Sun Dec 20 : Depart Canberra

Left Canberra for Sydney 8pm in a rental car, right after singing in St John's Nine Lessons and Carols (it went well!). To airport Ibis hotel, for 4 hours sleep.

Mon Dec 21 : Arrival in Frankfurt

Up at 5am, drop off rental car, check in to Singapore airlines flight 6.30am, take off 8.15am. At 8.15pm I'm touching down in Frankfurt. Yes, it's the same day for me, but 22 hours later with the time difference. While I was on the plane, people in Australia have done a full day's work and had a nights sleep. From Christmas Carols in Canberra at 38 degrees, to White Christmas in Germany at -1 degree. It's snowing in Frankfurt! Beautiful! Train to the city (just 15 minutes), check into hotel near station, walk out to have a beer in a nearby bar. The cool, fresh air and the snow is invigorating - I've just flown from Sydney and I'm feeling terrific!     < New snow outside my Frankfurt hotel room shortly after arriving

Tue Dec 22

Leisurely stroll in the sludge - the beautiful crisp new snow from last night is melting! - reaquainting myself with Frankfurt. It's not a particularly interesting city historically or culturally, but I still find it quite a pleasant place. Good enough for a stopover to cure jetlag. Actually, I haven't really felt jetlagged at all. The effects of fresh cold air! Later at the hotel, I heard on the radio that there have been delays and flights cancelled at Frankfurt airport today because of the snow. Thousands of passengers affected. How would things be for my flight be tomorrow...? I have to get to England to play the organ Christmas Eve! A church near where my sister lives is short of an organist over Christmas, and since I was going to be there... and hopefully will be...     Outside the hotel, preparing to threaten passers by with a snowball >

There was a huge Christmas market on in Frankfurt. I took a stroll through it in the evening and sampled a traditional Glühwein (warm, spiced wine). After feeling great that morning, I could now feel a cold coming on. Thought the Glühwein might have helped. It didn't. Back to hotel to try an alternative remedy (beer).     < Christmas market

Wed Dec 23 : Over to England

The snow had cleared, and I got on my BA flight to Heathrow.

Now the fun began... Because BA were going to be on strike, I had also purchased a Ryan Air ticket to Stansted as "insurance". And I'd lined up a very good deal on a rental car from Harlow near Stansted. Now that BA was running after all, I had changed my Ryan Air ticket to take me back to Germany later on January 7. But I still had to pick up the rental car from Harlow...

Took the express trains from Heathrow to Paddington, then Liverpool St to Harlow, picked up car. Then 2 hours on the infamous, ridiculously congested M25, lashed by heavy rain, just to get back on the west side of London, back past Heathrow, before finally heading towards my sister's place near Salisbury. Thank God for BBC Radio 3 playing Choral Evensong to keep me sane while I was parked on the M25!

And my cold was getting worse. Anyway, I made it.

December 24 to January 6... Christmas in England

Christmas Eve, and I am introduced to the organ in the church of Winterbourne Earle. A little 2-manual affair, in need of some servicing, but playable. That evening I played for their Christmas Eve midnight service. Cynthia, my sister, came along, and the people there were nice and said they enjoyed my playing. (They must have had several strong drinks beforehand!) Then back again on Christmas morning. Cynthia and I covered organ duties for two churches: while I played at Winterbourne, she played at her local church in Cholderton, where she is the regular organist. Good job I didn't have to sing - my cold had developed into laryngitis and I had lost my voice!     St Michael's, Winterbourne Earle >

On the Sunday after Christmas we visited Salisbury Cathedral for Choral Evensong. The regular choir was on recess, but a substitute choir from St Thomas's Church in Salisbury had boy/girl upper voices and they sang very well indeed.     < The Nativity scene in Salisbury Cathedral is contructed from amazing life-size figures of papier-maché

By New Year's Eve, my cold was better, finally. Cynthia and I returned to Salisbury Cathedral to see in the New Year at their Watchnight Service. Example of perfect music programming: During the service, the organist played two of Bach's Orgelbüchlein preludes for New Year's day. Before midnight, the wistful "Das Alte Jahr Vergangen Ist" ("the old year is passed"). Then, right after the cathedral clock had struck 12, the wonderfully joyful "In Dir Ist Freude". A magic moment! And THEN it was time for a drink!

