Day 12: Ellerdorf
Welcome
Yesterday we flew to the north of Germany and played at Wilwaren Festival.
After returning from Primavera festival there was time for a shower and then we headed down to the lobby at 4am to get our airport transfer. It was good that we were now highly proficient at packing our gear into a Volkswagen Transporter because we were quite tired by this point. It was surprisingly bustling at Josep Tarradellas Barcelona–El Prat Airport considering the early hour. We were flying with Vueling and the lines at their check-in counters were snaked out well past the queuing poles. Luck was with us though in the form of an extremely proficient check-in operator who didn’t bat an eyelid when we got to the front of the queue with our four trolleys overloaded with Pelican cases and guitars. It was surprising how simple the process was. We lifted each bag onto the conveyor next to her desk where it was weighed, and a bag tag attached. The ones that were oversized we carried to the special baggage drop which was only a few metres away. She was done with us in under ten minutes, and we got to our gate ninety minutes early.
It was a pristine morning that farewelled us from Barcelona as we were bused out to our Airbus A320 Neo, which was quite far from the terminal, where there is cheaper parking, I guess. I slept for most of the flight, waking as we were descending over some very healthy-looking farmland northwest of Hamburg. The city’s 279.2m sky needle, the Heinrich Hertz Tower was a welcome sight, proudly jutting above the treeline as we rolled down the runway and taxied into the terminal. After collecting all our baggage, we were met by Ulrike, a festival driver, who put us all in her Volkswagen Transporter and hopped on the autobahn, headed north. Ulrike was very friendly and went well out of her way to take care of us throughout the afternoon. She grew up in the north of Germany and was able to tell us about the language and culture in this part of the country, which is heavily influenced by its proximity to the Netherlands, Norway, and Denmark. Our hotel was in a village called Nortorf, 25km southwest of Kiel, and that’s where we went first, as we had eleven hours until our set time, and we were both tired and hungry.
We arrived to find that our hotel was a collection of cute redbrick buildings, surrounded by gardens and a tiny pond equipped with a tiny jetty. The rooms were comfortable and nicely furnished with high quality furniture and very fine trim. The hotelier welcomed us and then directed us to only food in the vicinity, at the nearby Swing-Golf/Football-Golf course, which had a simple bar and restaurant service. The menu consisted of currywurst and fries so that’s what I had for my breakfast, served on a long rectangular dish, alongside a large bowl of mayonnaise for us to share. While we ate our food and sipped a refreshing glass of pilsner we watched a pair of Swing-Golfers out the window, taking huge swings at a large orange golf ball which then ricocheted at a steep angle into the bushes off the side of the course.
I enjoyed seeing this folding technique used for the bath mat.
After this heavy meal I headed out for a run, wanting badly to explore this beautiful area of the North-German countryside. Most of our time in Germany has been spent on the Autobahn traveling between the larger cities so I was excited for a change of scenery. I set off along a small gravel track that took me past the golf course and into a vibrant meadow which was exploding into colour in this latter part of spring. I ran through Skulpturenpark Nortorf and enjoyed art works spanning many different shapes and materials. Next, I did a loop that took me around a small lake, Borgdorfer See. I was struck by the fact that all the roads and highways I ran along had footpaths for pedestrians and cyclists, a thoughtful piece of infrastructure that must go a long way to connecting the many villages in the area. They were well used too; I was passed by many cyclists out enjoying a ride in the Saturday afternoon sun.
We all slept for most of the afternoon, rising just in time to get ready for our transfer to the festival, at 7pm. Ulrike collected us, and we headed to a location in the woods a few kilometres outside of Ellerdorf. Wilwaren festival was well underway when we arrived. The backstage area was well organised, with a kitchen tent serving up hot meals and a dishes tent keeping the kitchen tent running. We ate a very nice dinner and then had a couple of hours to check out the music, which was taking place across three stages, all with very different designs. The festival organiser had told us that it had been a very busy few weeks leading up to this event, with the carpenters having to work overtime to repair the wooden stages which remain in place each year after the festival ends. There was a great atmosphere created by the beautiful location in the middle of the woods, and it was being enjoyed by a diverse range of attendees, ranging from families with young children, to twentysomethings in a rather more celebratory state.
Our set was scheduled for 11pm but we ended up going on late. As quite often happens there was a problem with the patch, something that just seems to occur when these changeovers happen in such a rush. There was a good bit of confusion as festival technicians tried to get things sorted, and this was not helped by Liz’s guitar amp breaking – the fourth amp that has gone kaput on this tour. We played a party set, as by this point in the evening things were loosening up significantly. It was a fun hour, and even if it was slightly looser than we usually keep things, it was a fun and exciting performance.