Maastricht, Laundry, & One Last Concert

9th July 2026

Hallo loyal readers!

Day 5 started off with another great breakfast spread at the magnificent Rolduc Hotel. This was our fifth hotel breakfast, and I still haven’t learnt how to control myself and not create a mountainous pile of meats and cheeses on my plate.

The middle part of our day was spent in Maastricht, a beautiful city around half an hour by bus from Kerkrade. We sampled the local cafés, bakeries, and ice cream shops while taking in the sights this elegant city had to offer. But more importantly, this was our chance to visit the local laundromat – the situation was beginning to become dire.

We headed back to Rolduc afterwards, and I had a much needed nap after all that hard work eating ice cream in the sun.

Tonight was our third and final concert of the tour, this time alongside the amazing Société St. Martin Fanfare de Stein. They put on a fantastic first half, surprising us at the end with Wellington March! My personal favourite was Pequeña Czarda, featuring soloist Jonas Cornelissen on alto saxophone.

This was my first time hearing a fanfare band, and it was such a cool experience. The band consisted of nine flugelhorns, a few trumpets, trombones, euphoniums, a couple of tubas, percussionists, and an entire saxophone section! It’s like a concert band, but better.

Dave is always talking about replacing our entire cornet section with flugels, so I’m sure he was loving it.

We played the second half of the concert, and although everyone was getting a little sweaty under our dress shirts, we had a great time on stage. The crowd was incredibly enthusiastic and receptive, as always. It was also the last time we’d perform several pieces on this tour, including Tommy Tynan’s mind-blowing rendition of Carnival Cocktail and our classic encore of Hine e Hine, featuring a mixture of singing and playing from the band.

The members of Société St. Martin Fanfare de Stein were so friendly and welcoming, and it was really special to share the stage with them. We’d love to do it again sometime in the future.

Until next time,

Daniel Dalgleish