I first saw that there was to be an installation in Amsterdam the day I came out of hospital after spending a week in for tests after been diagnosed with kidney failure. This cheered me up and gave me some thing to plan and look forward to. Its funny how things turn out, I must have been to Amsterdam once each year for the last 10 years, but this year I planned to give it a miss. Only to find I was going any way! Mind you I had not planned to be in hospital too. On checking with the doctors that it would be ok, I booked a Hotel and the flights for a stay from Saturday the 2nd of June to Monday the 4^th done job so I through.

I watched the treads on the Spencer Tunik experience web site, and one day a note popped up from Jamain from Dream Amsterdam which are the people behind setting up the installation for Spencer, asking for 150 people on the 15^th April to take part in a secret installation, it was to be kept quite from the press and we were only to register if we would be coming. That would be nice but I guessed it would be a bit cool in April as I live in the UK just the other side of the North Sea from Amsterdam we have the same weather you see. As the doctor said I would be getting ill soon I did not register, but was very envious of the people that would be.

Any way on my weekly trip to see the doctor at the hospital, he was pleased to let me know that I had stabilized and the risk of getting ill had passed, I would not get better but they had more time to sort things out. My troughs returned to the secret installation, but I guessed that the 150 places would have been snapped up by now, and just said to my self well it will be very cold in April best not to do it!

About a week before the installation there was talk on the web site that only are group had be asked to come and only 75 people had logged on since the secret installation was posted? After about a hour of think about it, I was filling in the online form and sent it away, an email was returned right back "Thanks for registering etc" It must have been a automatic message, Did I get on the list should I go, what if I travel and I am 151 on the list. I think I will wait until I get the confirmation. I had no need to worry on Friday 13^th a confirmation email was sitting in my in tray at 6am by 6:30am I had the hotel and flights booked to Amsterdam for the next day.

So I traveled out from the UK on the Saturday morning to my 6^th Spencer Tunick installation. The weather was great a summer heat wave had been forecasted for this spring weekend perfect. Amsterdam was very busy and they were not a lot of hotels to choose from but I had got one with in walking distance of the meeting point. Hotel Mozart, very fitting for an art weekend. After a few wrong turns I found the hotel and very nice it was to, done to a very good standard, but a bit on the small side, from my other stays most Amsterdam hotels are.

The meet time was 6:45 at Q-park Europarking which was a 10 minute walk from the hotel. On route there was a number of people still going home from a night out on the town, and a number of party’s were still going on in the houses. I got there with about half an hour to spare. It was a car park with a bus station under it but there was no one else about. I was soon joined by some familiar faces and we got talking about what we would be doing, it looked like we would be getting a bus to some where, Tulip fields and windmills were high on the list.

At 6:45 on the dot 3 buses pulled up and we were loaded up, on route we were told that indeed we were heading to tulip fields and will mills at Schermerhorn which is to the north of Amsterdam and to the east of Alkmaar. It was a nice drive through early morning Amsterdam and the sun looked beautiful in a clear blue sky. There was no wind and the rivers and waterways look like glass. We were also told that we would be getting undressed in the bus and are things were to be left in the bus. After about an hour driving we had turned off on to country roads. And we soon saw Spencer set up in a tulip field. But it was a little dive to get around to where he was, and then we still could not get to close. The bus was too big and the road to small. So the plan was changed and we were to walk down the road and as it was a nice day, we would get undressed in the field.

After a walk down the road Spencer greeted as all with a hand shake and a thank you for coming. He soon did this normal speech about being total nude etc and the plan for 4 set ups, 3 in the field with the tulips and 1 in front of the windmill. He said he was feeling a bit unwell as he had just come from Mexico (Montezuma's Revenge?).

There was 89 of as about 50:50 men to women with a good spread through the ages shapes and sizes, The first setup in the tulip field, which was for 10 people in a row down the field in between the rows of tulips every 10 rows across the field. Spencer was setup on the edge of the field with the sun to his left hand side. We were asked not to stand on any tulips as Dream Amsterdam would have to pay for any ones we did. I think I got one!

That was it, the light was great and the mood was good, a tarpaulin was spread on the ground for are clothes, but no bags this time. We were asked to undress and walk around to the top of the field. We were watched in amazement by the families in the near by windmills, who some where dressed in traditional Dutch costume.

At the top of the field Spencer picked which rows he was to use and got his helpers to stand there, we were asked to pick a row and stand near the helper, 10 to a row I guess the 9^th row had just 9? We where placed in no order men or woman, but he did ask familiar faces to go to the back rows, and leave the front for the new comers. I Picked row 5 and I ended up person 5 so I guess I am right in the middle. We were then asked to walk down the rows into the middle of the field, there always seems to be a catch with Spencer’s installation and this was it, how hard can it be to walk down a tulip field? Well when the row is just big enough to get too feet side by side and the earth is very rough and baked solid with the last few days of beautiful sunshine it is very hard on your feet. And they soon became sore the things we do for art?

