Marc's Public Blog

Once in, the decors and attactions were well done. They also did a reasonable job of handling the crowd loads so that you didn't have to stay in line for too long:

curling

They had a haunted house which wasn't very big, but was well done and had good actors:

Then was time for the costume contest:

I didn't compete as my light outfit didn't look like much in the sun, so we went back to see the animations and games:

you could actually make wine

great costume

sun was finally setting, giving my outfit a better chance to shine :)

As I put this page together, I realized that Jennifer and I didn't get a good picture together with my outfit in the dark, small oversight which we will hopefully fix next time.

By 19:00, the event was over and we were nicely escorted off the premisses :)

Thanks for the evening, good food and fun costumes.

a church turned night club, that was a new one for me...

dB meter to make sure it doesn't bother the neighbours too much :)

I was there at 22:00 when the event started, but unfortunately it was very uninspiring minimal techno for hours that eventually turned into something that was slightly better, but nowhere close to what I'd call psytrance. I'm not sure if it got better eventually, but I bailed around 02:30 and went to bed to get a few hours of sleep before my flight back to SFO.
In highsight, that night was totally skippable but oh well, given how good all the other nights were, that wasn't the end of the world.

This is Trance was expected to be the big party of the week, I was definitely looking forward to it, and it was a great lineup:

Video summary:

I arrived early when the room was virtually empty, and Dimension warmed things up:

the room filled up quickly

Andy Moor was next:

By then, the room was banging, and Giuseppe Ottaviani took over, with a live 2.0 show:

After a banging set, Aly & Fila took over:

Then, was time for Ferry Corsten:

Panama had nice dancers with laser, that was pretty cool:

From there John O'Callaghan took over:

Bryan Kearney took over from there, however he wasn't my favourite, too hard for my taste:

But Panama had a second room, where other DJs were playing good trance too, so I hoped back and forth between the two rooms:

And by almost 06:00, it was mostly over and time to go to bed for some sleep :)

The story is that a successful Dutch businessman started collecting cars, and eventually realized that he needed a better place to house them, so he built this extensive multiple building, multiple story museum to house them all. The collection is heavily weighed towards older rare cars:

very old steam powered car

face to face sitting car, using candles for lights

another very strange design, makes you wonder why it didn't catch on :)

the controls look 'interesting'

unusual steering control

boat car, which apparently was a poor boat and a poor car

not a boat car, but pretending to be one

another steam car

the first hybrid gas/electric car, some 90 years before the prius!

looks like every crazy thing has been tried

6 wheel drive formula 1!

whoa!

And after 4H, the visit was over, just as the museum was closing. It was definitely a museum that was one of a kind.

The boat was on the docks behind Amsterdam's central station:

The boat wasn't super big, but it was fun to have a party on a boat, it was my first such party:

and I met some TFSF friends

On the boat itself, it wasn't a great sound system or a great lighting system, but given that it was a boat, they were good enough :)

The only thing that pissed me off is that they used the stupid token system, forced you to buy 4 tokens as the minimum amount (almost $15), and that a token was required to use the toilet. Really? They already make money on the water/beer/whatever on the way in, do they really need to make money again when it comes out?
That aside, it was a good party, Solarstone and DJ Orkidea made sure to play great music for us for the 7 hours we were on that cruise:

Also the weather was kind of frigid outside: it was nice to snap a few shots:

And they were both nice enough to take a nice picture with me, thank you:

Thanks for the party and the trip in Trance memory lane, here is a video summary

finally, the studio!

Obviously, I couldn't resist a few pictures:

Lots of DJs came by:

Halyene even dropped by to sing live

Initially, I just wore a regular shirt, as I was a bit self conscious about the LED shirt in the studio, and it being a bit too 'flashy' on he live stream. Eventually, though I asked Armin what he thought, and his answer was "sure, that would be fun, go ahead", so I did :)

Andrew Rayel seemed delighted :)

people on the live stream were apparently quite amused to see my outfit

Here's a quick video summary I took from inside the studio:

Of course, there is the official broadcast. I noticed after the fact that at 5:57:20, you can see me asking Armin if it's cool whether I change and put my LED outfit and he said yes. I get back around 6:15:00 wearing it, and at 6:28:40 he notices it and laughs :) Although the best part was being in front of Haliene when she came to sing live (6:36:20)

Saying how awesome this experience was, is hard to put in words, especially for an episode that lasted so long. I definitely owe a huge debt of gratitude for this one, thank you!

