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Page 2 Saturday, June 4th, 2011 – Frankfurt, Platz der Hauptwache After the late night or early morning, which it actually became, hanging over us from the day before, it was really a tough 6.30 a.m. start. I mean four hours sleep just don’t get it, but sometimes it happens…. After breakfast we rolled out heading for the city center – arrived around 9.45 a.m. They had a hotel room reserved for us right across the street from the outdoor event.
Our Hotel? Our Hotel Room Hotel Dressing Room After we got sorted out we grabbed our gear and headed on over to The Hauptwache Plaza
Walking to The Gig It was an organ transplant awareness event with multiple artists and several different speakers. Oh yeah, and they had balloons, lots of balloons.
One Balloon The sponsors had a hospitality tent set up right behind the stage and being the first of many to arrive we claimed our table over in the far left corner.
Our Space In The Corner We had just enough time for a hot cup of coffee, a couple of snacks and a quick tune up before our stage call. Sound checks are always the same, TOTAL confusion.
Adjusting The Set Up
Always The Same While we were hard at it Mari made a New Friend.
Hans And Mari
Didn’t We Just Do This Didn’t take but five minutes for our sound check but as soon as folks heard the sound of our guitars they started gathering around the stage.
Come Gather ‘Round People It was another four hours before we would actually perform, so John and I went back across the street to our hotel room and caught a nice long nap while Mari and Sumi did what girls do best – SHOPPING!!!! And JD did a walk about doing just one of the many things that he does best – creating magic with his camera. All too soon, JD and the girls were back saying we had only 45 minutes till our set.
Dressing Room Sillies Back in the hospitality tent, as we were munching on our pizzas and getting coffeed up, in walked the government officials along with some of the main speakers.
Another Quick Bite
Hans And Dr. Kirste
Me and Dr. Steinmeier Show Time. The Plaza was packed and the balloons took to flight.
Away They Go We only had a 30-minute spot so John kicked it off with 12-string walk into Green Green.
Here We Go We followed with Tambourine Man and Eve of Destruction. As usual John’s guitar picking just blew me away.
Play Dat Ting Mon It was so incredible, because just as we got to California Dreamin’, the sky went all grey with rain clouds
On Such A Winters Day
And The Sky Is Grey We had a quick bursting shower that cooled the entire area off. I was pointing to the cloudy sky as some people started popping open their umbrellas while others started running for cover.
Out Came The Umbrellas While we were all laughing at the magic of the weather mirroring the lyric of the song, John and I charged on with our set. Carpenter, City of New Orleans and finished off with Dancin’ in the Street.
Dancin’ In The Street People were laughing and dancing in the rain. If that’s not pullin’ the spirit of joy that exploded back in the sixties, right into 21st century Germany, I don’t know what is!
Heading Back To the Van Heading back to our van we met Hans Scherer in the street. We were just lining up for a final group shot when a group of young ladies came up to us and told us that one of them was just about to get married and one of the things she had to do was ask a strange man to kiss her. Well, without a doubt, I was the strangest man there, so I volunteered to be the Kissor if she was going to be the Kissee.
The Kiss
How About One More Right about that time Hans’ assistant, Anna walked up, so we finally got our final shot
Anna, Hans, John, Sumi, Mari And Me What a day this has been, What a rare mood we’re in, Why it’s almost like being in love.
Friday, June 3, 2011 – Hanau Tonight is a show night so today is an energy conservation day…. But John and Sumi were off for their regular morning walk.
A Morning Walk The Bruckenkopf, was about 40 minutes away from our hotel, so we left early and arrived at the venue, with plenty of time to spare.
The Bruckenkopf Lucas Schobert, the manager of the club was waiting for us on the sidewalk as we drove by, so it was a quick U-turn and we pulled right up onto the sidewalk at his front door.
This Looks Like It
Loading In It was like walking into a 1961 coffee house in Laguna Beach. Talk about getting back to where it all started. And for John and me, that’s exactly where we love to perform.
