Metal Crusade: End in sight

This is attempt number 2, as after putting the photos up all of the text I wrote for an hour was erased. Fantastic, only 2 hours of typing.

We took a train from Bonn to Nürnberg, and from there caught a train to Amberg, the closest town to the Earthshaker festival. We had a little walk around in Nürnberg inbetween the trains, as we had to pick up some gas for the festival. We had gone to a shopping center in Bonn for the food. Unfortunately we left behind our 4kg box of Haribo! Nürnberg is a pretty town, from the little amount we saw of it. They too have an impressive cathedral. Once at Amberg we had some hour to wait for the shuttle bus, so used the time to get some money out of the machines in town, yet again.

Once at the festival grounds we had words with one of the ushers, as they put us at a pretty crap spot on the camping ground. It was based around a hill and we were right away from it, next to the designated area for the road, and inevitably, the walkway for the drunks. We managed to move to another spot, which was at the foot of the hill and conviniently close (but still far enough that our tent did not become an alternative) to the bogs. We set up the tent, and noticed the festivals have had their toll on our super wallmart tent. The poles are slightly bent now, and there are a few rips. Still, it was clear it would hold for that festival and we are confident that it will be fine for our last one as well.

The festival area was very close to the camping area, but the concerts (only one stage at this festival) had been shifted into a hall, much to alot of people's dissapointment. The reasoning was predicted storm weather. The hall had a good sound, but the sad thing was that all of the seats, which, being a horse jumping hall, were all around the middle field, were off-bounds, and obviously during the day you could see very clearly inside. The first bands started at 11.00 am so didn't play to a huge crowd, as they normally don't. Being outside this is fine, it is not so noticable. But inside, it really seemed as if they were playing to a big, empty hall - well, they were. Still, the sound inside the hall was good, and the crowd was as enthusiastic as the bands.

It was a fairly chilled out festival for us, wandering around and checking out the bands we wanted to see. Everything was close so easily accessable. I rekindled a long lost love of Crepes with Nutella - something a stall was selling and a pleasure I have missed for a few years.

There were quite a few characters at Earthshaker - more so than the others. There was a dude that looked just like Haggard (is that is name?) from Harry Potter - really big, slow, fur pelts all over him and an all encompassing bushy beard and hair mop. There was a guy who was in a ninja turtle suite the whole 3 days, the only change being the addition of a thong. A guy had a bright pink lycra jumpsuit, and there was a guy who wore nothing else than boxer shorts and a bullet belt.

After the festival we got the bus back to Amberg, on to Nürnberg and then onto Basel, my hometown. We stayed with my uncle and had a nice few days going out with him and walking around town during the day. My uncle's apartment is very close to the airport, on the top floor, and on the first morning I heard a plane go over very, very close, shaking the building. What followed was a huge bang which shook the windows even more, and after looking out the window, saw that the plane had crashed into the building next to us, about twenty meters away. The whole building was on fire so we rushed down to help, but the place was already cornered off by the emergency response forces. It turned out that a guy wanted to fly to new york in his single man plane, but had problems from the start - to heavy, basically. Anyway, had our roof been slanted instead of flat, the guy would have flown into us. Quite spectacular. Luckily the pilot was the only casualty.

We are now in Tessin, a lake side area of Switzerland right on the border with Italy. We are staying with my grandparent's here, and are fed about 7 portions every meal. The food is gorgeus and the freshest stuff in the world, so our stomachs are stretching. Other than that we lie in the sun and sleep, or swim in the lake. Pretty neat. I only feel sorry for Robert because for the last week he has not understood a word anyone has said.

On the first we have an 8 hour train ride up to Hamburg, for the last festival. The trip is coming to an end, yet the biggest, and wildest festival awaits us.