DJ lineup:

there was a secondary room

Video summary of the night:

I arrived in time for John OO Fleming's set, which was quite enjoyable, and it's always fun to see John with his huge smile :)

Alex M.O.R.P.H. was next, and he went for it:

he nicely took a picture with me at the end

Paul Van Dyk was next. Sadly part of his set was plagued with sound cutoff issues that took a while to fix. On the plus side, he got some nice dancers with lasers:

jordan Suckley was next, but his hard trance was not my favourite, and I had seen him 2 weeks prior in San Francisco, so I went to get some much needed sleep after following a bit of his set :)

Panama was probably the best club in Amsterdam. It's not huge, but it's well equipped. For one, they have a decent laser setup:

the lasers nicely did not make a hole in my hand

I always enjoy looking at the visual control setups:

Despite the sound issues, it was a good night with top DJs. Glad that I went.

It is about 1H away from Amsterdam, and has nice museums. I took a day train there, which allows bikes:

It had nice fall colors when I arrived:

While there, over 2 different days, I only had enough time to see one museum each day:

On the 2nd day, I was also able to see my cousin Frank and his family who lived nearby. It had been 13 years since I last went to their house right after they moved in, so it was nice to go back and see them there:

After that, I biked back to the nearest train station back to Amsterdam:

The lineup was impressive:

Here is a video summary:

Ruben was nice enough to take a picture with me again :)

That was already a long night, and it was only day #1 :)

I was in Amsterdam for 5 days for Amsterdam Dance Event, which had parties every night, late into the early mornings. This is what I saw:

they had stores selling everything you needed for partying :)

As a result, I didn't have much time for sightseeing, but I still did a bit during the afternoon.
Close to my crap but well located hotel, was the body worlds exhibition, which was worth the visit:

Saw a church that was closed the last times I went:

The next 2 days, I went to Den Hagg for a few hours, including:

There is a lot more to see there, so I'll have to go back.

While it was not super convenient, I was able to get my museum kaart sent to my hotel before I arrived, it gave me free entrance to a few museums:

The last day, I had time in Amsterdam, and went to the Royal Palace that was closed during my last visit:

then, I went back to the new church, which had a different exposition than a few months ago:

A few other random pictures:

And that was it for Amsterdam, not a huge lot given that most of the time was spent partying at night and sleeping to recover :)

While in Prague, I took 2/3rd of a day to go to Kutna Hora and its famous Sedlec Ossuary.

I got up a bit too late for the direct train, so I took a cab directly to the Bohemian Museum of Silver that has an underground tour you have to sign up for (early, as it books out): [rigo img:1024:104*]

I got a private english tour in the mine

pump that was getting things out

it was tight in places

Then, I went to St Barbara cathedral:

Nearby was the Stone House, Museum of Silver, which ended up being very skippable, but I found a nice little cat on the way that adopted me for a little bit :)

the stone house required a guided tour with a guide who didn't speak english and gave me a pamphlet to read

I then took single uber in town to get to Sedlec Ossuary, which was farther than I wanted to walk. It's a very interesting church where they displayed the bones and skelettons of people buried there, making interesting displays:

I then had just 10mn or so to look town before going to the train station for a train back to town:

The direct train back to Prague is 1H if you catch it at the right time (it's not every hour):

nice patio view

Most of the planes were at the main location, a few were in another location around 1km walk away (not super convenient). The collection had a nice mixture of planes, including the most soviet planes I've seen in a single museum:

Most of the planes were in hangars:

for a change, that was a museum with proper warnings :)

very early airliner with only 6 person capacity

interesting, this plane had radiator cooling lines on its wing

The secondary location looked close on the map, but was actually a fair walk away on city streets:

And with just a few minutes to spare before they closed he hangars 30mn earlier than then expected closing time, I barely finished the museum. It was well worth the visit.

