After (finally) a quiet night in at Marjan’s (thank you Marjan!) we arose feeling resasonably rested for a change and headed into Amsterdam, collecting Maurice, Doug, Karin, Carina and Guido on the way, and set off to see some sights. We visited a photography exhibition with great pics of C Berry, F Domino, J Brown, J Cocker, Stones, Who etc, and peeked into several others in the arty Speigelgraacht area, wended our way over several canals, saw the Beginhof (an old convent, a bit of peace in the centre of the city), rooted through a huge record store, ate pancakes and still were on the steps of the Paradiso by 6 pm.
December 5 in The Netherlands is Sinterklaasavond, the festival of St Nicholas, when schools have no lessons and a half-day holiday and people exchange gifts of special chocs and cakes. In particular, it’s traditional to get a lovely bar of rich chocolate in the shape of the initial letter of your name. So Evelien (Marjan’s daughter, the young fan whom Southside brought on stage to dance with him in Amsterdam last year) made up a Santa sack with nicely wrapped chocolate letters for each of the Jukes and crew and delivered it to the stage door of the Paradiso.
