Holland Tour Diary Part 1

Goeyemorgen Team,

I hope you enjoyed your extra hour's sleep this morning.  First of all I’d like to thank everybody who has preordered my forthcoming album so far.  The crowdfunding is going really well!  If you haven’t yet had a look at all the cool things on offer, head over to - http://www.hattiebriggs.co.uk/2nd-album and check ‘em out!

I’ve now been in Holland for 5 days and it’s going great so far.  We started off in Delft for a day and a half doing a bit of sightseeing and generally finding our feet.  It was an interesting first morning to say the least when the top box lock got stuck so that we couldn’t close the lid.  The lady running the B&B came out to help us after a few minutes and accidentally locked herself out of her own house.  This resulted in me getting a leg up to climb the garden wall, shimmying along a slippery edge to the fire escape, coming in through the garden door, which was mercifully open, to then let her back in the front.  We did eventually get the top box working again, and headed off into the centre of Delft to have an explore.  The architecture there is stunning and we visited the church where William of Orange is laid to rest, as well as the Vermeer (Girl with the Pearl Earring) museum.  We also saw some beautiful Delft pottery, the classic wooden tulips and of course a whole load of cheese (yum!) - I will have turned into a wheel of cheese by the time I return to the UK.

Then that evening it was time to head to Zoetermeer, where we stayed for three nights and were incredibly well looked after.  We got a bit lost on our way there and realised that we were on the correct motorway but heading in the wrong direction, oops, the roads here are a tad confusing, but we made it only a little bit more stressed than when we set off so all good.  During our time in Zoetermeer I did a radio interview/session in Nieuwekerke An Der Issel, and a wonderful gig in Ichthus Church in partnership with the Eva Cassidy Fan Club.  Dan Cassidy was there to play some songs with me, which was really special.

​Next we headed off to Rotterdam for gig number 2 at Matrix Club.  Unfortunately we missed the turning to the road where we were supposed to park and since it was a one way street found ourselves trying to get back a different way, which turned out to be the wrong way - another one way street filled with pedestrians, down which we were driving the wrong way apparently (according to all the confused/disapproving looks we were getting), ah well, once again we got there in the end and all was ok.  It was an intimate gig with great sound and fantastic to have Dan there performing with me again.  Tonight we’re off to Hoorn to play at Cafe Swaf.  Looks like Dan will come along to this one too before heading back to the UK tomorrow :-)

More news to follow!

H xxx