport is so remote from the city we had booked a hotel in the surroundings of the airport resp. very close to the venue. When we were riding for one hour on the train we could easily think of ourselves very smart and clever because going to Rosemont for the show and back on the same evening and then again to the airport on the consecutive morning would have meant a lot of stress. On the other hand, being in Rosemont kept us finally from going back to the city because we were checking for better tickets during the afternoon which is, of course, a far more interesting activity than visiting Chicago - one has to admit that. More over, our promenade from the hotel along the street without a pavement over the carpark to the Allstate arena while hearing the deafening sound of the through traffic and the airplanes above our heads offered a very intense stress test which should be helpful in the next math exam. Maybe there is a nicer part of Rosemont existing. The Rosemont one we spent our afternoon offered no urban life at all. It consisted of several hotels, the Allstate Arena and a shopping centre. Of course, there was the necessary and somehwat superfluent Starbucks and its neighbour Burger King but apart from these two recreation facilities our Rosemont centre de ville could only be lovely after serveral sessions working with Photoshop. As we were floating between the box office for our upgrade, the hotel and the Target store - all within maybe 700m -, we raised caused eyebrows with a super-mega-important police office who was constantly waiting in his car or patroulling the few streets. Firstly, he ironically asked us if we needed help, secondly, he simply asked us where we were going to. I am quite sure that he would have asked us even for a third time but afterwards we rather avoided the direct route where he was the main obstacle and opted for the way on the south of the Allstate arena. Kansas City - again and againThe whole madness of our trip showed its crazy grimace on the day after the Rosemont show when we took the hotel shuttle bus to the airport in order to get back to Kansas City. Of course, the poor city is not that boring but a normal tourist from Europe would not even think about visiting it once and would not think of going there twice within the same vacation. Therefore, someone who goes there twice is even more infected with the Tina-virus and needs special treatment by even more shows. But somehow it was indeed relaxing and relieving because this was the first combination of airport, bus and transfer bus stop we already knew which meant for us that we did not to find out again how many bus lines (1) connected when (twice an hour) during the day (only during business hours) the airport with the city. We were that familiar with this city so that there was even time for a sports highlight which can only be performed by a gay sports enthusiast because it had to do with shopping vegetables and fruits as well as running and jumping. You might not know it but there is a bus stop at a shopping centre which is the home of a Wal Mart. By the way, the Wal Mart which had the TINA!-CD while there was no other shop until San Francisco to be found that sold music. This bus stop is also used as a recreation area for the bus drivers with varying resting times. In case we should go a third time to Kansas City, I am quite sure that we will know the rhythm of the various breaks in the timetable. This time however, our bus driver told us that there would be a pause of about 20 minutes which she would use for smoking a cigarette. Lars asked me whether I wanted to go shopping at the Wal Mart´s, and I found the prospect of having only a limited time for buying all the ingredients for salad, then water and, of course, sweets very interesting. I got off the bus, jumped over the lawn, ran across the carpark, entered the shop, forced a trolley out of its chains and simply grabbed what was needed. Every psychological optimisation strategy for the shop layout was overcome in this moment. I was a totally free fast-shopper running aroung with the trolley. In the end, I was sure to have everything so that I could run for the cashier. There was a little strange obstacle because there were not enough coins (exactly 3 cents) left. I had already said that it was more important for me to get back to my bus than to get my full change when another customer helped the cashier out. I could not quite understand if there were only the 1-cent-coins missing or if they were no coins at all and how this exchange finally worked out because I was then already running and jumping across the carpark. Indeed, I was back in time and there were still several minutes left. The stay in Kansas City then turned out to be very interesting because we have met several band members and there, took photographs with them and had them sign their photos in our tourbooks. As Sid needed a rest because he had caught a little cold, and as we had read very intensely Barbara´s email which had reached me several days before, we knew that Tina had been at the President Hotel which is