The Rolling Stones have been coming to Texas since their first US tour in 1964. Houston and other Texas cities have had many Stones shows over the past 55 years. Tonight Saturday July 27, 2019 they were back to Houston Texas USA to perform at the NRG Stadium, a large indoor venue. The show was number nine of the seventeen shows on the No Filter US Tour 29, i.e. they are now half way into the tour.
My travel plans for the Houston show was two days downtown, two days near the venue, during the show days, then three days really any place in Houston, cheap and comfortable, to rest and relax, as I have now been on the tour for six weeks, and I needed some rest. It was great to stay downtown in Houston, and to walk over to the Market Square Park. This was sort of “old town”, where some older buildings were still around, while the rest of downtown Houston is mostly skyscrapers and modern buildings.
Houston has got the world’s largest medical area, with more than sixty large hospitals, and more than 100,000 employees working at these hospitals. Some may have seen the TV series “My 600-lb Life”. Dr. Younan Nowzaradan – “Dr Now” in this series – is a a real doctor – general surgeon in Houston, Texas and is affiliated with St. Joseph Medical Center-Houston. When I took the metro train and then the bus through the Medical Center area, 2-3 times the size of downtown Houston, I realized just how big this medical area is. There were doctors, nurses, health workers and hospitals all over.
My new hotel just 15 minutes walk from the NRG Stadium was “Holiday Inn Express & Suites : Houston S – Medical Ctr Area”. This is a brand new hotel, and I just loved it. After having stayed at so many Holiday Inn over the years, with and without the “Express” brand, I was sort of fed up with the same soaps, food, menu, colours and all of that, but this hotel was just paradise on Earth for me, for two days, the day before the show, and on show day.
While being downtown, I did my shopping, some bread, cheese, drinks and snacks, all I needed to survive the steep Houston prices for lunch hours during the coming week. I was prepared.
Half way into the tour The Rolling Stones delivered a high quality show as usual. For details about the show see the links further down on these pages. I had a nice short 15 minutes walk back to my hotel after the show, then I browsed through the pictures, and went to bed with a smile on my face. The Rolling Stones do make me happy!
Next day I was on the move to my 3rd Houston hotel, as I needed to get close to the airport for my flight to Newark New Jersey on Wednesday, staying there cheap and relaxing for three days. It was amazing to see how the car ride was from my hotel in the Medical Center area towards the airport, a travel which would have taken me three hours or more by bus, train, bus and hotel shuttle on Sunday. First the driver took the car past the NRG Stadium, onto the freeway. The car went on the highway at 60 miles per hour, i.e. 100 km/h, and after ten minutes we past by downtown, a distance I had spent 1.5 hours on by walimg, metro train and bus on Friday. Then another twenty minutes at the same speed, a few minutes off the highway, and I was at my airport hotel just two miles i.e. three km from the George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Now some rest before the two shows in the New York / New Jersey area ast Metlife Stadium on August 1 and 5.
For show reports see the links below:
The Rolling Stones – NRG Stadium – Houston TX USA – Saturday July 27, 2019
