TOUR OF EUROPE 2011 Germany / Czech Republic / Austria / Denmark / Sweden / Belgium / United Kingdom / Ireland Edinburgh / Regensburg / Pilsen / Deggendorf / Vienna / Rosenheim / Ulm / Bayreuth / Halle / Copenhagen / Malmo / Gothenburg / Dals-Ed / Cologne / Brussels / St Andrews / Stirling / Dublin / Cork / Belfast

A Journey with a Piano on Board The Tour of Europe 2011 was a real street piano adventure. It involved a van, a piano and six tour partners to play 20 pedestrian zones and streets in major cities as well as small towns in eight different countries. We drove over 5500 miles and it took five different tour legs to do this, returning to the bases in Rosenheim and Edinburgh mostly to recharge fuel, fix broken things and tune the piano. My tour partners helped me drive, load, find accommodation and drink beers at night. Three tuners fixed and tuned the piano at different stages to get it ready and prepared for more travelling. Most of the cities were new to me as I was curious as to how the people in the Czech Republic, Scandinavia or Ireland would react to seeing an acoustic ragtime piano in the street. As it turned out the feedback was universally great, and in most cities passers-by had never seen this kind of thing before. We had some amazing encounters, like meeting the mayor of Brussels - who told us off for attempting to play his famous Grand Square. In Sweden we took our piano to a little community wedged between two lakes and this way discovered heaven on earth, a place of tranquillity and calm, and a counter point to urban life. It was very interesting to find out in which cities people appreciated to listen to Boogie Woogie and Ragtime in the street. Malmo in Sweden and Rosenheim in Germany were the most amazing experiences with people showing much interest and appreciation. We also found out which cities are more difficult for buskers. Gothenburg was a tricky town full of cobbles, and to people in Cork shopping seemed more important than live music. This changed over the afternoon though and the later were totally into listening to street Jazz. So it was often a very mixed world of emotions, with the very best and the very worst of experiences right next to each other. What else happened on tour? In a nutshell, we got our van clamped in Dublin, got rained on in Copenhagen and Belfast, got to play right next to two huge cathedrals in Cologne and Ulm, had our piano fall off its trolley many times in Gothenburg and got to visit the Steingraeber piano makers in the little town of Bayreuth. We had permission problems in Vienna and, once they were solved, got to play at the famous Prater there. We got the most amazing feedback from the little Czech town of Pilsen and, for lack of permissions in Regensburg found a beer garden to play in. Beer and Boogie Woogie, a great combination. I would now like to take you on this journey as it happened. Curtains up for a street piano adventure in Europe.

Getting Ready

First we went on an epic journey from Edinburgh to the ferry in Newcastle, then from Amsterdam to Rosenheim to bring the piano and van safely to our starting point in Bavaria. Sophie was with me and yet again a great travel partner. A 12-hour drive? No problem. Once we arrived in Rosenheim we started to prepare the tour. Being July it was very hot so we bought lots of sun cream and a cooling box. Little did we know that the sun was not going to be our problem on this trip, meanwhile the lack of it would give us trouble often enough. The piano then got its first tuning which it only held for a few days as heavy rain storms and dampness affected it badly. Naturally this piano always gets tuned in the van. I might be crazy enough to load it twice a day, but will not do so just to tune it. [Photo: Piano tuning in the van by GSFP] Touring Germany and the Czech Republic A Beer Garden in Regensburg We set off one sunny morning with my tour partner Stina in our van, making sure we had brought piano, hat and all. Our first stop was the German town of Regensburg, a place were no permission was to be obtained, as the city only gives out two permissions a day. I can only imagine this town to be a bit sleepy with their two buskers doing the rounds.

Luckily Stina came to the rescue by contacting a beer garden, the Kneitinger Keller. They were very happy to have us play there, it was a relaxed atmosphere and great fun, so a great success in the end. In Regensburg Stina and me stayed with Sonja, a friend who was so kind as to put us up, and we went out for some beers later, realising that this is a lovely town, very beautiful and historical. Shame about the non-permission.

