My story about Luxembourg, June 6th 2011 ( its too long for any sane person to read, but sorry, had to post it)

Our Luxembourg adventure....Euphoria concert number 4!

I left home on sunday the 5th of june around 10 o clock from my home in the north of Holland to pick up Priscilla, Amany and Irene at a trainstation. As usual and because we live in different parts of the country, we always have trouble to keep our plan/schedule and this time too: the train Priscilla was travelling in was delayed because of lightning striking in a signhouse and we left an hour late...hahahaha. But that didn't spoil the fun: at first we all are a little quiet but the further we travelled the more we are chattering and laughing and singing in the car...we were going to Enrique again! We felt sooo happy and lucky! The journey went quit smooth allthough we went straight trough Liege and it had been raining so hard there that the streets were overflown with water, causing our navigation system to be useless...but we turned down the window while being in slow driving traffic, blasting Enrique out of the speakers and all four of us singing along....whaaaaa! The people in the cars around us where looking at us like we were crazy!! We didn't care haaaaa!

As soon as we were out of Liege again, we entered the Ardennen. The hills there are quiet sneaky and steep and ofcourse we were paying little attention to our surroundings, it took me some time to realise that it was really quit hard work for my small car to carry four girls and their four suitcases in the back of the car up the mountain....haaaaa! I was kinda worried because my carengine was making heavy sounds and at some point I put down my foot all the way down and wasn't going any faster than 70 km/hour....and I thought...oooohhhh noooooo, not now!!! Please let me get to Luxembourgh safely.....and thoughts were running trough my mind like: OMG what if my car brakes down, then we are here halfway Luxemburg!! What will we dooooo!!

I checked all the meters and noticed that some time later it seemed to get better and then some of the trees blocking the view beneath the road dissappeared and we could see how high we really were.....I was like pfffffff, that must be it....the route we choose took us straight trough the Ardennes and as soon as we entered Luxemburg, the most of the steepness was over....I was sooooo happy!
My car wasn't breaking down after all!! Haaaa!

Then the next challenge....I saw I still had a quarter of a tank of petrol left and told Irene to help watch out for the next gasstation.....and what do you think?? No petrolstation for ages and ages....Im used to Holland, where you have gasstations every 15 minutes and this took quit a bit longer....LOL Finally when we only had 15 km to go there was a gasstation. It was really busy there but with the tank filled up again we were ready for the last leg of the trip. We had contact with Hildeke who allready arrived and we told her we hoped to be there soon.....As usual, it took a little longer than we anticipated LOL also because of some roadwork going on and we had some trouble finding the part of Esch sur Alzette where the hotel and venue were situated. The area was brandnew and not mentioned at our navigationsystem.....finally at 20.00 we arrived and asked Hildeke and Danielle, who arrived in the meantime to keep Hildeke company, where to park our car....and then we greeted Hildeke and Danielle with loads of exitement and sat down to have something to eat....It was soooo nice to be there with the six of us and we were happy with our smart decision to travel to Luxembourgh the day before....

After diner, we decided to check in and take our luggage to the rooms. We were on the same floor as Hildeke and Danielle and after putting our stuff away, we quickly left the hotel after that to go check out the venue, only 50 metres away...such a luxury!! We checked out the entrance and asked the security about the situation of the next day...Thanks to Hildeke for her French! :)

We also went to the artist entrance and Hildeke asked a security guy about Enrique and the band...he told us Enrique was staying in Luxembourg city, about 20 minutes by car, and we decided to take a change and go there to see if we could give our basket with chocolates for Enrique, all of the bandmember, Fernando, Andres and Abel to someone of the hotel, if they were staying there....But no luck, we tried at 2 5 star hotels and got not confirmation that he or his manager where staying there....so we took our basket and went back to the hotel to get some sleep....

We decided to get up early to be at the door at 8 o clock to be sure to be in the front....and when we arrived there were about 6 fans there allready....we decide to divide ourselves over 2 rows and so we were nrs 3 and 4, 5 and 6 so that was pretty good accomplishment....

We were all set for another day waiting in line...we took lots of survival food! The weather forecast hadn’t been that good, but we sat underneath a kind of awning(? Is this how you say it? I mean a little roof that extended over the front of the building, just far enough to keep the first 15 people in a row, dry) We had some showers in the afternoon, but in general we were lucky also thanks to being in front.... Because the hotel was so closeby, we could take turn to leave the row and walk back to the hotel to go to the bathroom or get something to eat...During the day, more and more fans were coming and a lots of Dutchies and Belgian friends...It was sooooo nice to have some time to spent with eachother and we made some really nice grouppictures. We had some good laughs and had time to prepared the orange Heineken Tshirt with a black marker...we wrote our names and messages on it for Enrique. The plan was to throw it at him...

At noon, I went with Hildeke to the artist entrance again, to see if we could give our basket with presents to somebody who could give it to Fernando or Abel...There weren’t many people since it was early and after some waiting we decided to go back to the row for now...Later on, some security guy who came out on a sigaret break, promised me he would ask for me how to get our presentbasket to somebody of the team and get back to me....Then I spotted a woman who was apparently one of the important people of the venue, she dealt with some arguments earlier that day, and I approached her, explaining that we had a present for the band, and that we would really want someone to get it to them....She immediatly said: Ofcourse, give it to me and I will give it to the tourmanager! I was sooo happy that mission was completed and she was admiring the basket.... One less thing to worry about...yay!

In the mean time the hours were passing and the critical last 2 hours approached...this is the time the nerves are starting to kick in and we get more nervous by the minute. That last hour is really the worst of the whole day of waiting...you are wondering if you will be able to get a space in the front and are thinking about everything that could go wrong....aaaaahhhhh that is really killing me everytime!

Finally, 20 minutes later than was on the tickets, at 19.50 hrs. The doors were opened and we went through the security check and than started to run!!!! There are always people telling us to slow down and you try to for a while but the urge to run like crazy is always bigger!!! Haaaa, you try to be polite and do as you are told, but.....so much is depending on this run...you only wanna stop if you feel the fence and see the stage right in front of you and realise that you did it again!

I had some anxious moments because halfway the run, I felt one of my (flat) shoes slipping and I thought oooohhh no, I cannot loose this shoe now!! I wont be able to go back to get it and I will be standing there with only one shoe! Haaaaaa! So I slowed down a little bit to keep my shoe from slipping and managed to reach the area in front of the stage with both my shoes still on! The other girls were standing at the runway and I had a quick look at my possibilities: I could go and stand second row right behind the girls, or.....take the great spot right in front of the mainstage, where I was standing in Paris and Hasselt....oooooh I needed to decide quickly and opted for the last option.... soon after that, other fans rushed in and there is no time to change your mind....Two other Dutch fans were standing right next to me..so I wasn’t totally alone between frenchspeaking fans....

Right from the start it was very very hot. The DJ that warmed up the crowd, was playing great songs and it made time pass really quickly.....Before I knew it, the show was about to start...and I was thinking: You better enjoy this to the fullest, Maaike, its gonna be the last one for a while!!

The show was amazing as always. Because of the great spot, I had lots of eyecontact with his cute band and a great view of Enrique. Only if he was all the way at the end of the runway...I couldn’t turn all the way to see him., so I watched him on the screens or had fun with the bandmembers instead. I saw the girls at the runway had lots of contact with Enrique and the orange tshirt we made was trown by Priscilla during Rhytm Divine right in front of Enrique and he picked it up and put it besides the drums. He also took the red rose that Amany threw at him. This picture is taking just after Pris trew the shirt on stage and you can see it laying there at him feet. He looked and smiled and picked it up ...aaaahhhh mission accomplished AGAIN! :)

Because of the boxes in front of the mainstage, he came close to where I was standing several times....I filmed the whole concert, but some parts of my vids are blurry because of my jumping, waving, singing ( out of key) and dancing! LOL these vids are fine for my personal memories but for publishing it needs some cleaning up....haaaa!

