I woke at 9.00am and had a shower and mug of tea before I checked out at 11.00am. I went slightly the long way round to get out of Munich so I left the city at about noon. It was supposed to be less than a 3 hour drive to Karlshruhe where I was staying but I didn't reach the city until 5.00pm as there was a massive traffic jam outside Stuttgart! There were roadworks plus within about 2 miles two more autobahns merged with ours so it was a nightmare. Often I switched the engine off and there were loads of cars overheating. It took me over 2 hours to get through that! It was also stifling hot as it was about 90 degrees and we were sat in metal cars in the sun with no breeze.
At 5.00pm I received a text from someone to say that she was already in the front row (on Kasim's side of the stage). I didn't think the gates opened until 6.00pm and by this time I was still looking for my hotel in Karlshruhe and planning to have a much needed mug or two of tea. Instead I opted to drive straight to Rastatt and find my hotel after the gig. I didn't realise that the two towns were so far apart as there was about 15 miles between them along a two track road.
Rastatt was mainly built around the main street so I easily found the “grassy knoll” where it was held. There were a few car parks around so I opted for "Park Kasperren" which advertised that it had "frei" spaces. After I'd driven down the slope and got my ticket I realised why there were so few cars there - it closed at 8.00pm! I drove straight over to the exit and put in my ticket. It came up 1 Euro so I fed a one euro coin into the slot and it got stuck! There was a sign for a credit card so I put that in but nothing happened. I pushed the telephone bell and it rang loudly but nobody answered. The lady in the car behind me took me across the car park and showed me the cash machine. Apparently I should have paid before I put my ticket in but my ticket was in the machine and it wasn't releasing it!
I tried the telephone bell on the cash machine too but didn't get a reply. In desperation I rang a friend who was already in the festival and he came out to help me but there wasn't too much that we could do as nobody was answering the phone! We eventually realised that the exit barrier only covered half of the road and my car would probably squeeze around it ! With my friend directing me away from the sensors we managed to break my car out (I'm probably now a wanted person in Rastatt!) and find a street to park it on!
We got to the festival at about 7.15pm and heard the rest of Steve Harley's set. As I was so thirsty I had a drink as soon as I got there but that hardly touched my sides so I queued up again to get another drink. After half an hour my glass was still empty so I left the festival and found a cafe and had a coke and a tea (I was so thirsty) before I went back in.
As I said in my review at http://www.KasimInfo.com/2005/06/24.html it was a great set and it was wonderful to be able to stand where I wanted and not be pushed and watch Kasim get hotter and hotter for 90 minutes!
I took a few photos at this gig (only during AFL as I was too busy enjoying myself tonight!) and they all came out quite well.
I said hello to a couple of German fans that I know before I left (one of them had just got back from Turkey and said it was hotter in Germany than it was there!). I drove back to Karlshruhe and managed to find my hotel quite easily. It's part of a restaurant, beer garden and theatre! Unfortunately there was no lift and I had to carry my heavy suitcase up 2 flights of stairs. I have a lovely room with it's own AC machine. There is wireless Internet at the hotel but I didn't ask for an adaptor as it's nice to be off-line for a few days.
I was still so thirsty that I had 4 mugs of tea before I went to bed at 2.00am.
Mileage today: 233 miles
Tour total (in my car) –3,499 miles
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