Mon Jan 4 - Wed Jan 6 : Huddersfield, England

St Paul's Hall (converted church), Huddersfield, where I played the organ     Huddersfield station square

What the hell were you doing in Huddersfield, of all places, I hear you ask. Or maybe not. Well, I'll tell you anyway... The Royal College of Organists holds its diploma exams twice yearly, in January and July, in London, Edinburgh and Huddersfield. As the Huddersfield dates coincided with my visit, I thought I'd have a go at sitting for the lowest-level certificate, the CertRCO. Even though I suspected I wouldn't be sufficiently prepared, it would be an interesting experience. I was right on both counts! I was attacked badly by nerves during the practical exam (organ playing) and made some stupid mistakes. Am NOT confident I passed. The written paper and aural tests were less stressful and went quite well, I think. So it may just mean I have to find another excuse to come to England again and resit the practical at a future date! But it was an interesting experience. It was worth driving to Huddersfield just to play the organ at St Paul's Hall, Huddersfield University, where the exams were held. A magnificent 3-manual instrument, in the european style. Even has a 32-foot pedal reed (which is actually quite useless - just makes a rather rude-sounding fluttering noise!). They allocated me an hour and a half practice time on the organ before the exam, which I really enjoyed. POSTSCRIPT: I ended up passing the written paper, including aural tests, and the keyboard skills. I now have a good excuse to return to England to resit playing the set pieces!

My Huddersfield trip took place during the height of the "big freeze". Schools were being closed, cars were stuck in side roads, flights were being cancelled, and the media were advising people not to travel unless absolutely necessary. But I was lucky - I made it without any problems as I was mainly travelling on the motorways, which were generally clear. After 3 nights in Huddersfield, I scraped at least 6 inches of snow off my rental car and drove down to overnight near Cambridge. Next morning I returned the rental car and flew out of Stansted to Germany, to begin the European half of my trip. Stansted airport appeared to be having no trouble with the snow, and my Ryan Air flight took off only 20 minutes behind schedule.

Scraping the white stuff off my rental car, before heading back down south!

Thursday Jan 7: Back to Germany

Memmingen town hall square

Ryan Air put me down at the slightly obscure town of Memmingen in southern Germany. They advertise the destination as "Munich-West", but it's actually nowhere near Munich (which is a couple of hours away by bus or train for the average tourist arriving there). However, Memmingen suits me down to the ground, because it is actually close to Ulm, which is precisely the area where I want to go. And it's a very charming town. I found a pleasant Gasthof in which to stay the night, and enjoyed looking around the town, especially in the fresh snow next morning. The brightly painted buildings near the town hall in the main square are really impressive.

Mon Fri 8 - Sun 10 Jan : Visting friends Martina and Heiner

My friend Martina (whom I know from my school days - a long story!), and her husband Heiner, invited me to stay with them for a few nights. They live near Gammertingen in the region south of Stuttgart and Ulm. Hence Memmingen was the perfect place for me to fly in. From Memmingen I made my way by train to Reutlingen, south of Stuttgart, where Martina picked me up. We enjoyed a peasant few days of catching up, and music making - she is an excellent flautist! We first played duets together 40 years ago, and are still maintaining the tradition!

Playing Bach with Martina

Mon Jan 11 - Tue Jan 12 : Austria - Innsbruck and some great skiing

Farewelled Martina on the Monday afternoon and took a series of trains to Innsbruck. OK, at this time, you could have put on a pair of skis and slid around anywhere in Europe! But with all this snow around, it was bound to be incredible in the mountains! My plan was to have a ski on Tuesday.

While waiting to change trains in Munich, I found an internet cafe and booked a hotel online at Mutters, near Innsbruck, for that night and the next. I knew the Mutters-Götzens ski area from previous experience - in fact I'd skied there in my distant youth!

Arrived around 10pm, to find Mutters asleep. Had to ring the bell at the hotel to get in, but they were expecting me and it was no problem.

View from my room in Mutters

...and view from the cable car

Tuesday was a fabulous day's skiing! Conditions were great, not a breath of wind, and wonderful long downhill runs, including a 3 kilometre run down to Götzens village. New gondolas take you back to the top really quickly, and the views are truly spectacular.

Great to ski here again, some 40 years later!

