André Rieu Celebrity Guest on Flikken Maastricht

André's Busses Behind The Vrijthof on Tuesday Night

We knew of André appearing on this Police Television show when we were in Maastricht, but we didn't know all the details. On Tuesday night Sonja and I saw out our window two of André's busses drive by going to the back side of the Vrijthof. (Behind the stage) We of course being the curious little cats that we are decided to walk over there and see what was going on, but other than the busses and a TV Crew couldn't see anything. We thought at the time it was just an interview, but couldn't figure out why the two busses parked there and why so much equipment. I took some pictures of the busses, it was really cool to see them in that setting parked behind the Vrijthof, and then we left.
Several hours later (around 11:00pm) we realized the busses never came back or we would have seen them, so we decided to walk back over there to see if we could see anything. As we were walking down the street where all the Cafe's are on the left of the Vrijthof ... here came the two busses!! We had no where to go as the sidewalks were fenced off at that point. So there we stood in the street busted again as the busses came towards us. But they were empty!! Both drivers as they drove by us, turned on all the inside lights to the busses, rolled down their windows and waved and yelled "Hi" to us! :)

The picture on the right is a picture Sonja took of me taking pictures of the busses. ;-)

After that we went on to the location behind the Vrijthof where they had been and looked around asking a few questions here and there. They were doing part of the filming of this TV show. Also during the first concert on Friday they had the audience participate in it ... the plot is that André leaves at intermission and doesn't come back. So the Audience is chanting André ~ André ~ André all the while looking at each other in concern wondering where he is. They also did some filming during the Dress Rehearsal on Thurs. (I put some pictures of that on the Maastricht photo page in the Parlor Photo Album) Plus on the first concert Friday night, when André came marching into the Vrijthof, the woman (star) was coming in with him all the while talking on her cell phone with a frantic look on her face. It was all quite fun and something really different for everyone to see. Below is the article Benny sent and Ruud translated telling us all about it.

André Rieu Makes Guest Appearance on "Flikken Maastricht"

Violin virtuoso André Rieu appears as a guest artist in the police series Flikken Maastricht. The recordings for the program will be done this week during his concerts on the Vrijthof in Maastricht. Earlier this year Rieu also had a guest appearance in the Australian soap Neighbours. Now he can been seen in Flikken Maastricht. "In the episode, André Rieu plays himself" is said by the TROS. "Detectives Eva (Angela Schijf) and Floris (Victor Reinier) have to pull out all the stops to prevent an attack on Rieu"

"Flikken" is the Belgium nickname for a police agent, and can best be compared with "Cop". Flikken is a highly successful series in Belgium and since three years there is the Dutch offspring "Flikken Maastricht" which plays in Maastricht and it's surroundings. Prominent Maastricht inhabitants have a guest appearance. Mayor Gert Leers was once fined for incorrectly parking his car!