Magical
History Tour
2002 Tour Report by Batya
Selavan
Part
I
Roll
up Roll up for the Mystery Tour!!!!!!
At the airport in New York, we were greeted warmly by our host
Charles F. Rosenay!!!, while the Chicago group was met with
a smile by the co-host Daniel Levine. Beatles fans were flying
from all over the country! We received our laminated ID badges
and our tickets to ride. On the plane, the pilot even welcomed
our group!
We flew to London first then on to Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
We were met by our tour guide Rene van Haarlem, publisher and
editor of Beatles Unlimited magazine, which was the sister magazine
to Good Day Sunshine while GDS was still around. It was Rene
who had helped with the Hamburg MMTour a few years ago.
We checked in to our hotel, which overlooked the Amstel River.
We freshened up and took a leisurely canal trip, following the
path that The Beatles (with fill-in drummer Jimmy Nichol) took
in 1964. As you travel along the river you have buildings to
your right and left. "British Export," the fabulous
young Beatles tribute band from Chicago that was with us for
the whole trip, joined us on the canal trip with instruments
to provide some background music. We had a sing-along as we
made our way down the calm waters, and day turned into night.
The band's bassist Paul provided the sweet lead vocals. The
canal trip was lovely. Afterwards, some of us broke off from
the group and went to the Hard Rock Cafe while the more adventurous
and curious went to Amsterdam's infamous red light district.
There, you see women in storefronts (yes, prostitution is legal),
all-night restaurants and pubs, and coffee shops where marijuana
smoking is legal. From what we understand, nobody from the tour
did anything except check this all out for educational and informative
purposes.
Our first morning started off with breakfast. We headed out
as a group on our coach for the Beatle sites of the city. On
board, Rene showed us some very rare videos of The Beatles in
Holland. It featured The Beatles arrival in Holland, their press
conference at the airport, their drive to their hotel, another
short interview, their canal trip (it's a hoot watching them
wave to the th
ousands
of fans who congregated along the Amstel River to catch a peak
at the boys in their prime) and then into a sedan. In the interview
portion, Paul humorously denies being lefty and adds, "…it's
done with mirrors." Jimmy Nichol confesses that he doubtshe'll
continue on as the band's drummer, "…it depends on
Ringo's health." The video concludes with The Beatles entering
their concert venue in Blokker with some live footage. This
was a great example of foreshadowing, because soon we would
be visiting Blokker. Our only non-Beatle sightseeing stop was
ideal for any tourist. Out in the countryside, we took photos
in front of scenic windmills. We saw a wooden shoe factory,
cheese factory, museums and gift shops. We took some group photos
with windmills in the background.
It was then on to a city called Blokker, where The Beatles performed
in front of 6,000 Dutch fans in a huge warehouse. There is a
monument on the corner of the street where the warehouse is
located. It is quite an honor for both The Beatles and the city!
The monument is pink and white and looks like a record sleeve.
It has "The Beatles in Blokker" with their likenesses,
and replicas of Vox speakers.We than went to the actual place
where the boys performed. The group's anticipation built as
we stood waiting outside the warehouse, but they were preparing
some surprises for us.
The place is still a working food distribution warehouse, and
one of managers invited us in and showed us around. We started
with what used to be the dressing rooms (now offices), and then
he presented us with some gifts: a set of pictures of the Beatles
at this place: entering the venue, relaxing in the dressing
room and performing onstage. We then entered the area where
they staged the concert. It still has high ceilings, but is
now filled with floor-to-ceiling shelves of food and merchandise.
Overà
At this point we were given more gifts: souvenir CDs made exclusively
for our visit. The music was secondary. It contained Tony Sheridan
tracks, but the photo represented The Beatles appearance at
Blokker. What a great treat, a surprise, and a memento to keep
forever. As if this weren't all enough, they ushered us into
the cafeteria where we were all treated to coffee and sponge
cake. Congratulations to Rene for arranging this exclusive visit.We
left the warehouse with smiles galore, and took numerous photos
of The Beatles in Blokker monument. Many of us had never heard
of Blokker before, none of us will ever forget it!
We then drove along the beautiful countryside to our next destination,
the Oosterbeek 
War
Cemetery. This is where The Beatles posed on the way to Hamburg
in front of the monument reading "Their Name Liveth For
Evermore." How amazingly prophetic! It is much cleaner
and well-kept than that rare, historic picture would have led
you to believe. It is quite a pretty and peaceful place. It
was so sad to see headstones of far too many young men from
their teens to mid-twenties, who lost their lives in World War
Two. Someone on our tour worded it perfectly:
"We came to see a Beatles landmark, but we left with a
lot more." V
ery
touching.
It was then on to another nearby town called Arnhem. In this
shopping district, Rene researched and found the music store
where John Lennon stole the harmonica used on "Love me
Do." It's in the exact same location, and it was pre-arranged
for the shop to have a supply of harmonicas on hand, accompanied
by store certificates of authenticities (receipts), showing
that the harmonicas were actually bought at the place where
Lennon stole his. Pretty cool. We bought one to give as a gift
to Frank, who portrays John in British Export. We would've stolen
it, but that just wouldn't have been right!
Arnhem, by the way, is minutes away from the historic war bridge
depicted in the film "A Bridge Too Far."We weren't
done touring! Our next stop was the glorious C
oncertgebouw,
mentioned by Paul in the Wings classic song "Rockshow."
I thought it was a made-up name or a made-up place. We broke
up into smaller groups, and professional guides escorted us
through the glorious concert hall. Paul played here Aug 20,
1972. Rene was at that historic concert, and we discovered that
he was also a young lad who attended the Blokker concert. The
hall of the Concertgebouw is very posh, with red velvet seats
and a long staircase that leads right to the stage. One of the
couples traveling with us decided to attend a symphony 
performance
at the hall that evening! We went into the dressing rooms, went
backstage and loved every second of it. We came home with souvenir
programs from the hall.
Then we broke off again into smaller groups. Some of us went
out to dinner and some went with Rene to see some more sites.
We saw the outside of the Van Gogh museum (Paul once got a private
tour of this place) and other historic landmarks.
That night was the event we had all been waiting for . . . the
re-creation of John & Yoko's "Bed In" at the Ams
terdam
Hilton. We wentup to the very exclusive John and Yoko honeymoon
suite, where we took endless photos of our "John"
(Frank from "British Export") sharing the bed - and
a Yoko
wig - with members of our tour group. Most of the women tried
on the wig for the picture (as did some of the men), but it
was tour member Linda Gregg who played the part of Yoko for
the "press conference" as conducted by tour host Danny
Levine. It was too funny!!! I had my tape player all ready and
no tape for it. "John" was hysterical with his Lennonesque
answers, while Yoko sat by silently. Tour members Douglas and
Suzanne were the photojournalists. I bet they took 50 rolls
of photos. We sang, "Give Peace a Chance," and others.
Some members of our group sneaked out to do some partying in
the Hilton's outdoor lobby bar, but the rest of us stayed in
the suite getting to know each other better. One of us (I cannot
tell who it was) wound up in the suite's lavish bathtub.
The next day I got up early for breakfast and went with my new
friend Joanne to see Anne Frank's house. We saw the small spaces
where she and her family had to hide from the Nazis. I can't
imagine the fear they must have felt. To our surprise, Charles
and Rene arrived at the Ann Frank House at just about the same
time. We then took a walk back to the hotel and along the way
did a little shopping. The group assembled outside the hotel,
bid farewell to the Amstel River, our new Dutch friends and
the city of Amsterdam.
Next:
London