Wed Jan 13

Innsbruck's Goldenes Dachl     Christoph (father of Martina, Eva and Henny)

I now only had less than a week's travel time left with my Eurailpass, which I have not used a great deal so far. So from now on, the plan is to make the most of it by spending a lot of time in trains, and covering as much ground as possible! I left Innsbruck this morning, intending to make it to Paris by late evening. Before leaving Innsbruck, I had an hour to wander around the historic part of town and snap some photos of the famous Goldenes Dachl ("golden roof" - it's actually copper) and the Maria-Theresien Strasse, with the incredible backdrop of the high alps covered in snow. A few hours after leaving Innsbruck, I had a couple of hours in Esslingen near Stuttgart in the afternoon, to quickly call in on some of Martina's family who live there: Martina's father, still wonderfully bright and active, lives next door to his daughter Eva and her husband Jürgen. Eva is a professional violinist, and is another of Martina's sisters with whom I played duets a few decades ago! (In a few days I would also call on a third sister, Henriette, in Berlin.) An all-too-short catch-up before I had to run for the TGV train from Stuttgart to Paris. This fast train does the trip in less than four hours normally. But tonight the train ran slower than usual, due to snow on the tracks, and arrived at Gare de l'Est at around 11.30pm. But I'd booked a sleazy hotel online with 24-hour check-in right next to the station, so not a problem. Funnily enough, when I got to Paris, there was no trace of snow in the city! This was the first time in three weeks I'd been somewhere that wasn't white!

Maria-Theresien Strasse, Innsbruck     Eva, Martina's sister, in Esslingen)

Thu Jan 14 : Paris in a day

After my late arrival the previous night, I took my time in the morning and checked out of the hotel at about 11 a.m. Took the Metro to Gare de Lyon, dumped my bags in a luggage locker, and reserved a sleeper on the overnight train to Rome, departing 18:52 that evening. (I said I was going to make up for lost time with my Eurailpass in the few days remaining!) That gave me about 6 hours to "do" Paris. I did the Louvre. Never been there before. Absolutely enormous, and has some paintings that are really rather good. I thought Mona Lisa looked slightly more attractive in real life than in her photographs. Or maybe that really is a fake copy on the wall! Other than Italian paintings, I enjoyed strolling through the ancient Greek, Roman, and Egyptian exhibits. There was an old Egyptian, heavily bandaged up, who didn't look at all well.

That's me, loitering beside the Seine

A very old Egyptian lying around in the Louvre

I spent a couple of hours at the Louvre before making my way back towards Gare de Lyon on foot. Yes, I know you really need a couple of days to see the Louvre properly, but if you look at 47 different paintings of the crucifixion, and 153 ancient greek statues, how many can you really remember? There's an information overload factor here. However, I'll certainly remember having seen Mona, the Venus De Milo, and the ancient Egyptian for whom there appears to be little hope of recovery. I walked through a part of the Tuileries garden to the bank of the Seine, then followed the Seine to the Ile de la Cité, on which the cathedral of Notre Dame is to be found. I had a look inside, but they wouldn't let me play the organ, so moved on. Eventually time was running short and I had to get to Gare de Lyon. Just when I thought I was a bit off track, I found myself at Bastille, just one Metro stop away from Gare de Lyon. I'd made it most of the way on foot, but at this point I hopped on the Metro, retrieved my bags at Gare de Lyon, then had to go just one more Metro stop to the station of Paris Bercy (a sort of extension to Gare de Lyon) from which the Rome train was to leave. Got there with half an hour to spare.

After all that walking around, I really enjoyed a beer at a bar next to the station before boarding the train to Rome!

On the train, I had the sleeper to myself for the first couple of hours. The, after stopping at Dijon, I was joined by an unusual, but interesting character. An elderly man, rather shabbily dressed, with unkempt white hair. But as it turned out, very educated, and had experienced a lot in his lifetime. I was listening to my MP3 player, and he asked me what sort of music I liked. I told him Bach particularly, the baroque and classical periods generally. He shared the same tastes and played the flute himself. He also had a son studying cello and conducting in the USA.

So that started a series of conversations, mostly about music, during which I learned that he came from some sort of part-Jewish background, had lost many relatives to the Nazis in the second world war, now lived in Rome, and had studied at Harvard as a young man. While at Harvard, he had sung in choirs for concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He was interested to hear from me that Vladimir Ashkenazy is currently the resident conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

After going our separate ways in Rome the next morning, it occurred to me that I had not asked his name, or what his profession was. Neither did he ask me mine. Maybe those things aren't always so important.

Fri Jan 15 : Rome in a day

First thing I did was reserve a couchette on the City Night Line train to Munich, leaving Rome that night at 19:05 and getting to Germany at 06:30 next morning. Couldn't afford to hang around, I only had 3 days of travel remaining after today! Rome may not have been built in a day, but I could still "do" Rome in a day!

After booking the couchette, dumping my bags with the security-obsessed ripoff merchants at the station's baggage storage (no German-style coin-operated lockers here), finding a map and getting oriented, it was after midday... I actually had about six hours in which to do Rome. Déja vu... the same pattern as for the previous day's endeavours in Paris:   take Metro to the first goal, then do a lot of walking back to the station.