This picture above is one of the amazing pictures Agnes took...She was standing with Lammie and her daughters about 10 metres to the left of me...Take a look at her profile for more great pics!

During the last song: I Like it, which has been a special song for me because everytime he performed that song, something special happens to us...., he jumped on the boxes right in front of me, laughing, pointing and waving at the crowd...and he gave me a small but significant handgesture like he was saying: Hey, you again?!
It might not seem like a lot, but for me the circle was complete....

He sang La chica de ayer in stead of Ring my bells because he had some spanish family upon stage and he didn’t do Hero. He always says he only does Hero if the atmosphere is right....I thought the crowd could have been a little more enthousiastic....few people were singing, screaming and jumping, so that might have been the reason he didn’t do it....When we walked out, we saw there WAS a little stage in the back, so he could have done it if he wanted too...We also learned later that night that he was in a hurry to get to his plane, so this might have been the reason....we will never know for sure...

After the concert the concert the girls wanted to get some merchandise and after that we went back to the hotel. We then went back to the venue again to exchange the hoody of Irene because she wanted a smaller one.....Then we heared he was leaving the venue in a hurry and decided to try our luck and to take the car to the airport....First we arrived at the commercial airport where Hildeke asked someone where private jets would depart...The woman was a litlle annoyed because we were not the first fans to ask her that, but she was sitting there doing nothing...so she might as well use her time to help us out...she told us the private jets departed from another part of the airport and told us how to get there...We jumped in the car and went as fast as we could....we drove right the first time for a change and arrived at a office like building with security in it. We stepped out to have Hildeke ask him if Enrique already arrived. The guy was very friendly, and told us he thought they had left allready....it was 10 past twelve at that time...He flagged over a collegue who was just passing by to leave the compound in his car....He kindly turned around and it turned out to be the guy in charge of these private jets departures... He told us, Enrique’s plane had left at 23.52 and that he had to leave soo fast because after 00.00 hrs., its not allowed to take off anymore in Luxembourg....aaaawwwwwwhhhhhh! If we had gone there straight away we might have catched him......The guy told us he thought Enrique was such a nice man. Two fans had been there at the gate when he arrived in his car, and Enrique stepped out of the car to greet them, talked to them and take a picture, allthought he clearly was running late....

For us it was a bittersweet moment....we just missed him and suddenly we realised it was all over....boeeeehoooeeeee. And then, Danielle from Belgium had to leave and we had to say goodbye to her....we had to swallow some tears and then went back to the hotel with the five of us....

We went back to the hotel, where the other dutch fans we having a drink together, so we sat down with them for a few minutes to have a drink and talk some more...then we went to bed and tried to get some sleep and come to terms with all the events of the day....

The next day, we met up with some other fans at checkout time, put our luggage in the car and went to the shoppingmall across the street to have brunch with the group....It was such a nice way to end the weekend with a meal together! To talk some more and take some more pictures and enjoy each others company.... Finally we made a grouppicture and said our goodbyes......Me and Priscilla, Irene and Amany couldn’t resist the new and beautifull H&M store in the mall and did some shopping to ease the pain....

Then we had to leave and go back to Holland. This time we took another route, so hardly any hills this time lol!. At 17.30 hrs we were close to Priscilla’s house and we had our last meal with the four of us at the MacDonalds...aaawwwhhhh soooo hard to say goodbye after another adventure.....then it was onward to deliver Irene and finally Amany safely home...At nine I was home also and the adventure was over....sigh.....

I hope we will get another date to look forward too very soon....but I feel really privaleged....I was soooo lucky in the last year! Thanks to everyone who I have met during this Euphoria tour!! Hope to see you all very soon again! X

PS About the pictures and photographs in this story: I did not make any of the photo's of Enrique during the concert myself. I used pictures made by others, no copyright infringement intended. If any of the rightfull owners wants me to remove their pictures, let me know....:)