At one time I did almost fall over, that would have been great with the press watching! And cost Dream Amsterdam lots of money! It took some time for as all to get down the field, and Spencer to move as up and down to get as were he wanted with a bit of shouting "row 4, 3 steps to you right, row 6 spread out" etc, when he had as where he wanted as, he then took a few shoots of as facing him and then with are backs to him.

That was it 1^st setup done, and now we had to get out of the field the same as we had come very slowly. When we were all out of the field we grouped together and Spencer explained the 2^nd setup. This was in a different part of the field with different colour tulips, but the plan was to have two rows of people down 2 rows of tulips, men on one side women on the other. The rows picked were bigger than the ones used in the 1^st setup and the earth smooth so walking down them was a lot easier. It did not take to long to get as were he wanted as and we placed about an arms length from the person in front.

We faced Spencer who had this back to the sun and we were asked to hold are hands up into the sky, he took a number of shoots and the got as to kneel down with are arms in the air and he did a number of shoots like that. As we sat in that field it was funny as a road ran high up above as on the top of the dyke with a water filled ditch on both sides, what must the drivers, and riders of a group of motorbikes and cycles through as they came past! I was just waiting to see one drive of into the water! But lucky no one did.

For Setup 3 he had as group together at the top of the field and asked as to drop where we were to the left or right side. With are backs to him as he looked down the tulip field. He took a number of shoots with as lying there, one with are arms down and one with an arm in the air, then that one was the easy one done.

For the 4^th and final setup we returned to the field which we had undressed in, this field had short green grass, and we moved to be in front of an old windmill, which turned out to be called the Ondermoleen dating from 1633, by this time the sails were going around nicely which when Spencer saw he gave out a wow! The wind must have got up a bit by then as the sails were turning fast but it still did not feel cold.

The plan was to form a cross on the ground in front of the mill men forming one side and the women the other, we were 1^st lined up and then asked to lie down in a line shoulder to shoulder. The grass was wet and a bit cool and from the smell of it I guess a bit of natural fertilizer had been used in the field! I ended up in the middle again the 2^nd man in from where the men and women crossed. It took a number of minutes to get as in a straight line and then a few people were moved about a bit. He did a number of shoots here and then that was it, all done.

We returned to are near by clothes and after bushing a bit of dirty from my self I got dressed, Spencer was mingling with the people and thanking them for coming and a number of people were taking photo’s of this very beautiful spot and him. After we had all got dressed people seamed to want to hang a round and take in the wonderful surroundings. But after Spencer thanked as for coming and said see you all again on the 3^rd of June, one by one small groups started the long walk back to the buses. Along the way a number of people had not had enough and had striped off again to take they own photos in the tulip field!

At the buses the farmer who’s field we were in was trying to sell as some of the tulips from the back of this van, very nice they looked to by I had no way of getting them back to the UK and still looking like tulips at the end.

On returning to the buses most people were in agreement that this was the best installation they had done, and I must agree with them, most of them were pro’s at doing this. You will always remember your 1^st one which was for me was Newcastle it is fun doing it in a big group, but I find the small groups work out better my previous favorite installation was the Monday morning installation in Lyon which again was a small shoot.

I guess it will be a long time before it is bettered? It could have been so different if there had been fog, rain or some other type of bad whether it would have been so different, we could have been covered in mud and the whole thing turned into a mud bath. In the end it was prefect.

After we and all returned the bus set off back to Amsterdam, only to find we were 2 short, after stopping and returning to find the missing two we again set off. There was more traffic on the road now but we were not slowed by this and we were soon back at the bus station in Amsterdam. Many people using the journey to catch up on some sleep. Most of the Brits only had hotels for Saturday night and had already given up there rooms, and we all needed a shower, so I was gad I booked 2 nights! We said are good byes and said see you all again on the 3^rd of June. I walked back to the hotel; the people on the street had changed from the drunken party goers from when I had left to normal tourists and day trippers. On my return to the hotel I had that long awaited shower and had planned to watch the Grand Prix on the TV but as it was a beautiful day I decided to get the train down to the coast at Zandvoort aan Zee, The beach was packed with people as far as you could see, the beach was lined with beach bars and I found one that had the GP on and I got a drink sat there and watched.

I returned to UK on Monday after having one of the best weekends away for a long time, I so glad I decided to go in the end, it made me feel a lot better and many people said I looked better. I have a long way to go in my treatment but I have the 3^rd of June to look forward to. If it is half as good as this one it will be one of the best. Thank you Spencer and Dream Amsterdam, I look forward to seeing the pictures.