[Photo: Regensburg Kneitinger Keller 8 July 2011 by Stina Schwerdtel]

A sleepy town called Pilsen The next morning we drove to the Czech Republic through the Bavarian Forest, a particularly beautiful bit of Bavarian landscape. We found the little hotel Stina had booked for super cheap - all we cared about was to have secure car parking, what with the stories we had heard about the Eastern countries, we imagined our van gone and sold within minutes - and then went to find a suitable place to set up. The place was obvious, it was a huge square in the town centre with a big church in the middle of it. We could not find out about permissions, the tourist information phoned the police for us but didn't have a clear answer. Something about as long as no money was involved. I didn't consider busking pennies as the kind of money they were talking about and we proceeded to set up and play all afternoon. The comments were very interesting. An old man told us that this kind of thing, although very popular in Prague, was never seen in this sleepy little Czech town and under the former Communist rule was unthinkable anyway. He loved the fact that we had come to his little town, it seems there isn't a lot of money there and life is not easy, so free entertainment is very welcomed. It all went very well, and my memory will not be spoilt by the little dent my van made in the bumper of the tiny little sports car parked behind it. The owner came running straight out of a cafe to make me aware of my mistake. Must remember to look what's behind my big van before reversing it. [Photo: Pilsen 9th July 2011 by Stina Schwerdtel]

When we left Pilsen we intended to play one of the little towns on our route home through the Bavarian Forest. The first town we stopped in was Zwiesel, this town was very small and, because of the blazing summer heat, dead and empty. We drove on and turned off in Regen, but this place seemed to have had its market Square converted into a building site for the summer, so we couldn't play here either. Now we started to think about

alternatives to me playing a piano in the blistering sun while everyone else had gone for a swim. Like going a for a nice cool swim. [Photo: Regen 10 July 2011 by Stina Schwerdtel]

Deggendorf on a Hot Sunday Afternoon We decided that we would just try one more town and if it was not absolutely perfect and literally inviting us to play, we would take the last day of this tour leg off and cool ourselves off in an outdoor pool - we kept driving past them seeing people enjoying themselves. But the holiday feeling was not meant to be for us. It being on route we drove to the town of Deggendorf, and it turned out great with cafes around a market square, not too quiet, with somewhere to park the van nearby and a little tree to give me shelter from the sun. Playing there was brilliant, and all the more memorable for the man who tried to buy my piano off me. I had to decline as I didn't want to lose my touring instrument, but we felt very appreciated, my little Steingraeber piano and I. [Photo: Deggendorf 10 July 2011 by Stina Schwerdtel]

We drove back to Rosenheim that evening. The journey took an interesting twist when we got caught in a total thunderstorm, with rain so heavy that you could only crawl along the motorway, and floods which caused the whole journey to be a lot longer than we had bargained for.

I literally had to drive through a lake that evening, a road so flooded that it had disappeared. But as soon as I saw some other car go in I decided to take the risk and drive through it. Mad experience, but worth it for the surreality. Sadly this was the last day of touring with Stina. She has been along on tour before, namely the famous 'Linz-Salzburg-Steyr leg' of the Tour of Europe 2006, where yodelling and

drinking was so much fun that we wanted to stay in Austria forever. [Photo: Rainbow 10 July 2011 by Stina Schwerdtel]