The first goal in this case was St Peter's Basilica and the Vatican. I had been here once before as a teenager, but on that occasion I had not climbed to the cupola at the very top of the dome, and I had not seen the tombs of the popes. The latter are located in a sort of subterranean crypt (what a surprise!). You file past a collection of sarcophagi, each labelled with the name of the pope it contains. Jean Paul II has been given rather special treatment: he is beneath a slab in a softly-lit alcove all to himself. Several people were taking time to stop there for a time in silence. Somehow it didn't seem appropriate to snap a photo (so I didn't). Leaving the popes in peace, I then climbed to the cupola. There are over 500 steps from bottom to top, but you can cheat and skip the first 200 by taking an elevator part of the way. Normally I would have climbed the lot, but after having done a lot of walking in Paris yesterday, with more to come today, I have to confess I cheated. But there were still 320 steps left to climb after the elevator... and at least I walked the lot coming down! The view from the top, as you would expect, was superb. And halfway up you got to look down into the basilica from a balcony inside the dome - quite a dizzy height from which to view the people walking around inside the basilica below!

View from the Cupola of St Peter's, Rome

View down inside St Peter's from the balcony in the dome

After leaving St Peter's, I took the Metro to the Colosseum, then walked... around the Colosseum (could not go inside because I got there just as it closed at 4.30pm - but you can still see a lot of the inside through the walls). Then up past the remains of the Roman Forum, and eventually made my way back to the main station via the Trevi Fountain. This was only the second day since leaving Australia that I had not seen snow!         Colosseum

Sat Jan 16 - Sun Jan 17 : Leipzig

The early train from Munich got me to Leipzig just before midday. And back to the snow - Leipzig had tons of it, and it was freezing cold. But that was OK... it was refreshing, if you weren't outside for too long, because the buildings were warm. Leipzig holds a special attraction, not least because it is where my favourite composer, Johann Sebastian Bach, created some of his finest works while in the position of Kantor at Leipzig's Thomaskirche (St Thomas's Church). I checked into the same hotel I had been to on my earlier visit in 2005: the inexpensive, but very pleasant, Holiday Inn Garden Court, next to the station, and just a 10-minute walk from the Thomaskirche. After taking a little time to get cleaned up and refreshed after the long trip from Rome, I went for a walk in the city. I was just passing the Nikolaikirche (St Nicholas's Church, where Bach had also provided music), to find an organ recital by the church's Kantor, Jürgen Wolf, had just commenced. I went in to listen (of course!). After some pleasant, flutey baroque music, he finished up with a piece by César Franck, (Chorale No. 3 in A-Minor), which really showed off the organ's potential - a big, rich sound with some great pedal reeds. And there was plenty more music to come! I had passed by the Thomaskirche and noticed that there was a concert on that night, of virtuoso baroque trumpet music, including Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2. Trumpet solists Reinhard Ehritt (of the West German Radio Orchestra) and Elisa Koehler (from the USA) were accompanied by a very good chamber orchestra of tertiary music students conducted by Joachim Harder. Naturally, I went along to that too, and it was excellent (they had to do a couple of encores!). And on the following morning (a Sunday, as luck would have it), I went back to the Thomaskirche for the morning service, at which the Thomanerchor (St Thomas's boys' choir) were singing. This choir is the present-day successor to the choir of boys from the Thomasschule (St Thomas's School), for which Bach was responsible. The school was run by the church back then, although today it no longer exists. But the present-day choir is superb, and the music at the service was wonderful. Even for the Chorales (hymns) and other bits where the congregation sings, the service sheets provided all the musical notation for the melodies - so I was able to sing along with the German Chorales, several of which were introduced by Chorale Preludes on the organ (rather than just a straight play-through of the tune). By way of explanation to non-musicians: Chorale Preludes are compositions for organ that are based on Chorale (hymn) tunes. They were written by Bach and others for just that purpose - to be used as introductions to the hymns on which they are based. So it was interesting to witness the use of the Chorale Prelude in that original context. Leipzig citizens probably take it for granted, but to hear the music of Bach in the very place that he first created it, while sitting just a few feet away from where Bach himself is interred, is really, for me, the most awe-inspiring feeling!

Bach's church in Leipzig (Thomaskirche) in the snow

Köthen : another Bach trail

I continued my Bach pilgrimage that afternoon by taking the train to Köthen, about 45 minutes from Leipzig in the high-speed ICE train.

