Piano World Home Page Forums Fun Stuff! - Parties, Tours, Projects & More... Forum Members Parties, Tours, Cruises, & Meetings European Piano Tour - See the Pictures!

And more pictures courtesy of BritishJim

Had an absolutely magical day today. Started in Beethoven's childhood home (he was actually born in the house and lived there as a child). Very special walking on the same floorboards he did, and seeing two of his actual piano (plus lots more).
Then we went to the SchlossHotel Lerbach (forgive any spelling errors, it's late here and I'm doing this by memory).

This is the Castle where our own Robin Meloy Goldsby (the Piano Girl) plays. Amazing place, just gorgeous.
Robin is exactly as I suspected, a beautiful person outside and inside. She gave readings from her books (had us laughing so hard our sides were hurting), and played beautiful music to go with her stories. Much more on this later.

Us, and some guy who plays the piano.



Self Explanatory...



And his front door.





This gives you some idea of what the castle looks like.
The grounds were as amazing as the castle itself.






In front of Robin's castle



Robin reading to us, too funny!



And playing pieces for us that went with the stories.
She apologized for having to bring us to this room instead of the one upstairs with the grand (in the lobby). We didn't care, we were thrilled to be there.



Robin holding one of her CDs. She graciously gave everyone of us one of her CDs, and her super talented jazz bass playing husband have us one of his. This on top of everything else they did for us! (The WDR tour was only for us, tour groups don't get to see the piano collection).



Stayed tuned, tons more pictures and stories coming!
It's 12:30 P.M. here now and I've got to catch some sleep.
Up early and on the bus to Leipzig!

It was just wonderful to spend the afternoon with all of you. I was so happy to share a little bit of my German life with so many fun, gracious, and charming piano enthusiasts!

Have a safe trip to Leipzig. And keep posting photos here!

That looks so darn wonderful

(mij ih)

Hi,

yep, that guy in black would be me. I joined this amazing tour for their two days in Cologne and Bonn and got to meet everybody. It was great! I really enjoyed meeting you guys, thanks everybody! And as always, you gotta first have a tour from the other side of the Atlantic come and visit, in order to discover the treasures hidden in your own neighborhood, like the amazing WDR piano collection in Cologne. I'll upload some videos of the event here as soon as they've been converted.

And Robin's reading + concert was a delight. Thanks for sharing Robin! I'm getting way too little sleep because of your hilarious new Asparagus book.

For those on the tour: I emailed the director of the House Of Music Vienna and asked if they can get you guys a special tour of the Virtual Conductor exhibit I designed with the Vienna Philharmonic. I'll keep Günter updated.

Fingers crossed, enjoy Leipzig, and safe travels!

- Jan

Thanks for the photos Frank and group! We are watching and enjoying the European experiencing with you. I still wish we could have gone with you.

Thanks for the pictures and stories, I "follow" you every step. Wie geht's mit der Sprache, hat das Studium 'was geholfen?

What a wonderful trip! Thanks for the wonderful pictures. I wish I could have joined. Maybe next year (sigh).

This group—having met them—is the hippest American tour group currently in Europe! It was all I could do to keep myself from hopping on the bus when they left for Leipzig.

Jan, you designed the Virtual Conductor exhibit with the Vienna Philharmonic? That sounds fantastic! How lucky we were to have you join us for a few days in Cologne/Bonn.

Looking forward to more reports and photos! I miss you already.

No time for captions this morning, will try to fill them in later. Have to get down for breakfast. Today is Bluthner day (among other visits) and to be capped of with a Bach Festival.

By the way, we have literraly thousands of pictures between the tour members. I will be posting many more as time allows.

Following pictures are from June 9 (courtesy of BritishJim).

It is so great to be able to see how things are going from day to day.
I'm so glad you are having such a good time. We are all green with envy , but happy to be sharing vicariously!!!

Have a great day, Frank!

Thanks for the pics!

As promised: Here's some exclusive video footage of our tour of the WDR historical piano collection in Cologne on Tuesday. Frank was jamming away on an original piano from 1678!

Cheers,

- Jan

per Strings & Wood: Have a great day, Frank

+1

Cathy

As promised I will slowly post more pictures and stories (as time allows).
They will not always be in order, but I'll try to add captions.

Tour members enjoying the piano room in the WDR building.



Our First Tour Bus (we are on our third now, but will keep it the rest of the tour).


One of the organs in the Cathedral in Cologne.
The Church was started in the 1300s and not finished until the 1800's


Another Organ in the Cathedral



Locks on the wall of a bridge near the church in Cologne.
Lovers buy the locks and often add their names and the date.
They lock it on the fence and throw the key in the river.



Guenter our feerless leader (guide). We know now why they consider him the best in the business. His knowledge is amazing, and he takes care of every detail. Standing in front of one of our hotels, with our new bus.



View from the bus at 120 KM per hour



Schloss Lerbach Castle where Robin Plays

More shots from BritishJim (these are from today, June 10)
Mostly of our wonderful tour of Bluthner conducted by Dr. Christian Bluthner himself.

o my ...

Bach and organs.. i am drooling.

I love this... I wish I was going too... ^_^

Wow!!! Just wow!!! Hope you all continue to have a great time!!! Special greetings to Frank and LilyLady!!! I can't wait till your return with stories to tell!!!

Fantastic!!!

Thanks Robin! The pleasure was all mine. I'm trying to get the group a special tour of the Virtual Conductor in Vienna. In any case, it's in the House Of Music Vienna which is in spitting distance from the Stephansdom. Check it out if you get a chance and have the unique experience of the Vienna Philharmonic telling you what a lousy conductor you are, in broad Viennese (with subtitles).

Past halfway through your new book!

BTW I got a Roland V-Piano last week, and it's pretty amazing. Much closer to the real thing than any other DP I've tried. Check it out next time you're in a music store. I kicked off a thread about my hands-on comparison to the competition here.

Best,

- Jan