Touring Slovakia and Austria Bratislava Adventures The next tour leg was tricky as my original tour partner Joffy had to cancel over work commitments. We had planned to travel to Vienna with a stop in the wine making region Wachau, famous in Austria and beyond. To go and taste some wine on the way had been Joffy's idea, but I figured I'd keep that tour leg as planned as a welcome distraction from working hard playing piano all day. As I was stuck for a tour partner I did the logical thing and asked my mother and my daughter along. I could already see three generations of Holzmann rocking through Austria. Fortunately they were delighted to join me and off we went towards Vienna and Bratislava. I was also secretly hoping to play Budapest. The three capital cities of different countries are all within easy reach of each other and I thought I should make the most of this. A detour via Budapest was of course not at all realistic and will count as a highlight on my list of ambitious delusions. We set off through Austria and along the Danube and stopped in the Wachau drinking wine and having a lovely time. Sophie cheered us on with beautiful home made apple juice. We loaded up the van with wine the next morning and drove to Vienna. Unfortunately a big rain cloud covered the capital of Austria. So we decided to go straight to Bratislava and play there. This was a rather complicated issue though, as it took us hours just to sort out our accommodation, and ideas of just setting up and playing were thwarted by the list of permissions I was shown by the girl with the singing saw in the pedestrian zone. The permit document looked very official and playing without it didn't seem like a good idea. To confirm the fact that I was not going to busk in this town I had a very stressful moment with my van, which unfortunately ate up most of our afternoon. The owner of the apartment we were staying in had lured me and my van into a parking garage that was too small for us. The panic of getting the vehicle back out of there without damage cannot be described, you'd have to have been there. I had to tape the antenna down and inch my way out backwards. When we got back out eventually, checking the millimeter space between van roof and garage ceiling constantly, we found that the sign stating '2 meters' was all bashed in by vans scraping along it. Not two meters then I guess. [Photo: Parking Garage 15 July 2011 by GSFP]

That evening we decided to go into town and have ourselves a nice time in this wonderful Slovakian jumble of cobbled streets, little alleys and restaurants with verandas outside. We had some food and listened to a three piece band playing Balkan rhythms and jazz tunes, and I remembered Hungary, holiday country of my childhood, the only other place I had seen musicians come up to tables to entertain guests. I love that, I wish more Scottish players would do this. With fiddles, of course, not bagpipes!

[Photo: Sophie in Bratislava 15 July 2011 by GSFP]

Playing the Prater in Vienna In the morning we drove back to Austria, intending to play the Prater in Vienna. I had to go over the beautiful bridge in Bratislava three times in order to pick up some hitchhikers which I missed the first time over. They went by the names of Jessie and James, in this case a very helpful duo of outlaws who came in very useful as they wanted to go to Vienna, too. This made them perfect piano-loading candidates and luckily they had time to help us unload the piano. When we arrived at the Prater with our piano I was in good spirits as for once I had sorted out the permission situation by phoning Vienna City Hall and printing off the relevant permissions from their website. However, this bit of paper didn't have much meaning, as the very stern looking security people informed me, telling me it was about seven years out of date. What? Vienna policies put in place to confuse buskers? As it turned out the Prater, a famous ancient fair ground right in the city centre, had been in private hands for ages, and no, I couldn't play here. I managed to ask them to call for management, me and my print out and my phone call to authorities that week. But the woman who came along on a little scooter to deal with us had no good news, just a stern face. [Photo: Vienna Permission Problems 16 July 2011 by Sophie O'Riordan-Holzmann] At this point, I am not sure why, one of the security men decided to turn on his boss, and said: 'That bit of grass over there, that is actually officially owned by the city, not by us,

isn't it?' Her face fell, angry that he would give us this bit of information. He then chirpily said: "We'll help you get it across there. And we'll help you load it into the van later, too." It seemed she was powerless to prevent us from playing now, and we set up right next to the Prater entrance and had an afternoon's play which was brilliant. This shows again how quickly permission situations can change, I just sometimes wish I knew in advance that it would work out. It costs a lot of nerves. Sophie was having the best time of all of course, watching mummy play and going to the fair with granny. And true to their word the security guys helped me load the piano into the van later, what brilliant people! That night we drove home, so it turned into a very long day.

We had driven from Bratislava to Vienna, discussed the permission situation at the Prater for ages, played Ragtimes for several hours and then driven from Vienna to Rosenheim which is another five hours. Must plan this a bit less tight next time. [Photo: Vienna Prater 16 July 2011 by Sophie O'Riordan-Holzmann]

Sunshine in Rosenheim Why I would have permission trouble in my home town will always be a mystery to me. I know that once they had said to me: there was a piano and someone tap dancing on top of it last week, and someone complained, so you cant play. But I wasn't gonna tap dance on top of it! And no one complains when I play! That time years ago I gave up and didn't play, with my friend Stina commenting on how boring the town was that day, with no entertainment anywhere : ( This time I was determined though and in the end, after several phone calls and emails, got the permission. The afternoon went brilliantly, it was sweltering hot but very busy, and I played in two places on the Max-Josefs-Platz, which were both great. Another nice thing was that friends came along, my mum even brought her cleaning lady, Frau Aigner. Sophie was performing Scottish Highland dances to the sound of the Entertainer and it was really fun. [Photo: Rosenheim 19 July 2011 photo Eric Swanepoel] Touring Scandinavia, Belgium and Germany The Ulm Experience By this point a friend had arrived from Scotland to join me on the third leg of this Tour of Europe. Eric has been along with the piano before, mostly locally in the Meadows or on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh.

