Summertime Serendipity

In July of 2009, I spent several weeks in Europe. After I spent the first few days hanging out with my handsome Dutchman in Zwolle, Nederland, I boarded a train one morning heading to Amsterdam to meet my Nola sista, Hanna. She is a German-born New Orleanian who was living in Innsbruck, Austria at the time. She had boarded the night train from there to Amsterdam to meet up with me. As the doors slid open in Amsterdam Central Station, I stepped out onto the platform and directly across from me in perfect sync was Hanna with her arms full of parasols for crafting also exiting her train onto the same platform as I.

I have a tandem bicycle which we had put many miles on together in New Orleans so we rented a tandem bicycle to get around Amsterdam and we created some magic... after the adjustment to operating and riding the tandem in the typical Dutch fashion. Well, we weren't exactly pros but we managed well!

From then until the end of our adventures, renditions of  "Summertime" followed us on our travels. Live versions from a group of musicians in the Vondel Park, a vendor at a reggae fest and our own serenade at a lovely restaurant after hiking the Alps. It played in cafes and was used during sound check at a festival. It was incredible. 

On this trip I experienced some form of super serendipity.

And it was so rad!!