| Monday March 2 2009 |
On tour with Lost in Dunkineely 2 : Nijmegen
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We'd been to Nijmegen before, hah, we can do Nijmegen blindfolded! You know, the kind of blindfolded you'd be so you can't see the hungry lion in the pit, or the guillotine or the HUGE unmarked Keizer Karel circus roundabout... It's amazing what happens when you have a city dating from Roman times and you naturally, do not want to tear down any historic buildings for new roads.
What you do is this…nothing. You leave the Roman road system that was there in the first place and then put asphalt on it. What you get is a lot of lovely straight roads leading straight into a Colosseum sized roundabout or circus. That last title seems most appropriate since all you'd have to do to give the people of Nijmegen a great day out is to put stands around this place, add some refreshments and let the games begin.
The theater is actually overlooking the roundabout and, if you're on foot, it's quite easy to reach. We (Evertjan, Hans and me) were however, not on foot and had to run the gauntlet of the roundabout. Basically, you have to throw caution to the wind and your car in front of some other cars to show them you're not afraid. Then you have to do a complex in situ calculation to find out when to stop for the seemingly useless traffic lights and when to pretend you don't see the other cars coming directly at you.
There are no markings to show you which lane you're in, so you most probably end up on the wrong street coming off the circus and you'll have to do the whole thing over again. You can just see it: 3 people in a car going Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh…Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh…Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh in giant circles... Somehow, we made it in one piece. We were feeling very brave and, er, alive when poor Peter showed up a few hours later looking like death, having been stuck in traffic for 4 hours. I cuddled him back to normalcy and gave him a beer which magically made him a lot happier.
That left Siard. It's amazing the way Siard makes use of public transport. He always arrives in time for the sound check and has the laid back look of someone who was just dropped off by a stretch, serving hot chocolate. Edzo, our light cavalry, had been in the theatre since hours before, working his butt off with the local staff to get all the lights in. What with the whole clan complete, we went to dinner had a lovely gig after. It's really all I need to be happy: my boys, food, drink and good music...
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