Where are we?
Sitting on the runway waiting to take off. Our flight has been delayed. Estimated arrival time in Germany is now 10:43 am Germany time.
How do we pass the time on the plane?
Jon is doing a crossword.
Dean is listening to music.
David is asleep.
I’m blogging.

Ohhh takeoff gotta go!

Hey we just flew over Bristol, England. The real one even.

Here we are in GERMANY!!! The flight was uneventful and we are now riding along in an awesome red nine-passenger VW van. More than enough room for us, our luggage and our shannigans. Dean is driving and Maggie is navigating and we are on the autobahn. We may not make it back. We will miss you all!

And mom, we are just fine!

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!

We are at the hotel and still alive!

We have just returned from an amazing dinner with some of the organizers and other performers from Festival Maritim. Not only was everyone incredibly friendly and welcoming, but we were informed that this year’s marketing was centered around our appearance and we’ll be both opening AND closing the festival!!! After schmoozing, singing, and, (for the love of shanties) eating, we have regrouped at the hotel to plan our pre-fest activities tomorrow. Til then…

Hi Everzone!

(Should warn ahead - Canät find an apostrophe or colon on this computer, and the Y and Z are switched!!)

We got into Frankfurt just fine. Then Darrin Keeter met us, a verz nice lieutenant in the Navz. He met us at the airport, gave us some words of advice and walked us to our car. Then we drove four to six hours to get to Vegesack. So manz stops, I reallz donät know how long.

The Autobahn is prettz insane to be honest. There are three lanes carefullz delineated bz scared (approx 50 MPH), comfortable (approx 80 MPH) and insane (110 to 130MPH). And I am not kidding, and zes it is miles per hour and not kilometers. Dean did an awesome job navigating here, and fingers crossed he still wants to drive.

Everzone (other than David) stazed up all daz yesterday on my orders. David was feeling a little off, but I think heäs better todaz. I made everzone sing the whole time in the car.

We found our hotel with little incident. Bert Hobo (the man who planted the seed of this trip 2.5 zears ago) was right there with one of the fest organiyers, a VERZ nice woman named Brigite. Thez sat outside drinking wine while we got readz.

I am in a room bz mzself, verz nice, mz own bathroom and everzthing. Everzone else is sharing - we got three doubles and one single. Super nice hotel.

Then we all walked over to a dinner with a bunch of the other musicians. Thez asked us to sing, so we did Capital Ship and Mingulaz. Several of the musicians knew Mingulaz, so thez sang along. How lovelz to have such camaraderie and comfort so far from home! Then we just sat and chatted. But we were soooo tired, it was hard to keep our ezes awake.

We got to bed around 1030, then I woke up around 7 this morning, and I feel prettz good. Hopefullz everzone else does also.

I am going in to breakfast now, it looks to be a reallz nice spread. Mmmmmmm breakfast.

Talk soon!^

°Maggie°

Yep, we have just been called “crazy as crickets”! We are going into town with another shanty group, Four and Aft,
And they just called us crazy as crickets!! So we are obviously having a great time.

It did take us over a half an hour to figure out how to buy the train tickets from the machine…

I hope we are on the right train. We just passed the Eiffel tower and it is stunning!

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.

Hey there true believers, David here. Tonight was opening night for Festival Maritim, and a truly amazing and surreal experience. As we walked along the riverside toward the stage for the opening announcements and our first set, we were stopped (seemingly every few feet) by people greeting and welcoming us like we were rock stars. On our way to the stage, we also had a chance to finally meet our friends from Shanty Cabin with whom we had corresponded for some time. Our set, minor mic issues and language barriers aside, seemed to go quite well. We had a large crowd, many of whom gamely clapped and sang along with most of our songs and we received a ton of positive feedback afterwords from audience members, event organizers, and fellow performers alike. As we were headed back, we even had the chance to serenade the mother of one of our hosts (during which Jon received an impromptu shower courtesy of my trusty mug).
Tomorrow we have several sets including an interview and song set for a local radio station to start our day. With any luck, Jon and I will be muzzled or gagged and we’ll avoid creating an international incedent!