We started our Scandinavian tour leg in Ulm, which isn't exactly on the way, but Claudia, a friend living there, had asked us to come along. She works for the paper there and wanted to write a little article about us, but the papers went on strike that week, and that is exactly my luck. Even more along the lines of fate not being on my side in Ulm, the weather turned as soon as we had set up, and I didn't manage to play very much until the rain

came down properly. What I experienced while I played though was amazing, we had the square at the Ulm Münster to ourselves, and this cathedral happens to have the highest church spire in the whole world! So there are plenty of tourists, all looking exhausted after climbing over 700 steps, and they were loving a bit of entertainment. I do think this is a city to come back to, I just hope my luck will treat me better next time. [Photo: Ulm with Dogs 20 July 2011 by Eric Swanepoel]

A Visit to the Piano Makers in Bayreuth The next town we went to was Bayreuth, famous for putting on the Wagner Opera Festival every year. For this you have to book your tickets at least ten years in advance.

But to see a Ragtime piano play in the town centre you don't need tickets at all, so a lot of the locals turned up as they had read in the paper that I was coming to town that day. I also visited the piano makers Steingraeber und Söhne where my piano was originally manufactured. It was very special to me to be shown the work shops where they make their fancy grand pianos and

on top of this I got sponsored with a tuning. This was great as heavy rainfalls and humidity had made the streetpiano go out of tune recently. [Photo: Bayreuth 22 July 2011 by Eric Swanepoel] Herr Schäffler, the manager who showed me around, also found the pianos birth certificate, which states that it had been sent out to its very first owners in Bavaria on 19th of September 1937. This makes it 73 years old! A little older than I thought, and I admire how it is still coping with all the stresses of being loaded and moved around constantly without showing more signs of distress. Must have been made to last, that's for sure. It was fantastic to experience the friendliness of the piano makers and of the little town of Bayreuth while I played, I would love to come back again. Maybe during the famous Wagner Festival? A bit of Boogie Woogie relief from all the opera arias? [Photo: Steingraeber 22 July 2011 by Eric Swanepoel] Friendly Encounters in Halle We left Bayreuth for Halle, a former East German town where I have some friends. As it turned out Alex was out of town, Olaf on a job and Thomas was tired from his travels. So much for a welcome committee, but not to worry, a neighbour answered the door once we rocked into town, and Thomas miraculously recovered from his travel tiredness and had beers with us all night. He was also responsible for me to play in Halle the next day, which was not part of the plan as we were quite keen to make our way to Scandinavia which seemed very far indeed. But Thomas convinced us that it would rain everywhere except for Halle the next day, so we stayed and played in the town centre. I first set up next to a pretty flower market. Unfortunately for us this market was almost over and got taken down. So I moved to another pedestrian zone called 'The Boulevard' and played there. We had a great afternoon in the sun.