Déjà Vu Our sound guy, Mike was from Florida and it just took a few minutes to set up and dial in the sound.
Meeting Mike Tuning Up
Dialing In The Sound
Mike On His Knees
Sounding Good Boys John and I never pass up a chance to work on new material.
A New Song While we were plunking away on stage Mari got busy setting up her CD store.
Setting Up The Store
Ready To Go The Bruckenkopf is a restaurant/night club/bar. They do several different live shows every week and the restaurant is top notch so it was pasta for the York’s, schnitzel for the McGuire’s, baked potato with Gorgonzola chicken for Jean-Daniel.
A Little Snack We were all tuned up and ready to go at ten minutes to eight for what we thought was an eight o’clock start but JD came into the dressing room informing us that the show didn’t start till nine o’clock, so John, Sumi and I took a nice thirty minute walk around the block.
We’ll Be Going This Way
The Walk
Here They Come By the time the show kicked off at 9 PM the folks were primed and ready to go. Man, do these Germans love to party and have a good time.
Packed Out After the show it was signing time, which is always a lot of fun.
A Fun Time
Jean-Daniel Signing CDs We didn’t get away till after 1 a.m. just hanging out with our host, Lucas, and his team, telling stories and laughing late into the night. Jean-Daniel was already thinking about tomorrow’s early call.
The Late Nighters Oh yeah, we made the wall at Bruckenkopf.
The Wall 2nd June – Travel to from Kiel Frankfurt Simone, our one of our hostesses serving as an apprentice to Hans Scherer’s company, was waiting for us as we came down to breakfast. Kiel was her hometown and she wanted to take us down to the harbor.
Simone Waiting For Us. If you look you can see Mari and I behind Simone digging into the breakfast bar.
Digging In
Last Meal In Kiel Mari decided to ride along with Simone down to the harbor so she dug into our cd stash and pulled out a Trippin’ cd for Simone.
Grabbing A CD For Simone The front passenger door didn’t open in Simone’s car so Mari had to climb in through the back door and over the seat. Mari said they laughed and chatted all the way down to the harbor as we followed along behind them. Mari said she felt like she was riding along with one of our own children.
Following Simone It was a holiday so there was no parking at all around the waterfront, but we found a place a bit up the hill on a side street and walked down to the harbor.
Walking Down To The Harbor And what a glorious day it was.
Harbor Walk
Kiel Harbor
Let’s Buy This One Kiel reminded Mari and me, both, of our childhood homes, Auckland New Zealand for her, and San Pedro, California for me
Another Day In Paradise
Let’s Just Go Sailing
A Bit Of A Sit Down
Five Wayfaring Strangers
Walking My Baby Back Home We were all of us ready for a hot cup of coffee or a cold drink before climbing back into our van for the long six hour drive to Frankfurt, and just in the nick of time, we discovered a coffee shop with an empty table that had our name on it.
Just in Time
Waiting For Our Coffee And wouldn’t you know, John even found a bottle of Bismarck sparkling mineral water.
John’s bottle of Biz I was definitely a happy boy.
A Happy Boy We knew that in a couple of days Simone was going to be hosting us in Frankfurt, so it was one last quick pic with hugs all around and a, “We’ll see you later.”
A Quick Pic Sumi and Mari took dozens of photos of our six-hour drive south, so I chose these three out of their dozens.
The Longest Drive
The Longest Tunnel
Frankfurt Here We Come Our rooms on the sixth floor were ready and waiting for us when we arrived.
Our Room
Marlborough Country But I just couldn’t help checking out the beautiful stone sculpting that they were doing. Hmmm, I guess someday we’ll all have our names on one of these things. But today, thank you kindly, was not the day.
But Not Today The view from our dining room window wasn’t quite the romantic scene you might wish for, but I must say, it did give us a greater appreciation of our meal and the moments we get to spend together.
Dining With A View One of the highlights of the meal was served to us in beautiful white porcelain, high-backed bowls with olive oil and a splash of the most delicious balsamic vinegar we’ve ever tasted floating in the center of it.