This was a great opportunity to bring my LED outfit. People loved it, and security folks nicely let me in without issues (unlike luminosity). They even asked for pictures with me :)

And the night was as good as lineup implied, non stop energy the entire night in great venue with fantastic lighting and lasers:

do not look in lasers with remaining good eye :)

Video summary:

Pictures:

did I say lasers?

scanning humans for future plucking :)

did I already say the lighting was fantastic?

End of a great night with a massive set of classics turned psytrance from Blastoyz and plenty of lasers :)

The main hall was transportation with nice displays:

There were lots of other rooms about research and science:

The bottom floor was about mining, and had lots of interesting equipment:

Another floor was about printing presses:

Another room yet on astronomy:

And more rooms I didn't all picture here. Definitely worth a visit.

That said, I was really in Prague for Transmission which was the next night, so ABGT was just a bonus the day prior :)

O2 Arena was a really nice venue, with great food if you had a golden ticket.

big line, people were eager :)

found my friend Vic Teo in line

I was worried about the security check, but they guard were amused by my outfit and super nice

We arrived early

I had a golden ticket, which gave access to very good food:

Then it was time for the show:

Above and Beyond & the third one that usually never shows up :)

Qrion started the show, honestly not my kind of music

they were super nice and gave water to people in the front row

a rare sight, all 3 DJs

Video Summary (although a lot had to be removed because Anjunabeats is preventing a lot of their music from being monetized on youtube):

Video:

Frankfurt is honestly not a city that is anywhere close to the top of of German cities to visit, but the downtown is worth a few hours, and if you have more time, I'm assuming some of the museums are worth seeing. In my case, I had a bit less than 3H, so I just went for the easy sights:

I went to the financial district to visit the google office that was there. Nice views from there:

the cathedral had a small museum attached to it

I then went in the Römer Square area to see Old St Nicholas and frankfurt cathedral (that were severely impacted by the allied bombings during WWII, while the rest of the city was mostly leveled):

Römer Square was clearly built for tourists, and it is picturesque:

I then went to the bridge that has a nice view:

some electric autonomous bus prototype

of course, put locks on the bridge

Then, back to town to burn a bit more time:

Then it was time to go back to the airport for the terrible security line and treatment that was way worse than I was ready for, and onto my next flight to Prague. Frankfurt is of course worth more than 3H if you have the time to see museums, but it felt like it was more than enough for a visit:

Day 1

the trams are cheap, frequent, and go most places you need

jewish quarter

the controvertial TV tower

figurines that rotate on the outside of the astronomical clock

underground the old city tower

After the first tour, I went to the 2nd city tour towards new town and the castle:

stores sell all kinds of things :)

castle gate

the town also has a good subway

Day 2

And not too far away is the local science museum: Narodni Technicke Museum (on its own page):

After the 2 museums, I went to a viewing tower by Charle's bridge for sunset pictures:

Day 3

Wen I got back, I had enough time to go to the Museum of Communism which describes how communism was not a net win for the country:

Next in the museums that close late, I went to the Prague Apple Museum, which may have the best collection of Apple hardware outside of California, where there isn't a public museum:

Last for that evening, was the sex machines museum, which had a decent collection:

Day 4

one of the tickets was to be able to take pictures, but for $2, that was fine enough for me

Nice view from the top of the church:

new church, close to the castle

The castle also had nice gardens:

After the castle, I did a quick visit to the local Google Office

From there, I did a quick visit of Petrin Tower, a bit rushed but better than nothing. Nice views from the top of course:

After the invisible museum I went to visit on a guided tour in english, which you visit in complete darkness with a blind guide, I went to a couple of optical illusion museums:

As well as the lego museum:

nice to see the car my dad bought when we were kids

Day 5

Got back to the main train station and finished the science museum I wasn't able to finish on my first visit, and went to spend a bit mor time in town:

Day 6

And that was it for Prague. Great city, got to see most of it, although not all since I was getting up past noon due to the night parties. would be fun to go back.

Triode setup the decks and went for the first 2H, going from Trance, to the outskirts and back:

DJ Melodie then took the decks over from midnight to 02:00, and played more interesting trance:

Thanks to both, here is a video summary of the night: