OFF TO ENGLAND

We're headed to the other side of the road. An interview in London and the New Year!




Here are a few photos from our days in Holland with the Duss family Sea Lions.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM ROTTERDAM with Sea Lions

(a quick pull off the highway on leaving Germany landed us along this amazing and magic tree lined road)




The number one thing I'm noticing on this circus discovery is how welcoming everyone is. Beyond welcoming....there just is no border between minute one friend and week long friend. This trip there is no time for "getting to know you", just a hand shake and then we follow our subject and new friend with a camera through their every step in life for a day or two. No one so far has blinked at what could be deemed an intrusion. Instead Ian and I are welcomed with tea and dinner.


Merry Christmas.

(from our Rotterdam hotel room with our tree)















A strange one to be sure, but the Duss Family Sea Lions - Petra & Roland - invited us for dinner in their small trailer on the Rotterdam Circus back lot. We enjoyed pasta, wine, and good conversation with sea lions barking next door.

A note for all visitors to the Netherlands:
Beer = Bear. So, when you see a restaurant called "Bella Beer", it does not mean a restaurant with lots of beer. If you choose this for you dinner place (as Ian and I did Christmas eve) you have just chosen to eat at a child's themed bear restaurant. All food will come in bear shapes and you will be surrounded, wall to ceiling, with stuffed bears.

Happy holidays to all!

Still need to get us a present or feel like spreading good cheer?! Don't forget to DONATE!! http://www.tothemoonproductions.com/circusdonate/

LIONS

We were welcomed into the trailer and life of Martin Lacey Jr., the lion trainer, yesterday. He travels with 17 lions and 12+1 of them (13 is unlucky) are in the show. Such huge, intelligent and beautiful animals. I don't think they could find such love anywhere else. As he says, "It's my life, not a job". He told the story of on one show the circus put him in a hotel too far away from his lions, so took a sleeping bag and slept in the cage with his largest white male lion, one he has had since a baby. He explains, if they are unable to be in the wild, the circus is a much better place for them than the zoo. Here they have something to do, they are intelligent animals and don't want to lay around all day bored.


Today we complete the loop of Germany and head back to Essen for 4 days with Rob Torres, the American clown.





We have stumbled upon some wonderful Christmas markets. Lots of lights, bratwurst, and hot wine on cobble stoned streets. With large snow flakes falling, it couldn't get much better.

LIEPZIG, GERMANY

HERE IS A NEW VIDEO from a stop we made on the road driving from Essen to Liepzig.

We're staying for three nights in Liepzig, a wonderful quaint and yet modern town. We arrived after dark Sunday due to getting lost, per usual. The cobble stone streets were FULL of people, but it sounded like the inside of a library. This town, even during the day, is full of people walking, biking, shopping and eating at the Christmas market, but still the calm quiet is consistent and...well... unusual (if we're comparing it to ANY U.S. town).

Due to the amazing generosity of circus friends of friends and the Krystall Palast Theater, Ian and I are staying upstairs from the theater in a room along with the other artists in the show. It's a huge make-shift room with a small kitchen where the "stove" sits next to the box of a shower. But there's hot water, warm bed, and good people, what more could you ask for?

The show - "Very British" - is great. It is a "Variete" dinner theater type setting with Circus acts from New York, Denmark, London, and Germany performing.

http://www.krystallpalast.de/

FRIST VIDEO!

Check out our first short video from our filming in Europe!

VIDEO!

This is Troupe Yakubov as they rehearsed at Circus Probst in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. We will follow them to the competition at the 34th Monte Carlo Circus Festival.

Lesson from the beginning of the trip:
1. Never turn when you want to (when driving)

2. It always works out
(Luck has been on our side. There have been a few bumps, as to be expected, such as the light bulbs for the lights we brought only being 120v and not the needed 240v. Now, where in Germany can we find speciality film equipment lights? The "helpful" front desk sent us to a Walgreens equivelant, not so much. So, we made some frantic calls and made a friend over the phone at a Lowel dealer in a town a few hours away. He checked for us, called me back (thank god my cell phone works) and will be shipping the lights we need to a friend of his in the next town we will be in. Lights in two days! Faster than shipping in the US. He laughed, "You were very lucky I answered the phone today, we are never open on Saturday." I said, "Well I'm glad I was lucky!". He simply responded, "Well it always works out, doesn't it."

Yes, yes it does.

ARRIVED

Two sunrises and two sunsets, four countries, and no sleep Ian and I arrived at our hotel in Essen Germany. We drove in our very nice leased car from Paris across Belgium and the Neatherlands. We are here two nights to film in Gelsenkirchen just 10 minutes away at Circus Probst.

let the circus adventures begin!

I will update this as much as possible with videos, photos, and fun stories of filming.

We're OFF! I (Angela) fly out of LA and meet Ian in Chicago and on to PARIS, arrival the morning of the 11th.

In PARIS we pick up our car and drive to GELSENKIRCHEN, Germany to film at Circus Probst and Troupe Yakubov - a strap act from Kazakhstan.