The Dipping Bowl We dipped our freshly baked, hard crusted, chewy and phenomenal delicious bread into this mix of oil and vinegar and we could have just stopped right there and made a meal out of it.
The Dippers
The Dip But the best was yet to come.
The Meal Can you believe after all this incredible food, our final statement as we walked away from the dinner table was, “Well, what time do we meet for breakfast….?” And we all burst out laughing. Back up in our rooms, we were admiring our view and our hearts were as full as our tummies. What a glorious travel day from beginning to end.
Frankfurt At Sunset
May 2011 A Show Day In Kiel Had a late morning. Mari did our laundry by hand, and I worked on the Blogs once again. Of course she has to come back and check all my spelling and help me untangle the story line. So much happens in such a short time; sometimes it gets quite confusing trying to figure it all out 3.45 p.m. found us in the lobby sneaking the licorice candies they have in a big jar on the reception counter – yummy, we love licorice! One of the receptionists was so kind as to give Mari an entire bag of licorice candies – we’re in trouble now! The venue was located in a movie theater that has been redesigned as a music hall.
Our Theater Our host, Andre was waiting for us to arrive.
Barry, Andre And John
Andre introduced us to his team who were waiting for us at the gate.
Lena Andre And Simone They produce shows there all the time so the sound was already in place and waiting for us. Working with Sebastian, Sumi and Jean-Daniel made quick work of dialing it in.
Sebastian Sumi And JD
Building The Sound
Sounding Good Then it was off on a ten-minute walk to an Italian restaurant.
Walking to Dinner
Step Right In
OK Where’s The Food
Here It Comes
Serving Dinner
Yummy
All The Food Is Gone
By the time we got back to the theater, it was already 7 p.m. and people were arriving in droves. And they just kept on coming. How exciting! Mari got her CD station up and running while we lounged around backstage chatting with our Hosts and tuning up our guitars.
Barry With Andre And Simone
More Tuning Before we knew it, Andre was saying, “And here they are, Barry McGuire and John York, Trippin’ The Sixties.”
Show Time
And Away We Go
Blow That Harp After the show we all headed to the lobby to autograph CDs and meet a couple of hundred new friends.
Signing CDs Among them were Hans and Andre who had booked us sight unseen and sound unheard.
John, Hans, Andre And Barry We were so pleased that the theater was packed out, and the audience responded with such wild, German enthusiasm.
As usual, we were the last ones to leave. Lights out, lock the doors, into the van. We had been so energized by the evening, we were all abuzz laughing and talking late into the night. Wow! We had made the dressing room wall, at the Schlosshof Metro.
We Made The Wall June 01, 2011 – Hamburg To Kiel It was early afternoon by the time we left Hamburg. John, Sumi, Mari and I did an instant nod-out, we’re really getting good at sleeping in the van. Our hotel in Kiel, www.hotel-birke.de, didn’t look so big from the outside.
Our Hotel But inside it had huge long underground hallways going off in every direction. We had to have a guide take us down a set of winding stairs, walk a couple of hundred yards to an elevator, then up three floors to our gorgeous rooms.
John And Sumi’s Room
From Their Window It started to rain as we all met back in the lobby for a late lunch, homemade soup and club sandwiches.
Soup And Sandwiches Then it was time for a walk about so John and Sumi went for the country.
Country Road
Take Me Home
To The Place
I Belong
Now That’s A Woodpile
And That’s A Lotta Bull While Mari and I walked around the block.
Our Block
Thatch Is Still In
A Rope Swing And A Tree House
Kids Are The Same Everywhere
A Daily Driver
Lets Head Back 8 o’clock found us back in the dining room for more soup and dessert.
A Romantic Dinner
With Friends
MmmmMmmm Good
Our Dining Room Then it was up to our rooms and saying goodnight to everyone, we watched John and Sumi just down the hall, trying to get their door open. I must say these are the most complicated, high tech, hotel door locks and latches any of us have ever seen. We fell apart with laughter watching John and Sumi trying to get into their room.
The Key
John Jumps In To Help
This Is How It Works
I Think I Got It
No, No, It Goes This Way Finally, thinking I could help, I went down the hall, pushed them both aside and went to work.
Here, I’ll Show You
See Like This
Barry Helps Sumi just couldn’t take it any longer, so she elbowed me out of the way to give it another go.
Step Aside, I Can Do This
See, Nothing To It Welcome to Kiel, and what a good day it was.
TOURISTS IN HAMBURG After another sumptuous breakfast we packed up, Checked out and walked back to the Fliegende Bauten backstage parking lot where we left our van last night.
Checking Out
Walking Back To The Van We loaded everything into the van then we walked on down to the Hamburg waterfront. I had to stop and admire a new building. I just love construction.
Oh To Be Young Again
Are We Lost Yet? Walking, walking, walking
This Looks Like The Way
Were Tracking Now
Waiting For The Light The tour buses were lined up and waiting for us. The first one was full, so we trotted on down to the next Double Decker.
The Ride Right away Mari started a conversation with Bernd Kaupert www.hamburg-radtour.de , our German tour guide. They went on so long that finally JD had to interrupt their conversation to ask him if we could all get on the bus and go up to find ourselves some seats.
Ready To Go There were a lot of empty seats up on top of the bus.
Bernd Kaupert Our Tour Guide And away we went. Bernd told us of their plans to make Hamburg the major import/export city in Europe.
Rebuilding The Water Front
The Building Never Ends What an incredible day! We started off with white puffy clouds, sunshine mixed with hazy blue skies, then some rain and back to blue skies, kind of like New Zealand weather. So away we went amongst the sights and sounds of Hamburg. Cars, cars, cars, bicycles zipping everywhere, people, people, people ducking and dodging amongst the maze.
Here We Go
Heading Into The City
1720 Is Not The Address
The Street
The Shops
No Place To Park
What A Lovely Day It’s Starting To Rain The big red bus dropped us off right where it picked us up. So we headed on back to our van.
Was that A Great Ride, Or What?
Four Happy Campers
More Stairs This pretty lady kept following us.
Our Own Paparazzi Someone told me I looked like Bismarck, the first German Chancellor, and along the way saw a huge gigantic statue of Bismarck. He was kind of like George Washington in the States or Captain Cook in New Zealand. There did seem to be a bit of a resemblance.
Bismarck? Back at the Fliegende Bauten, Kathrin opened the back gate for us wearing some very cool pants.
Cool Pants We all piled into the office for some real coffee in paper cups to go. As we were walking out, a couple of the ladies asked if they could take photos with us. WELL, did John and I light up. Of course, Mari, Sumi and JD were all there with their cameras to document the event from every angle. Sometimes you just never get a break….lol, and ooh what pretty girls Nadja and Arikia are, just like our grand daughters.
What Pretty Girls With laughter and goodbyes, we climbed into our van, and rolled out for Kiel.
Hamburg Show You can’t really do much on a show day except save your energy for the show. So after a late breakfast
Any One For Breakfast
Breakfast We all headed back to our rooms where Mari and I tackled the daunting task of catching up and blogging all of our adventures so y’all can be traveling along with us via the internet. At 4 p.m. we drove over to Fliegende Bauten, which is a huge tent that they’ve established as a permanent structure.
The Venue They knew we were coming.
The Poster
The Back Lot
Load In
The Room Then we met our a new friend, Hans Gutz, who was actually responsible for booking us into the Fliegende Bauten
JD, Barry, Hans and John
Barry, Hans and John After meeting our sound engineer, Tony, and the rest of the crew we dialed in the sound.
Meeting The Crew
Sound Check
Mari’s Pic
Sumi’s Pic Mari found a spot to set up her store. Then she and Sumi had a bit of a sit down.
Two Little Girls In A Big Chair Meanwhile the Fliegende Bauten Chefs were hard at work preparing our lunch The Guys In The Kitchen So we headed out into a little patio courtyard for our afternoon meal. One picture tells a thousand words, so I’m just going to lay a lot of pix on you, and you can get a feeling of what our afternoon
Mari’s Pixing
Maris Pic
Waiting For Lunch
What A Meal Then it was back into the dressing room for John and me. John’s friend Hans from Taxim Records come to see us.
Hans From Taxim Records
Dressing Room With Hans Let’s Go Trippin’ The Sixties
Show Time
I’m a’Howlin’ Now
And He’s aSingin’ Now
That’s All Folks Then a couple of last pics with our Hostess Kathrin and her Boys
Dennie And Stefan
One Last Pic With Kathrin Then home and to bed
Our Hotel After Dark
May 29th, 2011 After another sumptuous hotel breakfast, five sleepy travelers piled into the van and headed North out of Frankfurt to Hamburg.
A Busy Sky Over Frankfurt Fortunately Jean-Daniel wasn’t as snoozy as the rest of us as he was driving.
Jean-Daniel At The Wheel We did a little side trip to meet up with some very dear friends, Thomas and his lovely wife, Petra.
Thomas Our Friend
Welcome To Thomas And Petra’s House Thomas was out when we arrived but it was just a few minutes until he showed up, and each picture speaks a thousand words…
Capturing It All
John’s Always Tuning Something
Now That Sounds Better Then Thomas pulled out his new toy.
Thomas’ New Toy Sumi thought she’d give it a go.
Sumi Sings Then JD thought he would try it out
JD Tries it out
JD’s Getting Into It So Thomas gets into it With JD.
Try This Then they both start Rockin’ Out.
Rockin’ Out Then it was outside for lunch. Thomas had, just the day before, finished his new deck.
Out Back
Checking out the New Wall
The Wall
How Is This Made?
Oh I See Then Petra called us all to lunch.
Lunch Time
Anyone For Soup? The table was set and waiting for us.
A Perfect Table
Petra Our Hostess
Now That’s A Bowl Of Soup
Soup For Mr. Granger
Tuckin’ In Then came the “Waffles”.
The Waffle Man
Waiting For Our Waffles
Mari Serving Our Waffles
The Waffle What an indescribable afternoon we had, and all too soon it was time to say goodbye. JD had taken a bit of a nap before lunch so he was fresh for the drive, but the rest of us were so stuffed with Petra’s soup and Thomas’ waffles, we couldn’t keep our eyes open, so we all four dozed off until JD stopped for coffee.
How Does This Thing Make Coffee?
Actually it’s Quite Easy Then we were back on the road to Hamburg.
The Bridge
Into Hamburg From the outside, our hotel looked pretty much like all the other buildings on the street.
Our Hotel After Dark Inside it was like a European Palace
Palatial Downs Until we walked in with all of our luggage.
Checking In Then it was up to our rooms.
MPD ? Thirty minutes later we were back in the street continuing on with our continual search for food. This time we found it in a lovely subterranean Italian restaurant called Trattoria Remo’s www.trattoria-remos.de
Dinner In The Cave Along with our menus came a glass of complimentary champagne. Great wine, great food, great service.
A Real Italian Waiter We made a few new friends and learned a few new words in Italian. May 28th, 2011 - Frankfurt Breakfast – John, Sumi, Mari and I got to the lobby a bit early and thought we were waiting for Jean-Daniel.
Waiting For Jean-Daniel But he was already in the dining room drinking his morning coffee.
Starting Another Day These European hotel breakfasts are absolutely beyond description.
Bon Appetite Paul Kendall showed up right on time.
Me, Sumi, Paul and John Paul is doing a documentary on Gene Clark and so first he took me over to his hotel where he had set up a conference room to video our interview.
Setting Up The Interview
Barry’s Turn Then it was John’s turn
John’s Turn Back at the hotel, and unknown to each other, we all had the same idea. We all went for a walk not knowing everyone else was out walking, so we kept bumping into each other along the way.
Sumi’s Photo of John
John’s Photo of Sumi
Mari’s Photo of Jean-Daniel
That’s My Gal
Now That’s a Long Boat Then Mari and I discovered a row of private Gardens.
What’s That
Wow!
And “That’s” A Garden Our friend, Uli, was having his 50th birthday party that evening so we piled in the van and went over to surprise him with a few happy birthday songs.
Happy Birthday Dear Uli
The Birthday Boy
Barry’s New Fan
Mari’s New Fan
John’s New Friend What a great evening we all had.
One Last Photo By the time we got back to the hotel, it was nearly midnight with a 9 a.m. load out in the morning.
And To All A Good Night Even though it was a very busy day, it was rich with experience, friendship and surprises.
May 27, 2011 – Frankfurt a. Main Today we’ve been invited to sing at a birthday bash – the big “5–Oh” for David!
David’s Big 5-Oh It seemed like a very short drive from the country into the city.
Frankfurt Here We Come David had us all booked into the Gerbermuhle Hotel www.gerbermuehle.de, which was also where the party was going to take place.
Gerbermuehle Lobby We had a couple of hours to rest up before our sound check.
Check, Check, Check
A Little More Guitar?
How’d That Sound?
Not Too Bad After the sound we were ushered up to our own private dining room.
Waiting for Dinner
Mmmmmm Gooood
That’s A-One Spicy Meat Ball Then as the guests started arriving
David Welcoming His Guests
Let The Party Begin
Two Old Bulls Boy, do these Germans know how to party. It was a sixties theme and we all went trippin’ the sixties together.
Trippin The Sixties Together
Are We Having Fun Yet Oops, stop the show; it’s time to Tune.
That pesky “Octave B String”. As the sun was setting over Frankfurt
Sunset Over Frankfurt Three 30-minute sets, kind of like the old days when we used to sing in bars. With our guitars back in tune we kicked into the second set
Back on Track
John Is Absolutely Amazing
Each set found the audience more joyously lubricated than the one before.
I’m Just A Hairy Guy (photo Dan Kendall) By the end of the evening we were all billion-year-old carbons dancing in the street.
Dancin’ In The Street I kept wondering who was singing that third part harmony….hmmm Denny?
Denny? We shut it down with “IN MY LIFE”
I love You More This was one Birthday Party we’ll all remember for a very long time.
May 26, 2011 – Fuchskaute, Willingen Today’s a show day, and ERF is going to video it. Germans are early risers, so by the time we hit the breakfast buffet at 9 a.m. there was very little left. The kitchen had to dig back in and cut up some more fruit, scramble up some more eggs, squeeze up another dozen more oranges along with another half a gallon of coffee, but actually, it turned out great for us because everything we had was fresh out of the kitchen….yuk, yuk, yuk, sometimes it’s good to be a little late for breakfast. Just as we were sitting down, Miriam, the young lady who hosted our show yesterday, came walking into the dining room. She was staying at the same hotel so we asked her to join us and had a wonderful, laughingly silly time just talking about everything in general - mostly about the world’s problems that we all had solutions for.
Breakfast With Miriam The adaptor that allowed our computer to plug into the German power outlets somehow got lost and our computer was down to about 30% battery so we just shut it down and went for a walk. As we went out the front door of our hotel, we spotted John and Sumi returning from their walk. John gave us a little road map and told us where we would find some interesting things to see, so off we went, retracing their steps, except at the round about at the top of the hill, we went right instead of left which took us along the crest to the main highway. The first guy we met really looked thirsty so I offered him a drink of water.
Drink of Water ? Germans make art out of everything
Art is Where You Find It
Flowers will grow anywhere Then we came on a place where they make wind generator Blades
Now That’s a Blade At the top of the road the footpath turned away from the highway and took us into the most incredible tree lined tunnel walk I think I’ve ever experienced.
The Garden Path
Follow Me Totally unexpected and fantastically beautiful.
Down The Garden Path Barely discernible through the trees we could see the highway on our left and through the trees on our right we could catch glimpses of industrial buildings. As we exited this long corridor of green wonder, we stepped right out onto the driveway of our hotel.
The real world? Who thought of it. Looking back across the street, there was just a little dark patch disappearing under the trees – that was the doorway we had stepped out of, and oops, it started to rain. Perfect timing for our 1:30 load up.
Loading Up Never Ends What a beautiful country drive. We just couldn’t believe that our venue was located right in the middle of a wind farm, surrounded with rolling hills and happy flowers.
Wind Mills And Happy Flowers When we walked into the Fuchskaute, it was like stepping through the looking glass into a world of sculptured timber, and high tech architecture. The tables had all been realigned so that everyone had a view of the stage.
Ready For The Folks The video crew was already there.
Meeting The Tek Crew Lights, sound and cameras. It seemed like just minutes until the people started showing up.
Waiting in Line They just kept coming and coming until the entire building was packed out. Food and drink for everyone. Boy, do they love to eat good food and drink great beer in this country.
Food and Drink for Everyone While the folks were eating we were out back working over our show list.
Going over The Show Then after a quick bite
JD’s Quick Bite Everyone was primed and ready to go and the show exploded.
Show Time It was a bit like doing a show in a German beer garden with everyone laughing and singing along.
Wild Life After the show we met Joachim and his wife, Daniela. Joachim looks like a big bear of a man who should be riding a chopper with all of his big bear man buddies.
After The Show With Joachim Joachim and his wife have built a magnificent venue surrounded with exquisite gardened walks, beautiful wooded areas and wind generators. As we drove away talking about the wind generators, John York mentioned, “Maybe it is true, the answer really is blowing in the wind”….mmmm….. there’s a thought!
May 25, 2011 - MEDIA DAY at ERF, Wetzlar After another sumptuous breakfast, it seemed like a 15 minute drive from Bad Homburg to Wetzlar.
A Quick Trip We went straight to the ERF studios. ERF Wetzlar Studious Here We Go Again We were met in the lobby by Ruth, who led us into the dinning room. Hello Ruth, Meet the Gang We arrived just in time for morning coffee. Although we’d just finished breakfast, we never refuse a cup of coffee.
Coffee Time Our hostess, Ruth, went over the show with us step by step.
Mari Me & Ruth Then it was into the studio and blocking out the shots. How’s This Look ? Then it was lunchtime!! We couldn’t believe it – all we seem to do in this country is eat food and drink coffee with lots of bread and cheese, but it’s great bread, fantastic cheese and the best coffee I’ve ever had, so who’s complaining? Weight Watchers is watching….. WW is Watching After lunch, it was show time for John and me Show Time We did four songs, Callin’ Me Home (Sailboats). Eve of Destruction, Woodstock/Dancin’ in the Street and In My Life, and
Callin’ Me Home Eve Of Destruction
In My Life Then John and Sumi took a break. A Little Sit Down While I did four quick interview segments with the Hostess of the show, Miriam. What an absolutely gorgeous person she is – sparkling, bright, interesting and interested, a perfect host! A Perfect Host Leaving the studio, it was just a five-minute drive to our hotel for the night. The Diggs The Check In
Singin’ and Swappin’ Manfred had to leave just as Volker and Miriam arrived from the ERF studio just in time for dinner which lasted until 10.30 p.m. Volker and Miriam After dinner we said goodnight to our Host, Volker headed home and the rest of us headed for our rooms. After Dinner What a day! Our media day turned into a real workday. We were so thankful we didn’t have a show to do that night.
May 24, 2011 – DAY OFF in BAD HOMBURG After last night’s show, today, a day off, was a welcomed day indeed. We slept until the last minute. We got up at the last minute just in time to get down for breakfast. Jean-Daniel, John and Sumi were already in the dining room NOT waiting for us, The Late Arrivers. What a spread. It’s a good thing that Mari and I have become members of the Weight Watchers’ clan – that means we can eat anything we want, but we have to keep track of the points, so it’s lots of fruit for breakfast. 11 o’clock found us in JD’s room for a telephone interview with Radio Nora.