What I loved that afternoon was that several times people walked past who happened to be piano players and gave me a rest by playing tunes on my little piano. When I finished playing I was lucky as Thomas and his friend Heiko were happy to help load the little piano and then invited us for amazing soup and wine. We were now well prepared for the long journey from Germany to Denmark. So we set off north. It was at this point that we became very aware of a mistake I had made. I had printed off a whole lot of driving instructions and proudly presented them to Eric. As this was on the morning of departure there was no time to worry about the fact that they were all in German. Eric does not speak German, but tried his very best to pronounce sentences like "bei der nächsten Ausfahrt in Richtung Rostock einfädeln." [Photo: Friends in Halle an der Saale 23 July 2011 by Eric Swanepoel] Rain in Copenhagen Minibuses and ferries are expensive in combination. We decided to take the bridges. Those linking parts within Denmark and Denmark with Sweden are super long and an amazing architectural feat. As it turned out this decision was a stroke of luck. When we came to the first bridge, the Storebælt, it was misty. This bridge goes across the sea for over 11 miles and it was purely magical, like a never-ending bridge extending itself over a rough sea. It literally disappeared into the mist and felt very surreal to drive over. We arrived in Copenhagen at a flat that Eric's friends Oliver and Bettina had kindly invited us to stay in, a beautiful place with huge windows looking out to ivy overgrown tenements. [Photo: Playing Copenhagen 25 July 2011 by Eric Swanepoel]

In town the next day we decided to ignore the faint drizzle and set up at the big Kongens Nytorv square to play. It was really lovely as lots of people walked past, and it took the rain a whole hour to arrive by which time I had made enough Danish Crones to buy some food and wine. That evening we went to the famous Tivoli amusement park and bought Sophie a big Danish Lollipop. [Photo: Rain in Copenhagen 25 July 2011 by Eric Swanepoel]

A Sunny Day in Malmo This day started with another amazing bridge as Denmark and Sweden are linked by the Øresund, the longest bridge in Europe, which starts as a tunnel and then emerges into the sea. This was confusing but very impressive, like entering a different world We totally loved Malmo, it was the best town to busk with my piano. No permission was needed, I was allowed to set up anywhere I wanted, a busker's dream. We also got to keep our vehicle nearby, another issue which often gives us trouble. The main square Stor Torget and famous pedestrian walk way Södergatan were both great to play, and it was not too difficult to wheel the piano from one to the other. Little children were dancing and the sun was shining. The bad weather was now a distant memory, and we wondered whether we should stay for a few days in Malmo as it was so great. But we had more cities to explore and were planning to play Gothenburg the next day. But before we left town we found a hostel for the night and had a night out. Malmo has a great night life, although Eric was not entirely relaxed this evening for a very good reason: someone had stolen his set of van keys after he had parked the van. The most shocking thing about this was that van keys are so expensive to replace, it costs a small fortune. We shall look after them well from now on! [Photo: Malmo 26 July 2011 by Eric Swanepoel] Cobbles in Gothenburg The city of Gothenburg was a completely different kettle of fish to Malmo. We set up on a little bridge which seemed ideal but realised quickly that it was actually very noisy and difficult to play. I could actually feel the vibrations from the trams and busses going by.

So we made the decision to move the piano to another place. We regretted this decision instantly when the piano got stuck on tram tracks in the middle of a busy road. As if that wasn't bad enough the piano then fell off the trolley. Here we were with a stuck trolley and a piano we couldn't get back onto it. Trams and busses were coming at us from all directions. We probably looked desperate as at this point a passer-by ran over to help and with great difficulty we managed to get the piano off the road. It kept falling off the trolley and was very difficult to get back onto it. Definitely the most dangerous and nerve-wrecking experience on this tour. [Photo: Gothenburg Big Wheel 27 July 2011 by Eric Swanepoel]

But it didn't end there. We still had to get to another town square and the cobbles on the pavements were a total nightmare. It took us over half an hour to move this piano a few hundred meters. We were both sweating and working hard, and in the middle of all this we stopped and thought: Why are we doing this? Piano busking madness of the worst kind. When we eventually arrived in another square we were not rewarded for our hard work. Although surrounded by cafes and busy with lots of people, the place turned out to be very noisy as well and not much better than our first choice.

But there were still some lovely moments, a couple started dancing and the weather was great, so I played on. Loading up was not so bad, maybe someone felt they had to make up to us. A nice Danish man came over and offered to help. No more dragging the piano along cobbles, this time we got the van right onto the town square. Gothenburg has an amazing Big Wheel which lifts you right over and above the town. A ride on it was my reward for such a tricky day, and going around seeing the

city from above was wonderful. [Photo: Dancers in Gothenburg 27 July 2011 by Eric Swanepoel] Heaven on Earth in Dals-Ed Our next stop was also our most amazing point on this journey. We arrived in Dals-Ed, a very remote little cluster of houses way out in the Swedish forest. My friend had told me about her cousin, a stone mason who runs a farm with sheep and chickens. Although the remoteness of it didn't sound like crowds waiting to be entertained by a piano busker, I still had to check this place out. Roni and Michael, our hosts, live indeed very remote. First we drove several hours to a tiny little town between two lakes. Then we drove for a long, long time through a forest and took a dirt track where we found a few houses. From there we took another dirt track to a lonely house beside a beautiful lake right in the woods, and we had arrived. And the rumours were true, it is heaven on earth, the most beautiful place ever. [Photo: Heaven on Earth in Sweden by GSFP] I wondered how I could play my piano in those remote areas but Michael had an idea and phoned his friend Ingvar who gave me a gig at a concert he had organised for the next day. Trinkselkvaell is an outdoor concert where everyone brings their own chairs and places them anywhere around the stage, what a brilliant idea!

My performance was before the main band came on, and it was great, out amongst trees and wooden huts, a most unusual place for my piano. [Photo: Trinkselkvaell 28 July 2011 by Eric Swanepoel] That evening we had some beers, well, I had those huge measures of wine which Roni considers normal. In my case they got me quite drunk and I found myself trying to join in

with Roni and Michael's favourite pastime: Bow and arrows. Most of my arrows got lost in the bushes which taught me that most of my time practising this sport would be spent on all fours searching for the damn things. Better just stick to drinking without the dangerous additional sports. Before driving off the next morning we picked all of our hosts' red currants and goose berries and made off with our treasure. This is not true, of course, there were so many berry bushes in that lush garden that we didn’t even make a dent. The berries amazingly survived five more days of travel and were made into jam upon arrival which I ate for breakfast for months. So here I was in cold and rainy Scotland enjoying sweet red currant jam and thinking of sunny Sweden. Cologne Cathedral Busking From Dals-Ed the plan had been to drive to Oslo. We had to give up on this idea when Oslo was struck by tragedy. We would have to come back another time to play Ragtime in this town. On our journey towards Cologne and Brussels we stopped again in Copenhagen. Unfortunately that night I fell really ill. My stomach felt like it had a knot in it. Luckily in the morning I got better and we decided to go for the long drive to Cologne. Our host Petra there was a friend I met on skiing holidays when I was about 14. Both of us haven’t really changed much since, and we tend to meet every five years or so when I am on piano tour. As I had a bad permission experience from my last tour we hadn’t planned to busk here. Many years ago I had phoned Cologne City Hall and asked if I could bring my piano to play and the answer was no. First of all, they suggested, you couldn't get a piano up onto the cathedral platform. Secondly, they wouldn't allow such a big instrument. When I asked why they said: We can't allow this or everyone will start bringing pianos and wanting to play them at the cathedral!... Everyone? [Photo: Cologne 31 July 2011 by Eric Swanepoel]

The city of Cologne being ambushed by masses of people bringing pianos in vans and setting them up all over the city centre was an amazing idea, but I couldn't really follow his perspective on this and was well pissed off. I decided to leave Cologne alone from then on.

But this time we did have a day to spare before hitting Brussels, and it happened to be a Sunday when no-one might check on permissions. So we were easily persuaded by Petra to play this time, just so she could experience my musical outdoor activities first hand. So we headed into the city. Cologne is huge and very complicated to drive around in. Thanks to Petra we

managed to find our way to the cathedral that Cologne is famous for because of its pure size and magnificence, and set up right next to it. This was one of the most wonderful places to play on this tour, crowds gathered and listened intently, the weather was good, and it was an amazing experience. The other memorable incidence in Cologne was Eric and me loading up the piano on our own. For some reason literally no-one was around to help us, and we were very proud that the two of us could manage. No need for the gym for us, we build our muscles on tour! [Photo: Cologne Crowd Clapping 31 July 2011 by Eric Swanepoel] Meeting the Mayor in Brussels Before driving back up to Scotland we had planned one last busking stop in Brussels. We arrived amongst massive traffic and tried to find the main square to play there. The Grand-Place is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, with magnificent buildings all around and full of tourists snapping the sights. We realised that it was impossible to get in there with the van, but did it anyway. Eric The Brave, as shall be his title in this case, drove onto the square. He informed me later that he had to move traffic cones and slowly plough his way through countless tourists.

