The glamorous life … European edition

ZAGREB is a beautiful city. Facebook photo

HAMBURG—Yep, I’m still on tour with Il Divo and the journey thus far has been truly wonderful. What began in London has continued into parts of Eastern Europe and now we’re continuing to move westward.

Currently, I am in Germany. By the time you read this, I’ll be in the Netherlands (Amsterdam) and, by Friday, I’ll be back in the United Kingdom.

The touring life reminds me of “The Glamorous Life,” a song from Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music.” What makes it funny for me is just how unglamorous this life actually is:

Unpack the luggage, la, la, la

Pack up the luggage, la, la, la

Unpack the luggage, la, la, la

Hi, ho, the glamorous life

Run for the carriage, la, la, la

Wolf down the sandwich, la, la, la

Which town is this one? La, la, la

Hi, ho, the glamorous life

Talk about keeping it real, Stephen. Add to that the feeling that every day is like the same day, just different hotels and city names.

However, thanks to my husband Rob Chien’s coming along for the ride, it stopped being about just showing up in a new city, settling into a hotel room and going to the venue to perform. It became about the exploration of places neither of us had ever been to and sampling what the city had to offer, in the limited time we had.

The following are just a few highlights. I’ll be writing some more about the places we’ve seen in the weeks to come.

Belgrade, Serbia

The only thing I knew of Serbia was that it was part of the former Yugoslavia (it was the first of three former Yugoslav states we visited on this tour, the others being Croatia and Slovenia) and that tennis player Novak Djokovic was from here. There’s a restaurant named after him that he, I think, owns (it’s supposedly very good … and, according to our local production assistant, quite expensive).

Rob suggested that we get out of our hotel and walk to the nearby mall. He had already been, being the early riser that he is, and thought I should head over, too.

It was actually worth the trip. The prices were not as high as in some other parts of Europe, so shopping didn’t come with much of a sticker shock.

Rob and I got new headphones, I bought a new scarf and, at the end of the trip, purchased a few French macarons at Home Made Company on the ground floor, at the bottom of the escalators.

Someone from the company must’ve watched the concert that night because a tray full of different flavors of macarons was delivered to my hotel the next day! My favorite was the lavender while Rob really loved the raspberry. We offered the Il Divo boys some as well when we were at the airport for the flight to Ljubljana.

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Our stay got off to a rough start … the luggage of almost every single person on the trip was lost, save for all our carry-ons, (my assistant) Sheilla’s duffel bag and one of (Il Divo member)

THE AMAZING architecture of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Carlos Marin’s two suitcases. Everyone else’s checked-in bag didn’t arrive.

Our hotel very kindly provided us with whatever we needed to get through the night. We would head to a pharmacy the next day for supplies.

The following morning, Rob woke me up. “Hon, you gotta get up … this is a really pretty city.” He wasn’t lying. All around us was amazing architecture. Old buildings, churches, shops and restaurants … our hotel was not easily accessible by car, which meant it was incredibly pedestrian-friendly.

We had a lovely lunch by the river and took a little train up to Ljubljana Castle to see the view of the city. We left that same afternoon for the concert venue and got our luggage back that same night.

Zagreb, Croatia

Rob and I fell in love with the food.

DETAIL of the facade of Zagreb Cathedral Facebook photo

We stayed at the Esplanade Hotel. Upon our arrival, since it was early evening, we grabbed a meal at the casual restaurant Le Bistro. We were cared for by a very pretty and spunky server (before taking our orders, she took out her “magic pencil” with a slight flourish).

Beef carpaccio, caprese salad, mushroom risotto, a couple of glasses of wine … it was a little slice of heaven right there. We didn’t bother venturing out to another restaurant during our entire visit; we had lunch the following day in that same place.

We then headed out for a walk (Rob had already taken this same walking trip and wanted to show me what he had seen).

At the end of it, we arrived at the Zagreb Cathedral, with its tall spires and amazing sculpture detail. I went camera-crazy and took as many photos as I could of the front door, the spires, stained glass, paintings and the Virgin Mary statue in front.

We headed back to the hotel, once again through the Kaptol. I took even more photographs.

Zagreb is a beautiful city, but the next places on our list would truly take our breath away. Jaw, meet floor.

(To be continued)