Barry & John Telephone Interview
John’s Turn The rest of the day was pretty much of an off day for me, but Mari just kept on keeping on with answering email, typing these blogs, uploading photos, calling American Airlines in Dublin to confirm our reservations for our trip to New Zealand in March, 2012 to visit her Mum. Also, printing out the airline schedule changes for John and me when we do our next PBS Special in September, and finally around 4 p.m. we got a chance to take a walk through Bad Homburg Park.
Off For a Walk
A Walk Through Art
Living Art
Silly Art
Graffiti Art
Art ? The team hooked up again at 6.30 in the lobby with Jimmy T and his daughter, Alex.
Jim, Alex and Us Off we walked to a restaurant whose claim to fame was the humble German Potato. They cooked it every way you can imagine from soup, to fritters.
From Soup to Fritters Alex grabbed her daddy’s camera and made all of us give our goofiest face so she could document our dinner together. If you think this photo is bad, you don’t even want to see the rest of them….
The Goofiest Face Alex was truly the joy of our dinner party.
Alex the Joy
The walk home was like strolling through dreamland.
The Walk Home Kerplunk, into bed we fell. What a wonderful day off. By the way, we found out the word “Bad” in German, means bath. May 23, 2011 – Bad Homburg Jean-Daniel’s wife, Angela had come the day before to see the show that her friend, Sophie had organized. Right after breakfast she caught a train back to her hometown while the rest of us loaded into the van and rolled out for the four-hour trip to Bad Homburg. We stopped about half way for a quick cup of coffee and dug into the cache of brownies that we had smuggled out of Sophie’s kitchen – yummy, homemade brownies and good coffee. Our friend, Donny G would be eating his heart out. He told Mari on her Facebook page, “stop telling me this, I want to be there.” We had been in Bad Homburg two years ago so we had some wonderful friends we were looking forward to reunite with – Jim and his daughter, Alex.
Alex & Jim We pulled into the hotel parking lot. And what a hotel it is. The two open windows on the top left were our room’s windows.
The Steigenberger We had about an hour to unpack and get ready for the evenings show. The theater was just around the corner from the hotel.
KongressCenter We piled back into the van because we have so much equipment to load and unload. The equipment elevator was like none we’ve ever seen before. I think you could back a mini 18 wheeler into that thing with room to spare. The Kurtheater is located on the 4th floor of the KongressCenter and the elevator took us up and opened right out onto the stage. How easy can it get!
Room to spare Acoustically, the room is perfect for the kind of music John and I create.
The Room 05b. The Room
The Room While Sumi set up the sound, thanks to the man who invented electronic tuners, John and I tuned up our 24 strings (twelve each).
Settin’ & Tunin’ After a quick sound check JD helped Mari set up her CD store.
Happy Shopkeepers Jim took us to a real German beer garden for our afternoon meal. Jim knows all the right places. Of course, with a show coming up that evening, John and I could only have one short beer each, but the food was all you could ever hope for.
A Real Beer Garden Show time! As tough as it had been the night before in Winterthur, was as sweet and breezy as it was this night. All the right pieces fell together in all the right places.
All the Right Pieces
The audience hung on every note, sang along with us on nearly every song. Jean-Daniel and I worked out a rhythm in my story telling where I would give short sentences in English and he would translate them into German. Funny thing was, we would get two laughs for each humorous line, one for the few who understood English and then a larger response from those who only understood German. Wild Life It was a very fun night for all of us; even the Lord Mayor of Bad Homburg and the Manager from our Hotel Steigenberger were there. At the end of the evening, they just wouldn’t let us off the stage, clapping and clapping, whistling and shouting, even after two encores and three standing Os, they wanted more.
How Fun is This What a way to end our second show, which was our kick off show for the German section of our tour.
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Woodstock/Dancin’