situated within walking distance to the Sprint Center. As our second hotel was in the city we only had to take the bus for the Sprint Center, the Plaza (a major area with shops and restaurants, in fact, the real downtown for us) and finally for the "real" hotel. We entered the President Hotel, noticed that there was no special security or that we seemed to be regular guests, sat down in the lobby and waited serveral minutes. Of couse, it is not advisable to wait if you cannot be sure if things are going to happen. Therefore, it was necessary to check out if Tina or the band stayed in this hotel again or - in order to verify Barbara´s information (sorry, my dear, but that´s biz) - if the hotel offered the required facilities to lodge VIPs i.e. if there are parts of the building without reach - not for us but for the rest of the world. We got up and took the elevator to the top storey. Like Barbara had described in her message we could find a special floor which was only accessible by a single elevator and could be therefore easily secured. But as we finally entered this floor, no security guy was patrouilling there. In fact, the whole floor seemed to be vacant. Certainly, it was not clear if there were guests booked to these rooms and if they should arrive in the late afternoon or even tomorrow on show-day but at the moment, we definitely had no further tasks in this building. We had a little chat with the guard who was in charge of the hotel´s carpark. He confirmed that Tina was their guest during the rehearsals but he did not know whether she would stay with them again on her second trip to Kansas City. He indicated a second hotel at the Plaza which had the necessary facilities. Unfortunately, he could not describe what this strange "Plaza" was because it was much too normal for him. We had to get this piece of information from the place itself and it was only necessary to find out which bus served this area. Luckily, it was the the bus which we used already for getting to the first hotel and the Sprint Center. Therefore: back to the bus stop and off to the Plaza. In the end, it was somehow peculiar that we had booked our second hotel both on the main bus route and that close to Tina´s hotel. When we arrived at the Plaza, we had already passed our own hotel and the boring shopping mall which we visited on our first stay. What we found there can easily be described: the Plaza is a Spanish-style Disneyland which attempts to be in its natural habitat but offers without any further irony shops and restaurants in a market-like atmosphere. The area is divided by a small artificial river with benches on its side and small bridges crossing it. From the tourists´ point of view it would have been sad not to see this in Kansas City. But we weren´t there for the shops (at least not during the evening) but to find a suitable hotel. As nearly every logo of the major hotel chains was glimmering in the dark-blue sky we were a little disappointed. Especially, we did not know which hotel the guard could have referred to. The only chance we had was to ask two me standing on a street corner if they could name us a hotel for VIPs in their city. And indeed, how strange again life can be, especially in Kansas City: one of the two men was from Switzerland and provided us with the relevant data which concerned the Intercontinental Hotel towering uphill above the Plaza. He could remember seeing tour buses there and that the hotel accomodated the Rolling Stones on the occasion of their last tour. Tina Turner should definitely stay in a hotel which is also frequented by the Stones, so it was clear to us that we had to go not only around the corner but also across a little bridge spanning over the small decorative river and then a little bit uphill to the hotel. The close we came the bigger the hotel proved to be. It covered nearly a whole block with a huge fountain on one side facing the Plaza. We entered the hotel through a side entrace, found the nicely decorated bar-like lobby on the opposite side of the front desk and also the elevators. In addition to that, there were three buses parked on two sides of the whole complex. Of course, you cannot tell from a bus in front of a hotel that this is a tour bus (back in 1996 the tour buses were nicely printed with Tina Turner-advertisements so that was very easy) but it is a least a good sign when it comes to a hotel like this which perhaps does not host large groups. Nevertheless, we needed better hints because we wanted to wait at the hotel on the following day and one can easily understand that waiting for hours in a lobby in the wrong hotel is even more boring than waiting in the correct one. Indeed, we had a far better hint: the 10th floor was not accessible, at least not from elevator. This additonal piece of information was enough for us in order to believe that this could be the correct building: rumours on the street, insider details from the valet at the carpark, buses with tainted windows and a closed floor. We decided to wait a little bit in the lobby and then to come back on the next day. As we could walk the way to the hotel due to the short distance we even had the opportunity to verify that several other hotels in the neighbourhood did not offer the same appearance at this Intercontinental Hotel so that it remained our top fav. On the next day, we repeated the complete "sightseeing tour" which meant a double-check at the President and its upper floor which still seemed to be empty, picking up our tickets at the Sprint Center and then going back by bus to the Intercontinental Hotel. There we needed again a better check for our theory and checked now the first floors. This helped us to find a nice ballroom with a fine view of the Plaza and after that again a very suspicious detail: both the 11th and the 10th floor were closed. Therefore we sat down in the lobby, ordered orange juice, vanilla ice cream and hot chocolate. Oh yes, being a secret agent or an undercover agent for the blues means a lot of hard work and no entertainment at all. Lars suddenly believed in having spotted the saxophone player on the corridor but we were not completely sure. In the end, it was correct and we therefore missed his autograph. When we left the hotel for verifying the probable tour buses we saw that they were still parked on two different spots. We decided that the back entrance close to the carpark was safer than the main entrance which turned out to be true later on. Back in the lobby in our leather armchairs we waited until I suddenly spotted someone myself. It was an unknown guy wearing a Tina-pass. To be honest, I only saw a guy with a pass on his chest and had the impression that it could be orange. I even had the vague impression that a Tina-silhouette could be depicted on the pass but therefore we both had to wait until he walked across the entrance hall. And there we had our final proof that at least tour personnel and maybe the band were in this hotel. Decades of experience - and we were in the correct hotel. Now, I did not even dare pretend to read because I could not concentrate anymore on my book - poor world literature and nobel prize. Suddenly, John Miles entered the lobby, approached the front desk and checked out. This was surely the ultimate proof that we had identified the correct hotel. We were baffed about our cleverness (of course, we do not expect anything else but it is better to pretend to be astonished about your own cleverness) Then several minutes later Lisa Fischer simply walked to the front desk and checked out. In the meantime, we already had our tourbooks and the golden pen in our hands, left our armchairs and the remains of the orangeicecreamhotchocolate on the table and approached Lisa. Whoosh! Two autographs and a picture with each of us. Then back to our camp. Whoosh! Joel Campbell checked out. He was very astonished to be recognized at all, was willing to sign his photo in the tourbook and to pose for pictures but a nasty lady from the hotel appeared on the scene and informed us politely but strictly that we could not bother their guests. Joel was even more astonished, promised to sign the tourbook outside and we all left the lobby. Somehow, we missed us and Lars and me, we found us on the main entrance where Lisa was waiting on a stone bench - apparently for the tour bus. Whoosh! Erwin Bach himself appeared on the scene, passed by and was talking to the bus driver of the bus nearby the main entrance. We did not dare ask him if Tina stayed in the same hotel but there was no other realistic explanation. Erwin entered the building, a door on a third side of the building next to the main entrance opened and John Miles called her to come to the bus. Somehow, the whole situation reminded us of a stage play with us being not only the spectators sitting in the auditorium but also directly on the stage with the main entrance as the center and the tourbus and the mysterious third door being the left and right exits. Nervertheless, we decided that Lisa and the others must have gone to the side entrance where the two other buses waited. As this was far more interesting than waiting here at the main entrance and as a very young and small security officer told us that hanging around at the main entrance was not quite acceptable we decided to go around the building. And indeed, the two other buses were still standing with their motor already running. We stood only for a few minutes on the side entrance wondering whether one or all of the two buses might belong to the orchestra which dwelled also in the same hotel as we had learnt from several posters. But this question was very quickly answered when Whoosh! Oliver Marland left the hotel and we got his autograph and two photos. Then Whoosh! Furly and then Claire Turton. We even asked them if Joel could come out again who had already took his seat when we were standing outside with Claire. And indeed, he was so kind as to got off again for his autograph. What an afternoon. Of course, we missed the queen herself but with so many entrances and such a big stage which gave home to this afternoon play we could be lucky to end up with so many autographs in our tourbook. 
San Francisco - Off show but not out of lifeDay 1
To escape Kansas City was more difficult than expected. Somehow the city has put us under a spell and this one was very difficult to get rid of. As we had to save money in every situation (except, of course, directly in front of the TINA-merchandise-stand) we wanted to benefit from the 1.25 dollar ride to the airport and avoid the 55 dollar opportunity. This caused raised eyebrows with the lady at the front desk because it seemed to be a once-in-a-lifetime event for her to use the website of the local bus company. In the end, she could not help us, gave up and then simply presented us the leaflet and timetable we already had. As good Europeans, it was not tricky at all to look up the correct departure time. The spell came only into effect when we were already in the bus and tried to transfer from one bus to another. The obstacles did not consist of dragons and monsters but of completely unfriendly bus drivers who sent us around blocks and corners only to appear there several minutes later out of nothing. But in the end, we reached the airport, checked in and flew away. The flight itself proved to be very interesting indeed. On the first part which lead us to Denver, CO we could see miles and miles of rectangular fields and got a good taste of the Great Plains of the Middle West. On the second part which delivered us finally to San Francisco we flew over spectacular mountain chaines. As we had a little pause of 30 minutes in Denver we took the opportunity and sent postcards home which was somewhat funny because we did not see a litle bit of the city itself. But don´t tell our moms...and especially not my little nephews. Finally San Francisco. As soon as we had unpacked our luggage we set off for our Alcatraz evening adventure. We were really fascinated by the city because we could immediately see that there were more little houses than high-rises, streets with bends and mountains, hills and views. We spontaneously left our bus when we crossed the track of the cable car, walked uphill to Crookeded Street, took like the rest of the tourists our photos and went then downhill with the cable car - very strange indeed. But as I am born in Wuppertal, a city with the trains hanging on their wheels and nearly flying of the river, this was easy to survive. Due to our change of mind our journey finally ended at the other side of the harbour and had to make a rush to find the correct pier from which our ferry to Alcatraz island departed. The excursion, the explanations and the extravaganza on the island like the nightly skyline of the city, the chilly wind and the Day 2Lars had to pay a visit to the laundry this morning. While Sid and me had washed now and then one or two shirts and other garments during the days before there was no need for us both to spend time for our housekeeping. This gave us the possibility to take the bus to Market Street and all its very nice shops and stores. Indeed we could prove to be good fashion victims and smart shoppers at the same time. During the afternoon we wanted to see the Golden Gate Bridge. Somehow the bus 80 which would have been the correct one always arrived shortly before we could get on and afterwards, there was no second chance to see it again. This happened several times during our stay which caused each time a little sightseeing tour as we got on another bus. Of course, we could not know this magic at its first occurence. We ended up at Crookened Street, took photos and then opted for the Cable car and ended up at the Bay. Of course, this was not quite the correct destination. First, we wanted to walk but then we embarked on of the historic street cars and divided the distance by two. We did not walk all the way to the Bridge because we had an appointment with Damon from the fanclub at 19:00. Unfortunately, we had some technical problems with the bus system, changed several times, went in circles until we finally reached our hotel. The evening with Damon turned out to be very entertaining. After we had dinner in a nearly garlic-only restaurant in Columbus Avenue we visited a bar in the Castro and then a second one. Day 3Our last full day in San Fransciso was divided into two parts. As our time was too short for this city we had to distribute our times and even split up in the afternoon. After breakfast we took the bus to the beach of the Pacific Ocean because we wanted to visit both the ocean as well as the Golden Gate Park. Especially the coastline was necessary in order to reach our outermost destination. Neither of us had ever travelled to a more distant point than this very spot where you can find a Dutch windmill which made the whole situation a little bit strange and the constantly incoming waves. After this short extravaganza for our own Book of Records we continued our sightseeing tour in the Golden Gate Park. Sid gave up very early, to be honest: after the first kilometer and decided to go back by bus. Lars and me were willing to undertake the effort to visit the whole park without