In Napoli, where Love is King - Venice Part 1

I know Dean Martin's "That's Amore" is not talking about Venice.  But that's the song I had through my head the entire weekend, so it's become the theme of these blog posts.

I used miles to fly to Venice on a Wednesday night as we had Thursday and Friday off for Ascension day.  Amazing - not a Christian country, but the Dutch celebrate more Christian holidays that the US.

This is where my luck with flying came to a screeching halt.  Since this flight series to Venice, I've been delayed on every flight since, some to dramatic effect.  I've suddenly got very bad luck when flying. 

I flew from Amsterdam to Vienna on Austrian air and then from there to Venice.  The flight into Vienna pulled up last minute due to a plane getting stuck on the runway.  Because of that delay, I ended up with a direct escort to my next plane that they kept waiting for me.  Now that's service! 

When I got to Venice, I pulled my bag out to the boat dock with my alligator boat return ticket.  It's not called an alligator boat, but the Italian looked like that word (alilaguna).  I landed about 9:30....the boat ride to my side of Venice took 2 full hours.  But, you are in Venice, so it doesn't really matter.  I enjoyed the scenery (lit up islands and spooky piers).  I got to my hotel around midnight after a brief walk off the pier, but quickly realized that the city is not meant for wheel bags.  No matter, I conquered those bridges like a champ and enjoyed a nice quiet night in a very small hotel about 500 yards from St Mark's square. Location, location!!!

Once upon London

I am so far behind on blog posts...in fact, this post is back from when I was a year younger.  I'm writing this as a much wiser woman, albeit, just over a month more wise.

My birthday fell on Mother's Day, which is the worst.  Of course it doesn't happen every year, but the years that it does is just awful.  So I decided to lessen the blow and spend it in London, doing all of the things that a thirty something should do in London.

On Saturday, I went for the best French toast and hot chocolate London and a stroll through St James Park:

That's all that was left to take a picture of from the hot chocolate - The Wolseley has the best breakfast in London...and if you get there early, a newspaper of your choice, which makes for a very fine Saturday morning.

After that, I headed to the tkts booth to pick up a ticket for a show.  I was choosing between "The Pajama Games" or "Once" and made the last minute decision to go with Once.  I'm so glad I did.  It was a really cool show - all acoustic instruments, which I'm a sucker for and a very "cute-meet" love story.  I laughed, I cried, I almost bought the soundtrack, but instead, I'm posting the most famous song for you below:

The theatre was really neat - they had a bar on stage beforehand, intermission and following the show, making you feel like you were part of the show.  I got tickets in the Orchestra (it was my birthday!) and I'm so glad I did.  It was one of those perfect moments when you accidentally get right what you should be doing with your time.

After the show, I went on a very long walk back to the hotel, stopping to shop at Liberty (Mother's day and sister's birthday)...and me :)  I love that store.

On my actual birthday, I wandered through the National Gallery that I rushed through my first time in London.  It's surprisingly calm and peaceful on a Sunday morning.  After that, I got a half price ticket to "The Commitments", another musical (film in the link).  It's pretty much the Irish Jersey Boys with some girls in the soul group.  It's got the same troublemaker singers in the band, the committed manager and the strange band mate.  Great music - Mustang Sally was the highlight. 

I also played a game over the weekend to find the best place to blow my money in London when I move there.  Mission accomplished....I thought it would be Liberty or the tkts booth for half price tickets....but no my friends, it's Foyles bookstore on Charing Cross.  Can. not. get. enough.

I made a mad rush back to the airport and barely made my flight - but I've learned that barely is just right as it means you stretched out whatever you were seeing.  On to Venice!

Dolly at the O2

I'm skipping ahead some entries to make sure I get everything written down from seeing Dolly tonight at the O2 in Greenwich.

Dolly will always have a very special place in my heart, so when a friend sent me a text from London advertising her concert in London last November for June 2014, I immediately went on line to book. She originally only had one night on Friday, which by the time I got on, was very nearly sold out with only obstructed view seats left.  I was gutted, but held out hope with an alert from ticketmaster and watching her website.

Luckily, she opened a second date and I got on same day to buy.   Even then, the only seats open were in the top deck.  No matter, I purchased immediately figuring I'd work out the details later.

I never got my tickets in the mail because apparently mailing between the UK and the NL is very difficult, so I had to pick them up at the call window.  The O2 is an amazing venue.  Everything is clearly placed and there is limited foot traffic considering the large number of people.  And it's only a 20 minute tube ride from Waterloo, so getting there was really easy.

Dolly kicked off the show with a smash up of a few songs (1 I didn't know and This Girl is on Fire and Great Balls of Fire).  Dolly is "sass and sparkle"; she talks a lot between numbers and has some of the best one liners of any musician I've seen.  She's an entertainer.  You can tell that when she gets on the stage, she expects that everyone in the audience will feel good walking out of the show at the end.  She immediately starts by being very thankful for everyone that spent money on the show and promises to make it worth it.  She also adds "I truly do appreciate you spending your hard earned money on me; it takes a lot of money to make someone look this cheap.", which is only the beginning of the one-liners, both funny and sentimental.

The crowd was definitely die hard Dolly.  Pink cowboy hats everywhere (both on the women and men!) and lots of great people watching.  It was funny to see which songs got the crowd excited too - they were different than the ones from the States.  But more on that in a minute.

After the opening medley and her thanking the crowd, she dove head first into "Why'd you come in here lookin like that".  Dolly can still move - she was all over the stage having a great time.  I will say that she sat more this show comparatively to when I've seen her in Houston.  But she's still got it (even though the science of her being able to stand still boggles my mind).  

