Paul Potts

Back to Prague

Posted 22nd September 2009

After our US tour, it was time to head back to Europe.  I had two concerts to perform in this beautiful city.  It was very hot when we arrived in Prague and once we arrived at our hotel the heat set off a thunderstorm.  This delayed one of my usual wanders around the city, but not for too long, after a while the rain stopped and Julz and I took a stroll before heading for dinner to celebrate Julz’s birthday. 

We went to our favourite Italian restaurant in Prague which I found when I was in Prague recording Passione.  We had a great dinner, and then meandered around the streets for a little while before heading back to our room.  It was quite surreal seeing lots of pictures of me on posters all around the city,

The following day was the day of the first performance and also a rehearsal with the orchestra, Czech National Symphony Orchestra.  I was being conducted by someone called Marcello Rota who is the cousin of the famous composer Nino Rota who composed much of the music on Frederico Fellini’s films and also Un Giorno per Noi on Passione. 

I had long looked forward to this concert with a full orchestra behind me, and they were a delight to work with, as was Maestro Rota.  I enjoyed my performances immensely and the audience was very very responsive.  The Smetana Hall was a beautiful hall to perform in and the building in which it is housed, The Municipal house is a very striking one. After the show, we popped out for some dinner, before retiring for the night.

We had another show the following night and it felt, if possible even better the second time around.  As you can hear on Passione (The Czech National are the orchestra we worked with on the album), the orchestra was in tremendous form and it was a delight to hear them performing great pieces of music, and to have them accompanying me was truly a dream come true. 

After the final performance we had dinner with Marcello, the conductor and we were presented with special plaques and a whisky with a special label on it with my name on it.  They will both have a special place in my music room at home with the Echo award I won in Germany and the Radio Regebogen award. 

The next day we made our way back to the UK to go home to have a few days to ourselves before heading on holiday with Julz’s sister and brother-in-law.  This was the first opportunity we had had in over a month to see how things were going at home, and with everything running smoothly, after a few days we headed back to London for our flight from Gatwick to the beautiful city of Barcelona. 

We decided to let the train take the strain, and got a fairly early train from Port Talbot to get us to London’s Gatwick Airport in good time for our flight to Barcelona.

We had a good flight, and arrived at Barcelona Airport in mid afternoon, and already it was very hot, and we were looking forward to a few days to relax in the sun, and do a bit of sightseeing.  We weren’t staying in Barcelona, in fact we weren’t even staying in a hotel.  We were going to spend the next ten days camping about 80 miles North of Barcelona close to a lovely fishing town called L’Escala at the Northern part of the Costa Brava. 

Julz and I have stayed on the Costa Brava before, in the off-season in Lloret De Mar on a last minute cheapie winter break.  We got to the campsite, having been picked up in our car by Julz’s sister and brother-in-law who with our little terrors of nephews were to be our hosts for the next ten days.

We soon rediscovered the beauty of the Costa Brava away from the busiest resorts, with its rocky coastline and clear blue sea and sky.  We had an evening out virtually every night eating the local seafood and meat and our youngest nephew (aged 2, and given the name Alfie by his older brother Lewis) kept us all fit by bidding to make his great escape from our camping place. So we took it in turns running after him as he ran down the path giggling all the way.

We took a number of trips to Barcelona where we ambled down the Ramblas and the children marvelled at all the street entertainers, especially the ghoulish street statues that would take them by surprise.  I have always loved Barcelona, it’s a city you can just keep coming back to again and again and never get tired of.  It’s also never more than 2 hours away from the UK. 

On the next trip to Barcelona, we took the children to Nou Camp, the home of FC Barcelona, one of the most famous football clubs in the world.  Even for a non sports fanatic like me, the Nou Camp is an amazing stadium. 

One of the highlights of Barcelona are the fountains close to Placa D’Espanya, and it was my intention that we would watch the fountains rise and fall and change colour to different pieces of music.  I have watched it a number of times, and it is incredible how the whole thing is put together.

On our first attempt to see it, we watched the sun go down leaving a stunning coloured sky, and I was just about the least popular person around when we waited for over two hours and the display didn’t happen.  We strolled down to the fountain side where there was a notice with the times of the display.  Unknown to me, the display only happens weekends now even through the main season, so we would have to come back another day to see it.

And come back we did, and it was a stunning display with different pattern according to the music.  There are two displays.  One set to orchestral music and the other to contemporary music.  The climax for the second display is the playing of the fantastic anthem that was sung by Freddie Mercury and Monserrat Caballe for the Barcelona Olympics in 1992: Barcelona.  A great song, and the display fitted the song amazingly.

Paul in Barcelona with Placa D’espanya and Mount Tibidabo behind at twilight…..

The fountain display….

In between our visits to Barcelona, we explored the beaches of the Costa Brava, including returning to Lloret de Mar in far warmer temperatures than we had seen last time we were here.  The beaches aren’t quite sand, and aren’t quite shingle, and although this part of the Costa Brava is very developed, it still has a charm.

We enjoyed our slower pace of life while we were away, and even dare I say it enjoyed sleeping in a tent especially as we had both spent considerable time in hotels over the last few years.  The one thing that was noticeable was that the campsite was very popular with the Dutch.  At one point, I wondered whether there was anyone left in The Netherlands at all!  I did meet lots of people from all over Europe and the UK and shared a drink with a good many of them.  It was great to see so many people and chat with them and to enjoy each other’s company.  Hopefully I will get to see them again as I tour around Europe and the UK over the coming months.

All too soon our holiday came to an end, and it was time to head back to the airport.  We’d had a great time sharing tapas and free time and after a few days back at home, it would be time to head on to the road again, first to Sweden, and then to South America.  But more of that in a few days….