I was suspicious as to whether we would get away with this but thought the quicker we unload the better! As it turned out we weren't quick enough. A man came up to inform us that we couldn’t play here. Next to him appeared a police man and I started feeling uncomfortable. The man told us again that we had to leave, so I got curious and asked him what his function was. He said he was the major of Brussels and the policeman nodded. This was not what I expected. [Photo: Brussels Grand Place 31 July 2011 by Vroni Holzmann]

I guess I would think he'd be too busy meeting states men to deal with little buskers who drove into the wrong square. Although Eric was going to persuade Mr Thielemans that we had indeed inquired and been granted permission to play here, I preferred to oblige and we got out of there after apologising profusely. We now tried to find the pedestrian zone. Every time we thought we were in a good place to unload the police would turn up and shake their heads. So we ended up parking outside the zone and wheeling the piano in.

We then had to compete with another busker who was set up in the best spot, so we waited for her to finish. Once we set up the playing was great, it was hot and people were out and about shopping. They happily listened to the music and appreciated the busking event so much that I was very glad we had overcome the obstacles and found a way to perform. [Photo: Brussels 1 August 2011 by Eric Swanepoel] After a few hours I was exhausted from playing in the hot sun and decided to take the arrival of a jewellery stall as a cue to pack up. The jewellery sales man had other ideas though and insisted I had to play on. Once we were finished our new friend Jean-Marie proceeded to help us load the piano up and bought us cakes. Very friendly street sales people in Brussels, it

must be said, and a fitting end to our tour of Scandinavia. All that was left to do now was driving home. In Calais that evening we went round in circles as we couldn't find our hostel. I always thought Calais was just a ferry port, but no, it's a whole little town and very complicated to navigate in. Luckily Eric managed to calm the tired and stressed bundle I had become and read the road side maps over and over again until we got there. We then had a deserved seafood dinner with lovely French wine. The next day we took the ferry to Dover and then made our way around busy London and through the beautiful Lake District back up to Scotland. Touring the Kingdom of Fife and Stirlingshire First Stop St Andrews This Scottish tour leg was possibly the smallest tour I have ever done with my piano. It began in one town and ended in the next. This was not intended of course, but fate decided to ruin our attempts at a proper tour of the Highlands with a broken down van and bad weather. Of course bad weather is expected in Scotland, but I will never stop trying to sneak my piano round this country whilst wind and rain are looking the other way. Once the van was fixed and together with my tour partners Gerry and Sophie we set off across the Forth Road Bridge north of Edinburgh to St Andrews. This little town exists of a few lovely houses, an ancient and impressive cathedral ruin and a famous old golf course. As it is too small for its own pedestrian zone I set the piano up on a pavement and played to a bewildered crowd who didn’t expect this.

They loved it though, and it all went very well until the sewage truck arrived to clear a drain across the road amongst much noise and a not so tasty smell. They had to do this on the one day that my piano came to town! I decided to take a break. When I played again a lady came up to me to tell me that I was playing right under her 93-year old mother’s bedroom window. My heart sank. I thought, where else in this small town will I play? But she continued to say “...and she’s loving it. She said she’s been listening to lovely honky-tonk music all afternoon and asked me to go and give you some money.” Reputation and budget restored I was very happy to play until the evening sun shone on my piano. [Photo: Smelly Truck 13 August 2011 by GSFP] An Afternoon in Stirling We went on to the little historical town of Stirling. Unfortunately we couldn’t set up near the beautiful castle as we had hoped. The pavements were simply too narrow, so we played the main shopping area in the pedestrian zone instead.

