Die-hards on the road An exceptional journey covering 1.850 miles to 7 milongas in 5 European countries.
November 9, 2002: Opening milonga in Bremen Dancers from abroad are the first to arrive - they come all the way from Heraklion, Vienna, Berlin or Paris, until eventually the Tritonia is getting crowded. All new arrivals are examined with an unflinching, bold expression to see if they meet the expectations. Gradually the faces relax: apparently also the other participants are absolutely normal Tango-addicts, possibly just a little more determined for unusual experiences. Some locals from Bremen join the group, and after a fulminant milonga the travellers turn out of sight and into the endless corridors of the »La Milonga« for some sleep. November 10, 2002: Bremen - Amsterdam - Den Haag After a cozy Tango-Breakfast our Bus leaves Bremen for Amsterdam through an impermeable fog. At the Dutch border we open the first spontaneous milonga at the motorway service area. As we reach the Club Ocho in the afternoon the milonga is already running, and the multi-cultural experienced Dutchmen integrate us naturally and calmly. Later at midnight we are missing one of our dancers: »He is looking for something.« - true! We find him in the wardrobe and are obliged to wrest him from his embrace with one of the locals. But this is part of the happening, so he is timely for the birthday-vals of our Große-Wilde Ruth-Maria. The first real challenge meets our transnoche-host in Den Haag, because this group goes beyond the scope of all dimensions: at first not all of us will fit into her apartment, but then the »die-hards« show how to unfurnish a normal-sized Dutch flat and turn it into a mass accommodation within shortest time. Each square centimetre is in use effectively - even the Punchinello-theatre is accommodating a sleeper. And finally the mystery of some harmless, equal-looking water-bottles one of our travellers brought with him (vodka, pear brandy, ouzo, rum) is unveiled: the contents are verified and destroyed. November 11, 2002: Den Haag - Paris Without ending up in the expected traffic jam we reach the Seine-metropolis. By skilful map-reading we arrive at the »Espace Oxygène« on a direct route including a city tour and parasite-tangoing as united dancers (1 heart with 72 feet) in an open-air-milonga at Trocadero below the Eiffel-Tower. The French can't dissociate themselves from this very romantic scene: spontanueously some Parisian dancing couples socialize with us. At the Espace Oxygène some of the locals stampede when facing the onrush of travel-bags and travellers, but those that stay add to a really nice milonga in the establishment of Claudia Rosenblatt. Indeed the evening shows an enormous surplus of women, and in the contrary to their reputation the French men weren't as confidential as we believed. Another unfamiliar sight were dancers hasting for the shower directly within the last tunes of the »Cumparsita«, armed with their towels and toothbrushes. But with only one shower for so many people you have to become pragmaticalS? November 12, 2002: Paris - Basle Early departure for the longest (in distance) stage to Basle. Our host Mathis Reichel gives us a warm welcome while we try to acclimate with this huge area: several die-hard-tours could meet here. The locals are happily blending with our meanwhile quite intimate gang. It is still remarkable how important etiquette is here: the men distribute their "no" politely but merciless. November 13, 2002: Basle - Lindau - Munich On our way to Munich and after a brief dance-break at the sunny shore of the Bodensee we stop to celebrate a McDonalds-Lunchtime-Milonga for the first time in history: even our vegetarians and fastfood-opponents can't resist to take part. At our arrival in Munich another dancing stop at the Diana-temple was fitted in before entering the »La Tierrita«. We were invited to perform a dance to our tour-anthem (Lhasa: De cara a la pared) and impressed with our striking jostle-rate. Finally convinced we weren1t that dangerous at all the milonga became very nice and lasted longer as usual in Munich. November 14, 2002: Munich - Prague A wellness-stop at the historic Mueller-Bad in Munich precedes the continuation of our journey to Prague: our tour-anthem is sounding from the stereo we smuggled in, graceful die-hards dance Tango under water and force long distance-swimmers to zig-zag around them. One of us accidentally sinks a Bavarian, someone else takes pictures - everything VERBOTEN. Never mind, we go back on our way wich seems to be the actual destination of this tour. While resting for a small Tango-stop with snacks inside the bald customs-building at the border to the Czech Republic our bus-driver Helmut from Fulda (a devotedly Tanguero) is taking care of our entry permits. Suddenly the bus won1t start up - he repairs the little slip imperturbably as we wildly continue our border-milonga. So we are a little late to meet any locals in Prague in the Zlata Lyra, they all prefer to go to bed very early. We enjoy a rocking milonga with the petty rest of the Czechs and stay in an Augustinian Monastery for the night, this was a real die-hards-highlight for the lack of warm water. November 15, 2002: Prague - Berlin After dancing Tango to Dixieland-jazz on the Karls-bridge nothing can hold us from coming to Berlin. Again late we arrive at the Walzerlinksgestrickt and unfortunately miss the show, but instead do one by ourselves - of course using our anthem. Many travelled here especially to meet the tour and the people from Berlin were apparently anticipating us. At 4 AM the dancefloor is still crowded so we still dance inside the bus on our way to the Tangoloft where there still is no end in sight. November 16, 2002: Berlin - Hannover - Bremen >From time to time single persons say »good night« for an hour of sleep, but actually the dancing continues until our departure - nobody wants to stop. It is somehow unreal how this whole week could have passed as quickly. Thank you Petrus for the sunray accompanying our bus, thank you Helmut for your imperturbability, your common sense and your driving skills and thank you dear die-hards: you made this tour not too tough. Mercedes, Mark, Matthias P.S. There are images and additional words at http://saludo.de/auf-die-harte-tour/ -------{----{--@ saludo.de überall mit tango zuhause.
