TESTAMENT guitarist ALEX SKOLNICK has issued the following blog from the road:

"In San Sebastian, Spain today. Had a nice day off yesterday. Big tour gathering at hotel bar last night. Hung out with Glen and KK from PRIEST, they bought me many beers. We discussed guitars, mutual acquaintances and Glen's love of fishing. At one point it dawned on me: these guys were on my wall when I was a kid. Wow.

Show was great for us and MEGADETH. Above my head, I hear Priest doing 'Breaking The Law' and it sounds like they're having a great one too. Thousands of Spaniards are singing every riff and lyric.

Here's a little quickie from my journal the other day when we headlined a small club, the final gig in Germany of this tour:

Mar. 10th Nurenburg, Germany 5:07pm

I'm sitting here backstage, where I've just greeted a couple dozen nine and ten year olds. They stepped up in groups of two and three as I said hello to each one. The boys waved and the girls giggled. It's something I've never seen at a gig before: a class field trip.

It turns out that these kids are all young musicians. They are being shown a live gig as part of their music class. Our German promoter and his wife have a daughter in the class and invited them to view the club being set up for our show. How cool. I never had a field trip like that.

The promoter's wife asked me if it was okay for the children to take a look. I was happy to oblige. Me typing on my Mac is probably not the best example of a typical scene backstage at a rock gig, but hey, that's what they got. Now they're moving into the main hall to look at the stage.

Just before they left, a small boy with blond hair turned around with a big smile and asked me a question with excitement in his voice. I figured he must be a guitar player. But his German accent was so thick I didn't understand the question.

'Yup lang valda vahkeft onka poota?'

'Can you say that again?' I said, smiling.

'Yup lang valda vahkeft onka poota?

'I'm sorry, I don't understand,' I said, smiling nervously as the boy and the rest of the class awaited my answer.

Just then, their teacher, a librarian-like German woman with short brown hair and glasses, stepped to the front. She leaned in and spoke to the boy in a whisper. The boy whispered back to her. Then she looked at me and spoke.

'He is asking you: 'Are you playing World Of Warcraft on your computer'?"