Diary of a Touring Musician: days 24 - 25
In September & October 2023, we took to the road in the UK to introduce our new album STARLITE.ONE. This is all about the final leg of our journey and part 19 of the warts-and-all-account.
If this is the first article you have seen in the series and want to put it into context, you can find them all by heading over to:
It’s Thursday, October 19th and day 24 of our sojourn and there’s an Autumnal chill in the air. Combined with the crisp blue skies it creates an enchanting atmosphere in the main square in Cognac where we always make our way for breakfast.
Breakfast in Cognac
First up, we visited a boulangerie to purchase our croissant and pain au chocolate, then we took our swag in the regulation brown paper bag to find an outdoor table at one of the bars in the square and order a coffee or three. It’s quintessentially French to eat food bought from another establishment in a café - try that in England folks!
We always look for the busiest place: busy with locals, not tourists.
It seemed like the best place was Brasserie La Renaissance where we called in for a beer last night. We bumped into David again, whom we first met the night before. He is an Englishman living in Cognac. We chewed the fat for a while, chatting about the pros and cons of living in Europe, music marketing and promotion and politics.
Halfway through the conversation, he made us laugh as he thought it was Debbie Harry and Chris Stein walking in - a big compliment indeed: the power of black clothing eh.
We only had a two-hour window in Cognac as today we were heading into Spain for the final night’s stay at Hotel Boutique Museo in the historic city of Burgos.
Again avoiding the toll roads saved us 100€! Yes, that’s serious money - we equate the savings in terms of a hotel + food + wine!!
Of course, that is when you are in Europe - UK pricing would just about buy us an evening meal if you were careful about what you chose from the menu.
Burgos
We decided to have one last culinary treat and on the way booked dinner at la fábrica for 2130 and looked like we had plenty of time.
France is 9% bigger than Spain which still makes Spain fucking big, 505,935 km² to be precise. Great Britain and Northern Ireland weigh in at a paltry 244,376 km².
The good thing about researching when driving is that Suzy doesn’t look at the road which for Simon is a considerable blessing as she is probably the singularly most difficult ‘back seat’ - or in this case front seat - driver.
The Van of Rock is big and always troublesome to park, but looking at the map there was a surface car park a hundred metres from the hotel.
We pulled up, Starlite jumped out and took the bags whilst Simon found a temporary place to hold up until we checked in.
The male receptionist was pretty stressed and was obviously having a bad day. We dutifully produced our passports and he directed us down a long narrow corridor. The hotel is cool and stylishly decorated as was our room - not bad at all for €67.50.
Simon whipped back and asked where the best place to park and he recommended Parquing Autocares Burgos - the same place we found. Result!
He wasn’t sure what was going on, but the car park was packed with people queuing - football, bullfight, god knows but time was marching and our dinner reservation was looming. Anyway, after half an hour of driving around, he returned to the car park to find a questionable space in a well-lit area: always essential when you have a van full of gear.
He dashed back to the hotel, showered, changed and walked at pace to the restaurant arriving precisely on time.
Of course, this is Spain and everyone eats late so we were well within the bounds of good taste with enough time to enjoy our final evening on the road.
La fábrica
We didn’t take any photos inside the restaurant but we had a lovely dinner, albeit not quite as special as our experience in France the night before: they were trying too hard. But, we were starting to relax and enjoy the experience aided at the end by a very large Spanish Brandy, which did get us a bit squiffy.
Day 25 - Friday, October 20th
With a slightly thick head, we emerged from our bed chamber looking for breakfast.
We don’t normally eat in the hotel but as we passed the small bar, the waiter was cooking tostada, the coffee looked good and they had a local caña on tap. Why not?
One thing we miss about living in Spain is the tostada con tomate. Super simple, but just the job. Fresh Barra de Pan (baguette) rubbed with a sliced clove of garlic, good olive oil, grated tomato and salt, applied in that order.
Almost as essential as the quality of the bread is the quality of the Spanish beer you wash it down with: our preference being Estrella Galicia, Alhambra or Mahou.
So, suitably nourished we embarked on our journey home.
Plasencia
Again distracted by a hunt for a suitable place to lunch, Starlite found this total gem of a place, Cafetería La Casuca.
It may seem easy to find a restaurant with all the tools we now have available, but estimating the time of location relative to the route, arrival, cuisine and recommendations does take time.
Spanish motorways are really good and mostly toll-free so we made good time towards our midpoint.
It was 1445 and managed to find a free car park only 400m away from the Cafetería. The town had a weird vibe about it but we pressed on and walked briskly on to find the place pretty packed and bustling.
As we have mentioned before the Spanish don’t start lunch until 1400 and the atmosphere was great. Business people and couples enjoying lunch together.
Looking around we carefully observed what everyone else was drinking and ordered just that. Kicking off with a beer then onto an excellent bottle of Paiva viño tinto featuring the Tempranillo grape.
Simon had Pulpo and potatoes and Starlite chicken salad - both were huge and exceptionally tasty. Simon topped it off with a fabulous Spanish-style Bread & Butter pudding and Ice Cream for Starlite (of course).
We left satiated and looking forward to returning home to our wonderful bed, studio and Labradors.
Tony Husband
As we were driving away we heard the dreadful news that Tony Husband had died via a post on social media from his son Paul - our go-to photographer. Here is the article we wrote on the back of this bombshell.
Home
Once across the border in Portugal, Starlite took over the driving until we reached the pet hotel.
We usually take our two hairy beast labradors Hummock and Bobby on tour with us as we are a pack but this particular adventure was a little too long and too intense schedule-wise, so we decided the most loving thing we could do is send them to the ‘pet hotel’ for a vacation.
We were so eager to see them that we lobbied Rita the owner of Hotel Canino da Quinta de Santa Maria - the pet hotel where they had been staying - to pick them up at 2000 in the evening. The latest time for collection is 1830 and she cajolled her husband Miguel to meet us. Fantastic service. We were so happy!!!
It never feels right when they are not at home - we really don’t like it - the house feels empty and strange.
We called at our local supermarket Pingo Doce to buy essential supplies and opened our gate 30 minutes after collecting the girls.
Our home was intact and it felt great to be back but for some strange reason decided to unload the van that night.
Simon turned on the the wifi, powered up the sonic laboratory and slept for the first time, in a long time, in our own bed.
Bliss.
Next up
The conclusion to Diary of a Touring Musician. How we nearly gave up, collecting money, cleaning, repairs, what we learned during these 25 days on the road and the future…