any technical assistents and especially without any vehicle. Later on, we´ve met Sid in the same record shop which is situated in a street very close to the park. We had lunch at the hotel which meant a good portion of vegetables. Then I felt the incredible need to visit the city by foot and to set me a very clear target. I wanted to visit the Golde Gate Bridge once more, and I wanted to come a little bit closer than on the day before. Lars and Sid were not willing to accompany me but this was fine for me because it was more a Marco-like activity which is both difficult to understand and to copy or to accompany. Lars and Sid instead went shopping which caused Lars´ suitcase that heavy that he had to re-organise his things at the airport the other morning because it had reached the allowed weight. While they used their credit cards I benefited from the blockwise layout of the streets: one left, one right, one left, one right. In the end, I reached indeed El Presidio, then the coast and then a spot very close to the bridge. Normally, this would have been the required success but when I saw people standing and walking on the bridge I felt the urgent need to expand my own adventure: it was absolutely necessary to set foot on the bridge. This was only one more kilometer in both directions which was not of any significance after all the efforts before. We had agreed upon meeting at 19:00 at the hotel for dinner but after this extension of my walk I had to re-organise the evening activies and proposed to meet at the Transamerican Pyramid resp. at the Jackson Square which seemed to be mdore easily reached than the hotel itself. I only had to cross the city again. I did not foresee that Russian Hill laid directly on my route. As the Chinese restaurants in the Cina Town were not as promising as expected we visited Columbus Avenue in order to dine in an Italian restaraunt. As Sid and Lars had not left the hotel in time we transferred the meeting point to the Chinese gate at the entrance of China Town. Because of our decision not to make use of the Chinese restaurant we went back to Jackson Square and then uphill Columbus Avenue. After our huge pizza we went back to the hotel by foot, and I really could not estimate the distance I had survived this day. Los AngelesOctober 12th, 2008 - Flight and the CadillacSFO - LAX / 9:30 AM - 10:50 AM / AA1915 / 1 hr 20 mins
As serveral friends and acquaintances had reccommended (resp. urged and forced) us to rent a car we were not at all interested in the public transport system but only in our red Cadillac and me driving it. That it was red Cadillac and due to its size the biggest car I had ever driven was new to us until we saw it. But what we knew was that we had booked at a very low rate a car of the luxury category. We did not want to show off (even if we finally did) but to be able to transport three suitcases in the trunk. In Kansas City this was no problem with the smaller car because we had put one suitcase on the backbench which we could have done in LA, too. But now the car was booked, the price was low and I was very eager to prove my driving skills in a city which offered seven- and nine-lane motorways, up to five stacked lanes for changing the direction and motorways with exits to the left, middle and center at the same spot. Because of the many technical devices and the control lights and the control sounds which helped finding the correct position in a parking lot, it was after all no problem to drive a car in LA. I only had to concentrate on the traffic while the lady in Sid´s navigation system device found us everytime a good way across the city. As our plane was one hour later which we did not know beforehand and as it neeed a mechanic on board we departed very late and arrived therefore very late in LA. The afternoon was not completely over when we finally reached our hotel in Chinatown but after our rest and the visit to the local supermarket there was not much left of the whole day. Furhtermore, we had to move to another room because the technical equipment for the internet connection did not meet with our requirements. Nevertheless, we wanted to experience LA and to present our car. Our first trip therefore directed us to the Sunset Boulevard, the first street which came to our minds. We followed the directions of our helpful lady which showed us not the fastest but the shortest route and therefore guided us around every little block. Again, we had to stop at a supermarket and made a huge shopping tour. Sid and Lars were a little bit reluctant to buy everything in the Chinese supermarket while I was completely thrilled because I love this special feeling of being surrounded by eatable products whose origin, taste and usage is unknown to me. Certainly, there is a risk (don´t tell my insurance company) but what counts is the fun. The others however needed for security reasons a standard supermarket. After this little detour we followed first the Sunset Boulevard, entered then Hollywood and Beverly Hills and then Mulholland