Loes & The Celtic Link from Prague to Westport (and Back) #1: From Vltava to Vlaardingen

Skáld Coffee: clubhouse for Vikings

Somewhere between Dresden and Prague lies the town of Louny. It has approximately 18,000 inhabitants, a beautiful historical centre... and an almost non-existent cultural life. Radek Sachr is trying to change this by organising concerts in his establishment Skáld Coffee. When I heard that name, I imagined a Scandinavian-cool cafe with giant cinnamon buns, overpriced sour coffee, minimalist decor and bearded baristas. Apart from Radek having a beard, I was completely off the mark. If the Vikings were still around today, Skáld Coffee would be their clubhouse. There are board games, fantasy books and a huge whiteboard on which the bartender keeps the customers' tabs. In all this convivial chaos, nothing went according to plan, but it was still a superb evening – mostly thanks to Radek's hospitality and his legendary pulled pork burger.

Munich: it's hard to compete with football

The next morning we were joined by Tomas Novak (bodhrán) and performed as Loes & The Celtic Link in the beer garden of the Holiday Inn Munich Unterhaching. Most of the guests of the sold-out hotel decided to attend Thomas Müller's last match against FC Bayern-München. Due to this dumb luck, only a handful of people attended our Irish Night, but the quality sometimes surpasses quantity: the overwhelming enthusiasm of one group of tourists gave this day a silver lining.

De Parel van Zuilen: a pearl in the middle of the Netherlands

We said goodbye to Tomas and enjoyed a few days off, which we spent at Frühlingfest in Munich (think dirndls, lederhosen and litre glasses of beer), in the Dutch region of Limburg (where I was born) visiting family and in Amsterdam for a rehearsal. Then on Thursday 15 May, we played the first of four double-bill concerts with Paul van Vlodrop at Parel van Zuilen in Utrecht. The Parel van Zuilen is a beautiful building that is especially popular for weddings. Thanks to good promotion by the owners Elz Mooij and Gerard-Joost Esser, there were quite a few people and we sold quite a few CDs. Our host Esther Bosch sent us the videos from which I made this compilation.

Reckenfeld: it's hard to compete with Eurovision

On Saturday, May 17, we went to Reckenfeld (Greven), Germany with Paul van Vlodrop to perform in the grand hall of Deutsches Haus ("German House"). The Deutsches Haus does not hide its Germanness – from the large round tables with tablecloths to the aroma wafting from the kitchen, everything screams: jawohl! The grand hall was a bit too grand for us: the fact that a large part of our potential audience either stayed at home to watch the finals of the Eurovision Song Festival or attended the Tapfest festival in Belgium might have something to do with that.

Our attempts to announce our songs in German went considerably more smoothly for Paul (who has toured Germany extensively in his 40-year professional music career, including with the Country Ramblers and Four Wheel Drive) than for me (Czech has taken over my entire brain, leaving no room for the German I learned in high school). Fortunately, my efforts were greatly appreciated and many people told us afterwards that they were moved by our performance. 

Vulcaan: where the music and the beer are as potent as a volcano

In the hustle and bustle of the tour, it's no wonder that sometimes you forget something somewhere, so the next day we had to go back to the Deutsches Haus for a wallet and to the Parel for a box of posters. Luckily, Utrecht was on the way to Vlaardingen, where in the late afternoon we performed with singer-songwriter Michel Ebben at the cool new microbrewery Vulcaan. Michels music went straight to my soul, thanks in part to his sincere performance and beautiful guitar sound.

In the coming week, we will play in Amsterdam, Gorinchem and Aalsmeer, then we will take the ferry to England for a whole new chapter. Do you have friends in any of those cities? Send them to the gig! We look forward to seeing you back here on Insounder next week for another installment of our tour report!