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Greetings from a tour bus en
route to Holland. It’s Monday night and we’ve left Switzerland after four
rockin’ shows.
Most of us arrived in Switzerland on Wednesday morning and met up with a
group of about half a dozen that stayed during our week off to do displays
and a driving experience in Belgium. Since our flights all arrived
early in the morning our hotel rooms weren’t ready until after lunch.
We dropped
our bags and took the train downtown to do some sightseeing. We
climbed nearly 200 stairs to the top of a church that gave us a beautiful
view of the waterfront and the entire city. Then six of us rented
paddleboats. A bunch of monster truck guys can make even the most
timid paddleboat ride a lot of fun. Actually, it’s amazing we didn’t
sink them.
Jet lagged, we went to bed early and began move-in at the Hallenstadion on
Thursday morning.
Some of our club help in Zurich spoke little or no English and that
presented one of the largest challenges of the weekend. Some of the
most critical communication during the show involves keeping everybody
safe – where people can and can’t go, what to do in case of a rollover or
wreck. Sometimes it feels like you’re talking to a five year old.
We had one helper, Andy, who spoke no English. Every time we tried
to talk to each other we just started laughing because there was no way
we’d understand. But we got the job done and they all had a great
time.
The shows were once again awesome. We were on dirt this time racing
Chicago-style. I met a family during the pit party that just moved to
Zurich from the United States. I asked them where in the States they
lived, and they told me they lived in a town about half an hour from me.
We started talking about other Monster Jams and we’ve been to a few of the
same shows in the states. Talk about a small world.
Switzerland was expensive. We visited the Burger King between the
hotel and the arena just about every day, and the meals averaged between
$12-$15 US dollars. And as is standard in Europe, they charged us
for each ketchup packet and there was no ice in any of our soft drinks.
After the show, Batman, Superman, their drivers and their crews went to
Paris to do a car crush in advance of the show in a few weeks. The rest of
us had off and ventured downtown again to do some shopping and
sightseeing. Two tour buses left at 9pm for an overnight trip
through Germany to Holland.
Onto Arnhem….I’ll check back with you all next week.
- Andrew Palochko
Email Andrew and let him know what you
thought!!
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