" A Happy Happy Birthday to Ruth!!"

And a good day to thank you for all you do for the fans!!

Alice Goes To Maastricht For André Rieu Concerts!

Alice and Kerstin in Maastricht on The Theater Steps

Click on the link to read Alice's Report on all the things she Saw, Did, and Ate!! With LOTS of pictures to go with it. ►Alice's Report With LOTS of Pictures! Love the shirt Alice!! ;-)

André Rieu's Beautiful City of Maastricht

Al has taken some Beautiful Photos of Maastricht while there.

Click here to see ►Scenes of Maastricht by Al Girard

André Rieu Fans in Maastricht

Fans Photos With JSO and Singers

I'm going to make a page in the Photo Album of all the fans with their pictures taken with JSO members, singers etc. If you have any that you would like to add to the album please send them to me and I will put them in. It will be fun to see them all together. These are just a few of the ones that I have gotten so far and sized. Send them to me at luvberry@charter.net

André Rieu's Tribute To Michael Jackson

André's Tribute to Michael Jackson in Maastricht

One of the highlights of the concerts for me was André's Tribute to Michael Jackson with the song "Ben". It has always been one of my favorite songs and to hear André and the orchestra play it brought tears to my eyes it was so beautiful. André has always said he liked Michael Jackson's music and on his Twitter yesterday he said it was an emotional day editing the Michael Jackson Tribute for the DVD. I asked Arie yesterday if he would post it on Youtube so we could watch it and he has already done it!! Here's the link ... Thank You Arie!!!
(For those of you that don't know the song, it was sung by Michael back in the early 70's when he was a young teenager, it's a beautiful song.) When I heard in Maastricht that André was going to do a Tribute to Michael I said I hoped he would play Ben ... I just knew it would be Beautiful by André and it was!) The photo is by Alice's Brother in law, Simon.

Ben by André Rieu and The Johann Strauss Orchestra

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZCFX2s28lo

Visiting With Frank Steijns in Maastricht

Visting With Frank at McTiffany's

Still going through pictures cropping and sizing them, but here's another I wanted to post now ... I came across this one and it struck me ... what a perfect example of the amazing time we have there.

My brain is still somewhere between Maastricht and California, so writing anything intelligent in length before it arrives here is out of the question ... there are little things that come to mind though and this picture brought back one of them.

We were all sitting at McTiffany's having our morning hot chocolate and Frank walked over and started talking to us ... as if it were just the most normal thing to do. No picture taking, no autographs, just a nice visit and chat. What a sweet guy he is ...

It was cute ... a woman and her little boy of about 12 came over and asked for a picture with Frank and her son. Frank handed his crutches to Mary Ann to hold while they took the picture. :)

He said his leg feels fine, but of course it has slowed him down as far as the carillon playing goes ... Climbing Church Towers isn't in his agenda right now. But he also said that's a good thing in a way ... he needed to slow down as he was doing too much. So this time will give him that much needed rest. He sure gets all around on those crutches though!! They don't seem to slow him down as far as walking all over! :)

One other thing ... I asked him if we got the story right on the Parlor and he smiled and said, "you got it right." He also said that where he lives has the cobblestones like in the streets of Maastricht, only where he lives they are set in sand, not concrete ... so when he came down hard on it with his foot, it twisted.

We wish him all the best and thank him for the nice visit he shared with us ... (Alice sent the picture. We didn't even know you took it, but thank you for taking it so we have the picture to remember it by Alice! :)

Maastricht 2009 Fan Dinner

Here's one of the pictures taken of our 2009 Fan Dinner. It wasn't easy getting everyone in it, but we did! I forgot to take my camera that night, so the only pictures of it that I have so far are John's and Alice's. Anyone that has pictures taken at the dinner ... please email them to me and I will make a seperate page for all of them. Our John is missing because he took the picture!! But we will have him in the final picture we make for printing. :)

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!

André Rieu Put On a Stamp in The Netherlands!

The André Rieu Booklet of Nine Stamps in The Netherlands

On July 13, 2009 the Dutch TNT Post issued a Booklet with nine stamps dedicated to the 30 Year Jubilee of André Rieu. Many of us that were in Maastricht were at the postoffice first thing Monday morning to get our books. For those of you that couldn't be there and would like to get them, Ineke and Ruud have added the instructions on their site. They have also scanned each page of the booklet and translated what it says. It's a beautiful little book the stamps came in and what a great job Ineke and Ruud did presenting it in English for us. Go to www.andrerieu-movies.com/Andre_Stampbooklet.html to see it!

The Vegemite Tasting in Maastricht

Sunday Afternoon Vegemite Tasting at Gauchos!

One of he highlights of the week was on Sunday afternoon at Gauchos when we had our Vegemite Tasting Contest to see who agreed with Mirusia and liked it and who agreed with André and did not like it at all!!!! Mirusia won, but in all fairness to André I must tell you that when it was time for the raising of hands, Mirusia was standing there watching all of us. ;-) Thank you to Gary and Mirusia for making this little event of ours very special! They both sang the Vegemite song with us (lyrics for the non Aussies provided by Jann) and then Mirusia gave us all a roaring AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!! :)
Below are the pictures of Jann and I preparing the Vegemite on bread with butter added to it, the fans at the tasting and Mirusia and Gary singing. And Thank You to Gauchos who helped make it special in providing us with everything we needed and setting the tables all up for us!! Another moment in that week we'll all remember ...

.

Jann  Gary  Sue

Photos are by John and Bobbie deJong

Below is a photo of Mirusia eating her Vegemite taken by Alice

Here's Mirusia Eating Her Vegemite Sunday at Gauchos

Photo sent to us by ©Alice

Maastricht 2009 Concert Photos

Fireworks Over The Vrijthof by ©Simon

There are SO many pictures and as I'm going through them some just jump out at me ... here's a few that I really liked a lot and wanted to put on now. I wish I could put the above Fireworks picture on full size. It is like WOW!! Great photo Simon ... :)

André on The Theater Steps by ©Alice

André and Carla in Concert by ©Sonja

Franco on Theater Steps by ©John

Andre Rieu's Last Concert on The Vrijthof 2009

The Vrijthof Taken at 8:00PM on Tuesday ~ The Last Concert

Tonight is our last concert ... we are all sad, but at the same time anxious to go home. Here is a picture that I just took to show you the Vrijthof. I took two pictures and spliced them together so you could see the Cafe's down the side which you can't see on the Webcam. It's now a Beautiful warm evening with blue sky and sunshine as the clouds over the Vrijthof have passed per order of André!! :) ... Talk to you all soon, Sue

Hoi Hoi From Maastricht!!!!

André's Website Hosts All Come Together in Maastricht!!

I know I haven't posted much, but we're having SO MUCH FUN!!!!!! We are going to TRY to get a few of the many, many pictures that we've taken on tonight. :) AFTER the concert ... :) The weather is now Beautiful and The friendships here are beyond belief!