After that quick paced ditty, she jumped straight into Jolene and explained the back story of that awful woman from the bank who tried to steal her husband.  As she said, she got rid of Jolene with the song, but now that they are old and as she watches her husband on the lazy boy, she wonders if Jolene is still interested.  Very funny little story and the crowd went crazy for the song.  It was like attending a giant Dolly sing a long with Dolly leading the songs. London, you never cease to show your multiple sides!

After that, it was on to a new song from her new album "Blue Smoke", which she wrote 9 of the songs for.  Blue Smoke was the first song she sang off of it and its a silly little number - which I know you are surprised to hear that Dolly sings a silly song.  But its definitely a foot tapper and clapper, so the crowd seemed to love it.  My parents got me the cd for my birthday, so I was fully versed in her new songs.  I really liked it live (Thanks Mom and Dad!).

After that, it was time to go to the mountains, and no, as she point out, she was not referencing her chest...those are different mountains.  She sang Tennessee Mountain Home, and having spent a lot of time in those mountains in university, it felt like hearing from home.  She's so sings so wistfully about her home.  She reminded everyone to always be proud of where you come from, both the good and the bad.  She picked up the mood a bit by also tacking in "Rocky Top", which I know that as an SEC fan now, I'm not allowed to like, but if I were picking a university based on school song alone, U. Tenn wins every time.  

After that, we had the momma and daddy phase of the show, where of course, she had to sing "Coat of Many Colors" which is my favorite song and apparently everyone else's as well.  I started crying the moment she started introducing the song, talking about how proud her momma was, her tenacity and grit, and her brash love.  CoMC is not just a song, it's a philosophy, as Dolly put it.  There was not a dry eye in that building.  The girls next to me were crying, the guy on the otherside was crying with his wife.  Such a beautiful moment that she has just the right touch for.  She sent her band off for the song and played only with a light drum and acoustic guitar and ukele.  Just beautiful.  

Then it was on to daddy.  Unfortunately (and shocker) I didn't know this song.  It was beautiful, but I don't know if I could pick it out of her catalogue if I heard it again.  She talked about her dad working to the bone to support his large family on no education.  Her dad couldn't read or write, which in that time and area was probably not unusual, but unheard of today.  Dolly started a charity in honor of her dad that sends a new book to a child once a month in economically diverse areas around the world.  As she said, she is so proud that her daddy is the start of a new life for so many kids around the world.

After that she did a Bob Dylan cover from her new album and "Lay your hands on me", a Bon Jovi cover.  Lay your hands on me is a take it back to church, can I get an Amen?, kind of song.  The whole crowd was up and dancing and enjoying the organ they wheeled out for the song.  Did I mention how many instruments she played during the night?  She played an electric guitar, acoustic, saxophone (so many sax/sex jokes), ukele, electric slide, piano, organ, harmonica, flute....probably more, but I lost count.

Then it was intermission, which I spent people watching.  It was a younger crowd than I expected - so many mother/daughter combos and lots of young girls there for hen-dos and girls night out.  Made me miss my mom - first time I've ever seen Dolly without her.

Then she was back and she started the list of hits.  She took it slow at first, starting with a VERY sad song off new album about a guy who kills his love while in prison because she won't marry him.  Then she tacked on Little Sparrow and everyone was crying again.  She mentioned she gets in trouble if she doesn't do that song in a set - which is surprising because its definitely not one I would put in the  top 10 most popular Dolly songs, but it is one of her most haunting. As she said, no one can be happy all the time, but you can look it with some collagen and botox.

She picked it up with White Limoseine, which shocked me.  One of my favorites, but again, not one of the most popular.  That album is one that sticks with you and the title song is so great.  She followed it up with a melody of her love songs, only 1 of which I knew (shame, shame).  

Then she sang "Here you come again", which the crowd went nuts for.  I was surprised - its a great song, but I'm not sure it ranks in my top 5.  Everyone sang that song!  Messin with my mind!

From there it was 9 to 5 and Islands in the Stream (with an intro of Real Love, another Kenny/Dolly duet, but not nearly as popular).  Islands in the Stream was good, but because she had to duet with a back up singer, who was good, but nothing is the original with Kenny.  Everyone was singing and going   crazy on 9 to 5 - the entire arena sang the chorus.....sing a long!!!  And the best kind.

She left the stage and came back for the encore.  I normally hate the American encore thing....its so self serving, no one deserves a encore all the time - you should really have to take down the house to get an encore.  In this case, Dolly did take down the house and deserved an encore.  She came back out quickly and sang of course, "I will always love you", which I still believe is better than the Whitney version.  

I laughed, I cried, I got my money's worth.  Every show should be like that.  

I got a magnet for my fridge collection and then headed to the tube, which was only minorly backed up.  From the moment I walked out of the O2 to the tube, it took about 20 minutes to catch a tube, which I think is amazing given the sheer volume of people.  There were sing a longs in the tube station too, so all in all, a very pleasant commute back into the city.  

Here's my top ten list of Dolly songs, in case you are interested:

1.  Coat of many colors

2.  The grass is blue (both Dolly and Norah Jones version)

3.  Why'd you come in here lookin like that

4.  Jolene

5.  9 to 5

6.  Little Sparrow

7.  White Limoseine

8.  Islands in the Stream

9.  I will always love you

10.  Here you come again

(Honorable mention:  Tennessee Mountain Home)

Covered almost all of them - grass is blue is my quirky favorite that most people don't know, but it's a beautiful haunting song.  Pictures and video to follow.....

B's visit!!!!

B came to visit!  Pictures from Keukenhof and Amsterdam!

 

#schipholselfie #secondhome #canIrentatGateB26?

Beach trip!

Flowers for the house :)

My hippie (all love) friend!