It’s almost here. 24 hours from now, we’ll be jostling around, arguing over who gets to sit in the aisle and complaining about sitting next to David for nine hours.

This DEPORT campaign, formulated over Gina’s dining room table so long ago, has crystallized into… what would you call it? A movement? A collective fantasy? A shared hallucination?

Whatever it is or was, it’s awesome. In every sense of the word.

The past sixteen months have been amazing. We can never thank our trusted Bounding Mainiacs enough for their incredible support. Although we can’t ever truly return the favor, we will do our best to keep you all informed of the trials and tribulations of our travels. This blog will be part of that, but we will also be taking scores and scores of pictures to share.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have to stuff a few more socks into my carry-on luggage.
Wait… did I bring deodorant?
Where’s the recorder?
Do they sell umbrellas in Germany?
How do you say “I need a lawyer” in German?

Jon Krivitzky

So we stopped at a small village outside Frankfurt, looking for a place to grab a bite. Turns out, most shops and hotels were closed… Christie suggested that it might be because Europe is on holiday during the month of August.

No matter. Nothing stands between Bounding Main and food when we put our mind to it.

We found ourselves outside a lovely cafe. To Maggie’s delight, no one spoke English. She loves that stuff.

When we sat down and checked out the menu, it was clear that we had stumbled into an Italian dessert shop! Normally, this would be fantastic news, but we were hungry!

We found some sandwichy pictures on the menu and, with some meaningful pointing and German-like mumbling, we ordered one of everything.

It was a pleasant experience, due in large part to Brandi, our patient waitress. We rewarded her (we hope) with a jetlagged version of Mingulay. She loved it!

We’re back in the Shanty Machine heading up to our hotel in Bremen… At least we hope so. These directions are rather confusing. We need a navigator!

Wish us luck!

Hi, Mom! Hi, Tzvia!

Much to our surprise we arrived safely in Bremen. After a brief picture of everyone (in the photo booth… ALL of us… really), it was off to look around.

Bremen is a beautiful city. The historical area is filled with people selling flowers, playing music, and even our first rude person… She was selling miniature ships (but not to us).

Some of the architecture dates back to the turn of the century… The 11th century, that is. The central part of the city is the only area that survived the bombing of WWII. There are gorgeous churches and other landmarks around every corner.

We ended up in a delightful area called Schnoor. Wandering around the shops and occasional street performer, we found the Katzencafe Restaurant. Expensive, but the food was INCREDIBLE! John Wohlers took some fantastic pictures of the restaurant and the food. He even caught Maggie stealing the beef tips…

We raised a toast to Bremen, to the festival, and to the whole adventure this far.

The performances never stop. We only had one more show planned after the street show, but we were asked at the last minute to fill in for a group from Holland who couldn’t make it.

Another opportunity to perform? Must you even ask?

The fill-in show was in a big tent. Since the pressure was off, we just relaxed and had a great time. Two members of Banana Boat joined us for a rousing and slightly naughty “Essequibo River”. Note for the future, vet all guest performers prior to giving them a solo on stage. We thoroughly enjoyed the novelty of a smidge of baudiness.

The last show was one of the best attended so far. Throngs of people stuck it out all the way through, even facing straight into the sun. We ran out of “Going Overboard” copies for the first time in memory… I had to run the length of the festival to get a few more.

It’s really fun being rock stars.

UPDATE: I should have mentioned this at the outset, but there was a German fan named Juergen who mentioned that he was reading this blog. He is a delightful man with a basso profundo voice and he attended the Saturday evening show. Hopefully he’ll scroll down enough to see his name!

Have we mentioned that we adore Banana Boat? We do. Shamelessly.

We had a break before the big Shanty Slam, so we thought we’d catch one of their shows. What a treat!

Their harmonies are tight, their arrangements are astounding, and their stage presence has to be seen to be believed. We WILL cross paths again… in Poland or the USA, whatever it takes. Yes it’s true – we have fallen in love.

Anyway, they were kind enough to invite us on stage during their set. It wasn’t a traditional sea shanty… More like the eighties pop tune “All I Needed Was the Love You Gave”. What a trip! The girls were fawned over (appropriately) while David and I sang our lungs out. The fabulous Mr. Wohlers caught the whole thing on video.

What great guys!

The festival closed with a Shanty Slam where a huge crowd assembled to hear a few last songs from each group. We were thrilled that we got the opportunity to hear so many of the other groups at the slam! The tuxedo clad master of ceremonies was not only charming but so funny too! We chose two of our favorite songs, Northwest Passage and Mingulay Boat Song. Jon said some wonderful things about Mingulay bringing us full circle to the feet. The MC got the audience to say Ahoy Bounding Main and then, Good-bye Bounding Main. We still can’t believe he thought to do that for us! It’s was a Magical evening.

Bert Hobo, our consummate host and tour guide, provided a lovely breakfast on Tuesday morning, including various bread, jam, meat and eggs. We loved the bread so much that we took some with us when we left for Amsterdam.

Before heading to the train station (parking in Amsterdam is as practical as it is in Chicago), Bert took us to a real old style windmill. Sadly, it was closed for the week. However, we did get some awesome pictures. Then it was off to Amsterdam!

So here we are, sitting in a pub in Amsterdam. Where did David and Maggie go? Ah, well. I’m sure they’ll turn up soon.

ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz

Wha? Huh? Is that another building? Oh.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Funny story…

For the past week, Dean has been doing all the driving. He has been doing a FANTASTIC job, no question about it, but he’s always had trouble shifting into reverse. Remember that…

This morning, Darin offered to give Dean a break. “I can drive stick” he said. Wunderbar!

Darin got behind the wheel and quickly backed out. Dean sprang up in his seat and demanded how he did that. “You just pull the little lever here” Darin innocently replied. “Then you just slide the gear to the left. Simple! Why do you ask?”

The rest of the trip to the hospital was punctuated by occassional slapping sounds coming from the area of Dean’s forehead, mixed amongst a smattering of muttering.