11.13.17 QAL Amsterdam
Nov 13, 2017 6:54:38 GMT -5
Post by betty on Nov 13, 2017 6:54:38 GMT -5
Hi everyone, we are back from our journey to Munich and Vienna!
Unfortunately I don’t feel so well at the moment because I’ve had a bad cold and a nasty cough during our whole journey and it got worse in the last week, so I have to take it slow in the next days and rest and try to cure it completely!
Nonetheless I tried to write down a little report about our concert trip. As I’m not very good in describing the concerts in all details, I decided to write about the journey in general, so here are some random little stories about some of the experiences we had in both cities …!
After all the difficulties at the beginning of our trip due to the severe storm we had here two weeks ago (The rail traffic came to a standstill here in the North, so we had to postpone our trip for one day and make a detour over Lübeck the next day!), the rest of the journey went as planned, and we had a wonderful time and great hotels in both cities! As always, besides the concerts we also did some sightseeing in Munich and in Vienna, and I took a lot of pics, both cities are really beautiful! And on some days we were even lucky with the weather, for example in Munich it was cold but sunny, so we were still able to sit outside in a “beer garden” on the Viktualienmarkt and have a drink there! And in Vienna this time we finally managed to visit the daily training of the famous Lipizzaner horses in the Spanish Riding School, very interesting and impressive!
But of course we were also there to attend the concerts and to meet up with some Atoppers before the shows, so here’s a shout-out to all the lovely Atoppers we got to meet in Munich and in Vienna!
It was so wonderful to see our sweet augenpoesie (and her dear friend Bianca) again at the pre-show dinner we arranged in Munich! We already knew each other from Cologne last year and of course we had a lot to talk and laugh about! Also in Munich we finally got to meet the lovely nightowl ! It was really nice to spend several hours before the concert with her and chat about Adam and other things! Unfortunately we didn’t meet sizzling63 , hopefully next time we will have the chance to get to know each other in person!
In Vienna we met with our dear marionm already one day before the concert! First we spent several hours in a typical Viennese coffeehouse and after that went to dinner later in the evening. On the next day we had a meeting arranged before the concert in a restaurant near the arena. It was so nice to meet our two “Austrian girls” QueeenAl and clematis again! We already knew each other from last year in Vienna and so we were happy to see each other again! And of course our dear marionm was also there, so we were a nice little group and had much fun together!
Regarding the concerts … as you all know from the live-streams and videos, both shows were fantastic! Adam and the band were incredible and also the audience in both arenas loved them and cheered very loud and long, so seen from this angle, I honestly can’t choose which concert I liked better!
And we also had great seats in both arenas, in Munich we sat in a lower block in the middle/end of the arena, so we had a nice overview over the whole show, the lasers, etc. without being too far away from the B-stage (plus they had removed the rows 1 to 4, so our row 8 was row 4 in this concert!)
In Vienna we had Platinum seats in row 3 in a block next to the main-stage, so Adam and the band were sometimes very close and of course I loved that, too!
(BTW, Adam really has a special ability! Like in other concerts before, again I had the feeling that he was looking directly at me sometimes, when in reality he most likely only looked in our direction! Of course in those moments I waved at him and screamed out loud ... and obviously made a fool of myself, lol! )
So, I can’t choose the better concert from this point of view either!
The only thing that I can say is, that I think I won’t attend any concerts in the Olympiahalle in Munich again because that arena isn’t very handicapped-suited! Sooo many stairs up and down in the arena plus steep ways outside the venue and total chaos at the entrance ( … so that I already thought we wouldn’t make it into the venue in time!) … I was already totally exhausted and stressed out when I finally arrived at my seat!
In Vienna everything was so easy, no long lines at the entrance, everything was plane outside the arena and inside we only had a few steps to go up to our seats, so from this point of view I would definitely prefer the concert in Vienna! (Plus, my DH and I LOVE this gorgeous city so much, since we first visited it last year!!! Sooo many beautiful old buildings and such a special atmosphere in that city!!!)
Before I end my short recap, I wanted to tell you two nice little stories from Munich!
There was a sweet family sitting in the row in front of us (… parents with a daughter, who was maybe about 14 years old) and they immediately turned around when we sat down and began to talk to us. They were from Berlin and the parents were huge fans of Queen since their youth! The father had seen Queen with Freddie seven times, and he and his wife also saw several concerts of Queen with Paul Rodgers. And in the last years they also went to every possible concert of Queen and Adam that they could attend! When I heard this, of course I thought that they would now surely start to praise Freddie again and belittle Adam … but … just the opposite happened! Of course they were still sad that the hero of their youth, Freddie, had died so early, but they were nonetheless totally happy that the band had continued afterwards, and they did not only accept Adam as the new frontman, no, they told us that they really LOVED him! Both of them couldn’t stop raving about him and what a great singer he is and how perfect he fits the band! The wife also mentioned several times that she finds Adam totally cute and hot and sooo funny and how much she loves to watch him on stage! The daughter was a Glambert since several years anyway, and last year her dad even accompanied her to Adam’s TOH-concert in Berlin! They told me that they couldn’t wait for Adam’s own new music to come out next year, and they even hoped that Queen would write and record new music together with Adam some day! They thought that after all those years the time was right for a QAL-album! So, you all can imagine how pleasantly surprised I was when I heard all these positive words from those long-time die-hard Queen fans!!!
(Funny little anecdote: When nightowl came over to visit us at our seats after the concert, she almost didn’t believe her eyes … the friendly family in front of us were former neighbors of her from Berlin, lol!!! )
And another positive story …! We had three tickets for Munich, so I offered the spare ticket for the seat next to us on the Queen-facebook-site several weeks before the concert. A young woman, who is originally from Scotland but lives in South Germany for 8 years now, bought the ticket from us. I didn’t know her before, but after we sealed our deal, we talked a little bit on facebook in the last weeks and she seemed to be a very sweet person. This impression got confirmed when we met her in person in the arena, she was indeed a very friendly young woman, and it immediately clicked between all of us! She told us that she had never seen Queen and/or Adam live in concert before (only watched a few videos) and that she was only a casual Queen fan but thought that she had to see them live at least once before they possibly retire, so she bought the ticket from us! She didn’t know much of Adam or what to expect from the show, except from the few videos with Queen that she had watched before. And then the concert began and it was sooo cute to watch her! She either sang and screamed and danced along to the songs or stood there wide-eyed, amazed by all the things she saw, like a child at Christmas! When the concert was over and Queen and Adam took their bows, I turned around to her and saw that tears were streaming down her face! She was so moved by the show that she couldn’t hold back her tears! She was so impressed by the concert and especially by Adam that she immediately stated, she would have loved to attend a second show if possible! And she told us that of course she will check out Adam now … I think I have to recommend her several videos in the next time, lol!!!
And over to Vienna once more before I finally come to an end! I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that Adam attended the “Tanz der Vampire”-Musical in the “Ronacher”! Our hotel was located directly around the corner of that theatre and every day, when we went to the city-center and back, we walked past that venue, of course also on that evening, when we came back from our meeting with our dear marionm in the coffeehouse! OMG, noooo, he was so near and yet so far, hahaha!!! I have to admit that in that moment I really regretted that I’m not a big fan of musicals in general and almost never visit a theatre, lol! Hmm, maybe I should change my mind for the future … ?!
Okay, this was my recap, now I have to start catching up on all the threads, photos and videos that I missed in the last weeks … a lot to do! OOFTA!!!