Prior to Leipzig, Bach held an appointment to provide music for the court of Prince Leopold of Köthen. This was where he wrote some of the most joyful chamber music, including the Brandenburg Concertos, as well as Book One of the Well-Tempered Clavier. I wanted to see where he had worked, and what was left of the Prince Leopold's Schloss (castle).

		Well, the castle is still there, but there are no artefacts left from Bach's time. It has changed ownership several times. During the period of East German Communism it was used as a school. However, part is now set aside as a Bach Memorial - a small museum with facsimiles of his manuscripts and examples of musical instruments and artefacts from the 1700s. Although there is nothing original left there from Bach's day, it is still a special kind of experience to me, knowing I was standing in the same rooms where he had worked.
The Schloss at Köthen, and the main music room, as it is today

Mon Jan 18 : Berlin

Oh No! It's my last full day in Germany! Tonight I have to be back in Frankfurt, ready to fly out at midday tomorrow!

But first, I head for Berlin, just over an hour from Leipzig, to call on another of Martina's musical sisters...

Henriette ("Henny") is a very talented violinist, who plays with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Nice to catch up with her, and play a duet, of course! We got through a Handel sonata without me stuffing up too badly. Then a visit to a nearby café, after which it was time for me to reluctantly head back to the main station and jump on a train to Frankfurt, where I arrived at 9pm.

I am honoured to accompany a violinist from the Chamber Orchestra of Europe!

Wed Jan 20 - Thu Jan 21 : Singapore

Tuesday 19th was a shortened day: I flew out of Frankfurt at midday, then, some 12 hours later, landed in Singapore at a little after 7am Wednesday 20th, with the time difference.

Singapore's Little India district

I hadn't been to Singapore before. I took my time at the airport, looking at maps and tourist blurb, getting orientated, finding a wi-fi connection and booking a hotel online. Then into town on the MRT train ("Mass Rapid Transit"), where I was able to check into the hotel at midday. Took it easy after the flight, had a bit of a nap, then wandered into the Little India district for the evening. Very atmosheric. I had a chicken curry at a street cafe where only Indians were eating, no tourists. After removing the bits of bone and other nasty-looking lumps (looks like they just chopped up the entire chicken!), it was one of the best curries I'd ever tasted, and with no ill-effects afterwards!

Gemma, looking across the city from the Singapore Flyer

The next day, I was to meet up with someone else I knew... When we lived in Whitsunday, Queensland, during the 1990s, there was a lovely family living next door whose youngest daughter, Gemma, is now a model who spends most of her time working on assignments overseas. As luck would have it, she happened to be working in Singapore as I was passing through! We arranged to meet up later that day at the Singapore Flyer (big wheel), which she had not yet seen either. So I filled in the morning by walking up Orchard Road (just shops - boring!), then getting the MRT back to the National Museum, where I saw an exhibit on Singapore's history (more interesting!).

Finally, I made my way down past Raffles Hotel until I reached the Flyer. One beer later, Gemma also appeared. I hadn't seen her since a visit to Queensland in 2005, when she was still at school! We went on the Flyer, promoted as the tallest in the world (although to me it looked about the same size as the London wheel). Then we took a bus to Chinatown. Gemma was staying in the Chinatown district, and she had got to like a particular vegetarian restaurant there, where we now went for a snack. A bit healthy for me, but I survived! After that, we hopped on the MRT back to the City Hall stop and walked up to Raffles Hotel, where Gemma was looking forward to trying their famed Singapore Sling (invented by a Raffles barman). And I was looking forward to another beer! After enjoying the drinks in the exotic courtyard bar of Raffles, it was time for me to collect my bags from the hotel and head for the airport for my flight to Sydney just after midnight. We'd had a very pleasant evening. Gemma said she really enjoyed seeing someone from home, as a change from her usual modelling crowd, even if I am nearly three times her age! And it's not often that someone like me gets escorted around an exotic city by a very attractive young model!!!   A fun way to end my holiday!

Raffles Hotel - courtyard bar     Sling 'n Beer in the Raffles bar!

Friday Jan 22

Well that's about it. I got the flight home... just. It was overbooked and they wanted to put me on a later one the next morning. But they took pity on me because I would have missed my connecting flight to Canberra, and would have had to stay a night in Sydney.

So I arrived home in Canberra at 3pm, as scheduled. While unpacking, I threw on a CD of the Leipzig Thomanerchor, which I had bought a week ago from the shop at the Thomaskirche, and wished, as always, that I could turn around and go right back.

But next week it's back to doing battle with bloody Microsoft...