Drive. October 13th, 2008 - First show in Staples centerAs we already had good tickets we were not completely dependent from the upgrading service which turned out to be very fine because there was a long queue in front of the Staples center when we arrived there. Fortunately, the ticketmaster self-service machine was working but still out of work because we could pass the whole queue and use the machine without any further waiting time. Apart from that, we also found out that there were in fact no parking lots for free but that you had to use a car park in the neighbourhood of the venue. The prices already differed in the morning which was reflected by the market in the evening. Then we went to Malibu Beach, but took a very long way: Hollywood Boulevard and then nearly the complete Mulholland Drive until we finally entered the highway along the coast. By chance we saw the Capitol Records tower, found a definitely free parking lot (the parcometer was out of order) and had a fantastic opportunity to surround the building and took pictures of the company which had provided us with Tina-CDs from 1984 to 1994. Again by chance we found something else: Tina´s star on the Walk of Fame. We did not know that it was simply situated in front of the building. As it was in the shade we could pose for all different kinds of photos. Nobody was on the street so there was no bad reputation to be feared. Mulholland Drive turned out to be panoramic both in night and day. Only Malibu was not at all as seen on TV and amazed negatively: we did not find any nice way along the seaside, only the loud and hectic highway. We did not find glamour, small cafes and numerous tourists. It only seemed like a motorway and carpark with an ocean on its bedside table. October 14th, 2008 - Show in Honda center in AnaheimThis day was packed with excitement: in the morning we visited the tourist spot on Hollywood Boulevard and the shopping mall. As parking costed practically nothing if the parking ticket was validated by a shop and as we were sure that someone of our group would buy something (in fact, in the end everyone had bag in their hands) we used this carpark. We missed somehow the correct way to the mall itself because suddenly, we found ourselves in a strange staircase and then in a corridor which was only accessible by the backdoors of the shop. Especially the Louis Vuitton shop was of interest for us because we were not able to find our way out resp. to find the car again when we wanted to leave for Anaheim. Therefore, we were forced to force a small shop assistant which worked in the Louis Vuitton shop to lead us through the holy room behind the curtain (total in disorder) and to open the back door for us so that we could try and find our way back to the car by going the exact way back. In fact, this was a litle bit easier but the carpark was that huge that we still had problems to reach our own again. October 15th, 2008It is not very easy to fill a day without a Tina concert. Therefore, we decided to distract ourselves with a theme park and found that visiting Universal Studios could be a good time-filler so to speak. Indeed, the new Simpsons ride, the tour and the various show and - again - the good weather and the sun which changed the colourful decoration of the park into a fairy tale-like paradise made us nearly forget that we had to wait more than one day for Tina. I really cannot explain it but again we had to perform a scientifi search for our car in the carpark. We could definitely remember that we had a parking lot in the Jurassic Park-area and that a number like a 4 got something to do with the level but it must have been vanished into thin air. While Sid was queuing in a Chinese fast food resto, Lars and me were digging deeper and deeper into the Jurassic Park, tried the remote control which forced the car to make a little sound and checked every corner of the carpark until we finally found our red Cadillac again. October 16th, 2008 - Second show in Staples centerWe had a lie-in and then took the car to the harbour in order to see both the Queen Elizabeth and the coast on the other side of the queeny pier. Again, the sky was blue all day and we were astonished that only a few people were visiting these two tourist spots. But maybe they were too far away in the south so that you do not want to visit them if you do not have a car with you. In the afternoon we teamed up very early with Karin at a carpark at the Staples Center. Our first adventure consisted in finding a parking lot. Not that everything was already full but the owners of the first carpark we used decided to increase the price in comparison to the show-day before. As there seemed to be no better service than before and they behaved not friendly enough we decided to change the carpark which meant that we simply drove to the other side of the street and parked our car there. Unfortunately, it was not possible to get the tickets before 17:00 which meant that our early appointment was in no way helpful in order to get better tickets. Therefore we had to decide on our sightseeing trip for the afternoon. Karin proposed to visit the rooftop restaurant which was situated in a hotel in downtown. As we had only seen the buildings in the city center from the car this was quite a good idea. With a map in my hands, we indeed find this hotel and had a nice walk across the city and even across a little green park. It was incredibly hot and we began to feel a certain need for chilly air in the morning and even an overcast sky, i.e. the autumn weather in Europe. Constantly, the sun was glaring and the sky was towering in a blue light above us. As soon as we entered the hotel we were indeed impressed by the fountains and the galleries and balconies in the huge entrance hall. Sofas were standing in these balconies, facing the artificial lake which was itself decorated by huge stones. One could not say that the restaurant was easy to be found, and when we had found it finally, we were told by a guest of the hotel that it only opened much later in the day. Therefore, we could only benefit from the sofas and the bar until we headed for the Town Hall. After Karin´s sightseeing tips were, well, to be honest, not up to date, we were a little bit suspicious about this very unususal piece of information: visiting the Town Hall and especially its observation desk for free. After all the security checks in this country we simply could not believe that this was possible. Therefore, I attempted to make the walk to the building as attractive as possible, and indeed, we found again several nice blocks, even a second little park and reached finally the block which was dominated by the Town Hall. It was surrounded by a lawn which we crossed directly. As there we a lots of people sitting in the sun and enjoying the afternoon this did not seem to be forbidden but visiting the building seemed to be an even stranger idea than before. There were absolutely no other tourists, we could see metal detectors in the entrance hall and several guards. There was no other way than asking them, and indeed, it was possible to go to the top. We only had to register, got "Visitor"-stickers and were then informed about a very complicated way up. As we handed the guard who was filling out the visitor forms our passports or ID cards he tried his best but failed completely and mixed city names and nationalities so that some of us had very strange names in the end. On the top we were rewarded with a vey fine view of the city. We could even see our hotel, the Hollywood-sign and, of course, all te skyscrapers of downtown LA. After taking pictures on every side of the building we finally found the very mysterious room at the top of the tower. It was like in a movie when some dark king or queen dwells in a tower and resides in the topmost corner. Such a room with an official LA flag, several tables and a speaker's desk with a microphone. To my outermost pleasure the room was not even totally empty except for us but the mic was even on. Therefore, I could not resist and delivered one of the most official speeches ever made about Tina in the whole world: "Tina Turner has to tour for the next fifty years all around the world and has to play at least 30 stadiums each year." Don´t ask me why I decided to send her around the world or why 30 stadiums were the first number I could think of but this was my spontaneous speech which I had to repeat several times until it was recorded properly. I am quite sure that this was the most forbidden thing I did during the whole trip but it was funny and, of course, a matter of highest importance. Lars and me, we had to laugh so much about my speech that we even decided to walk (run) all the way downstairs to the street. October 17th, 2008 - Return to everyday life
Even on our last day of this part of the tour we could not resist from going on a little sightseeing trip before we went to the airport. The last location we wanted to see in LA were the Santa Monica Pier and the beach in the south. It was a good idea having reserved this for the last day because the airport was very close to the two spots so that it was nearly on the way to the flight. Lars finally provided us with the last sightseeing spot because he simply selected something like "Airport Blvd". We have to admit, that we were a little bit astonished that the airport was that close and that it could be reached via a normal residential area. But the we understood that the hangars on the other side of the street belonged to the Santa Monica Airport which was indeed an airport but not the one required. Nevertheless, as Tina had shot her WTHIO-clip here, the detour was not completely nonsense. The flights back were on the one hand annoying because we had to cross the whole USA and then the ocean, then Great Britain and finally land in Amsterdam but we spent most of time sleeping. I for one, I had two wine bottles which worked very well and provided me a long and good sleep so that only the breakfast woke me up finally. The waiting time in Amsterdam and then the strange flight to Düsseldorf with a very small prop engine decorated our holidays. On the one hand, it was a good feeling to be back in Europe and see that our airports are much bigger than US ones but on the other hand it was fastidious to wait again for a city hopper flight which costed in the end more time than going by train. Poor Sid had found out that on the end of a journey it is a real need to go back home and not make a detour across Western Europe. In fact, it would have been easier for him to claim his luggage in Amsterdam, take the train home and then finally be at home than to go to Düsseldorf in the first place, then to Essen with me and then on the consecutive day to Belgium again. Even after a phone call with the customer service and then a second attempt at the check-in counter did not allow him to get his luggage earlier than in Düsseldorf. The last and surely the most stressful solution was to go directly to Belgium from Düsseldorf. We did not envy him but could understand his behaviour very well because we very eager to unpack our suitcases, to take a shower and then to go to bed very soon. So, our journey together ended on the platform of the railway station at DUS and we were happy that we had decided to go to the USA in order to see Tina performing for the first eight times since eight years. |
Finally, in the evening we reached Kansas City, MO. To be honest, we had never thought of being so eager to get to a city like Kansas City. One cannot describe it as boring or too small because it had a "standard size" with a downtown area, concert hall, airport etc. But most of our friends knew its name only because of the state´s name which shared a part of the city with Missouri. It does not belong in any case to the common and well-known chain of US cities tourists from Europe would normally visit which made the whole situation and our eagerness to be there a little bit strange. In the small airport we found a huge board with numbered pictures from hotels in the city accompanied by three telephones. In fact, it was indeed very easy to pick up the receiver, dial the two-digit number of the hotel from the board and ask or their shuttle bus to pick us up. We had our print-out from Google Maps with us and we knew that the distance was only 5 km but even for us walking-addicted Europeans this exercise seemed to much - especially in the darkness on a rather motorway-like street which connected the airport with the neighbourhood of hotels.
What has been a real commodity in the first place, turned out to be a somewhat tricky situation. Our hotel was situated directly next to the airport. Astonishingly, this situation was in the morning still the same like in the hour of our arrival. That meant that we were somewhat excluded from the real life of the city - to be precise: we were 16 miles apart in a neighbourhood which consisted only of hotels, their parking areas and big streets. But - as there is always a positive aspect in every situation: it was very calm and the weather was fine.
After breakfast, I had tried to reach Hans from Vienna with whom we wanted to team up for the two concerts in the United Center. But apart from my cellphone working again another obstacle came into our way: all connections to Austria were busy. To be honest, I did not even know that there are still reserved lines or connections across the ocean resp. on the ground. Therefore, my amazement and my disappointment were huge because without this phone call it seemed not to be possible to arrange for our meeting. I tried to leave him a message at the front desk but they had mixed up this name so they did not find him in their list. Therefore, we decided to pay a visit to the supermarket which was only one block away and stayed open all around the clock.
We then embarked on our way to Adam´s apartment. As he was from Hungary, there were only Europeans on their way and not even a taxi was needed for the 20-mins-march. At his place, we wrote the fanclub-email-list about the spare tickets, published a message in the craigslist and, glanced through his collection and then left to a pizzeria where they offered stuffed pizza. This was indeed somehow needed: all these calories which had been burned during the strange negotiations at the box office needed to be replaced immediately by the aid of cheese and tomatoes. After the afternoon-luch our little group broke up and we headed for our various hotels.
The flight to Los Angeles indulged us with a fantastic view of California´s coast because the plane simply followed the coastline with its mountains, beaches, highways and cities. I was nearly constantly taking pictures, both of San Francisco which shrinked and shrinked until it could not be seen anymore and then finally of Los Angeles where apparently no rule existed that guraranteed its inhabitants quiet and peace because the plane nearly scratched the roofs. From the sky, I could spot very easily several big motorways with significantly more lanes than in Germany and huge intersections and crossings.