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SCARY MOMENTS DURING BALLOON TRIP
ANDRÉ RIEU SAYS, "I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO SCARED."
It was supposed to be one of the most beautiful experiences of André Rieu's life. High up in a hot air balloon over his beloved home town of Maastricht. But the balloon trip turned out to be a disaster. André was too scared to go higher then 3 metres (approx. 10 feet) and even at that small height he broke out in a sweat.
He takes everything on: the tours all over the world, his concerts for millions of people, the building of Schonbrunn Castle, he has met the biggest names on earth. Not long ago he told us about his dream to have a concert on the moon.
As a child he was already very interested in the Universe and wants to learn more about it one day. He has promised himself to live to be 120, so they will have the technology to go there and go down in the history books: Rieu the first man with a Concert On The Moon.
His wife Marjorie is afraid to fly and does not travel with André very often, but André travels all the time, even in Holland, by plane or by helicopter to avoid traffic jams. You would think he does not know what fear is but, as it turned out that does not really seem the case.
André was doing a commercial for the 'Postcode Lottery' with a balloon flight over Maastricht. They filmed the scene with the ropes still attached to the ground and the balloon only 3 metres above
ground. They will add different scenes of Maastricht to it later. He thought he would be alright doing this he said afterwards, till I had to climb into the basket, then the panic started tokick in. "I have fear of heights and that fear won and made me not go ahead with the balloon flight which would have been a wonderful experience but unfortunately it was not to be".
"I have never experienced so much fear. In a plane that fear is a lot less but going up and coming down in it I never look out of the window either".
So much for a 60 year old man who has flown all over the world and his big wish to have a Concert on The Moon. That he will not use a balloon to go there, is an understatement. Whether or not he has a fear of heights in a space craft, remains to be seen ...
It will be a while yet before the commercial of the Lottery will be broadcasted.
Our thanks to Berna for supplying the Article and Translation.
8 comments:
Unfortunately, Andre is not immortal. But, he is the best conductor/artist around for me.
Martha
You're right, Martha. I appreciate and enjoy what he gives to us...his very best through his music and wonderful concerts. We should expect no more from him than that. He is human, after all.
Kay
Thank you Sue and Berna. I love the story, it brought a smile to my face. It is nice to see he the same as the rest of us with our little foibles.
Alex
What a strong person to admit to a problem.
I don't like heights, either, and my husband and kids are worse than I am. We do look out the window for take-offs and landings, however. Guess I like to see that we are actually "going up!"
I'm sure he is never the one to "hang the balloons."
All we need is his music!!!
And so many thanks, Sue and Berna.
Laurie
I look at it that being afraid to go up in that Balloon is not any weakness on André's part ... for me, (a person that has a HUGE Fear of Fying), I consider him very Smart to know better than to ride a Balloon high above the ground!;-)
As for taking off and landing ... Betty can attest to the fact that I do not look out the window on take off, landing, or anything in between. :)))
Ineresting story! I venture to say that such an event would stretch the comfort zones of a great number of us! He, however, has many more assets than most of us to still keep him in the "amazing" category ;-). Thanks for finding & posting the story!
Just want to add that I give him an A++ for even trying. It must have been very hard for him to even climb into the basket. But, to his credit, "the show must go on" even if it's only 3 meters off the ground. He's a lot braver than I am!
Kay
I'm glad he made the right choice of not going further than the 3metre, though it's just about 3 times the height he jumped in Chianti song. He's toooo important and this balloon idea was too risky both for him and for us. Welcome back to the ground, André!
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