Listeners sat with snacks and ice cream, friends popped by and I had many beautiful encounters. One comment quite typical for Scotland was: Great playing! And for once it's not a bagpipe!' [Photo: Stirling 14 August 2011 by Gerry Forsyth]

Touring Ireland When I decided to tour Ireland I hadn't really thought about the logistics of driving, taking ferries and playing Ireland's three main cities all in five days. Also this green country likes to be rained on which my piano does not appreciate at all. Together with my tour partner Anja we set off on one morning, leaving most of our children behind. We took the ferry from Stranraer to Belfast. Arriving at the ferry terminal we were asked to open the back of the van for the police to 'have a look'. Instead they started rummaging around and had a good laugh about the contents of my van, pulling out my postcards and giving me advice on where to play. I am not sure this is normal procedure, maybe some kind of cultural introduction to Ireland?

Busking and Clamping in Dublin We decided to begin our tour in Dublin. We had good hopes that busking here would be a positive experience as I had read on a travel blog that Dublin was meant to have a strong busking culture, with street music being completely legal and encouraged. Such positive things have rarely been said about busking and I wanted to find out if it was true. The first thing that happened though was not a busking but a clamping experience. Our van was clamped within minutes of arrival in Dublin and 80 Euro were demanded to release it. As everybody likes to chat in Ireland, the guy who clamped our van proceeded to advise us how to get our money back once they had released the vehicle. He also told us to leave it for the night and deal with it after breakfast in the morning. They always think practical here. The next morning we went into town to check out where to play. We found many amplified buskers who seem to view this as a job and I set up somewhere between them. The punters were very happy to listen to Ragtime and people were dancing and singing along. While I took a break some people asked me what this little piano could play? They honestly thought it would play itself! [Photo: Dublin 2 September 2011 by Anja Beisel] Leaving Dublin was absolutely crazy. We were trying to drive out of town but instead ended up at the same Square over and over again. It was quite an experience to find out that a whole town wouldn't bother to put up street signs. Maybe they wanted us to stay? Cork Adventures That evening we arrived totally exhausted in Cork. Four hours of piano playing and as many hours of driving had turned into a long day. We were also a bit dispirited as the forecast for the next day was rain. But as it turned out it didn't, yet again a wrong weather forecast had saved the day. Where to set up was a difficult decision. There were many good places and many buskers competing for them. In the end we found a good place near a pub. At first the people passing by seemed a little indifferent, like they had seen it all before. Their main interest on this Saturday afternoon seemed to be to get their shopping done. As busking is a normal event in Ireland and not regulated it gets less reaction off people and it took them a while to realise that this was a more unusual instrument and occasion. But soon the atmosphere changed and people seemed to really enjoy the concert. I was even approached be a radio presenter asking to broadcast us and the pub landlord trying to hire me for the Cork Jazz Festival.

We also met a fireman who had just saved a baby. His name is Konstantin and he is a professional living statue. His friend posed next to him as a motionless rock star, what a surreal concept. They were very friendly and I hope they'll come to the Edinburgh festival one day. After playing we got loading help from the pub nearby and drove on to Drogheda, a very

small town with a very busy night life which we explored into the early hours. [Photo: Cork 3 September 2011 by Anja Beisel] Beautiful Rainy Belfast When we arrived in Belfast it was already drizzling. But this was the last opportunity to play on this tour, and in fact the last day of the whole tour of Europe. So I decided to busk against the odds and set up while the drizzle held off for a while. The place we had chosen was Arthur Square, which was a lovely busking spot, right next to an impressive sculpture and with plenty of people walking past. After about an hour the drizzle got too heavy to ignore which I took as a sure sign that we were meant to finish up and go to the pub. My tour partner on the other hand had no intention to let me off the hook this easily and found an under-cover location where I could play for another while. I usually don't play in the rain as it is bad for my piano and cold for my fingers, but this being our last day I decided to go for it. [Photo: Belfast 4 September 2011 by Anja Beisel] We played under shelter for an hour, with a full hat and cold fingers. Loading up this afternoon spelt the end of our piano tour in the music loving country of Ireland. We drove home the next day and began researching the Scottish autumn weather, on the look-out for more opportunities to play piano in the streets.

Home and straight to the Meadows For another few days I played my usual busking spot in the Meadows in Edinburgh. Once in a while my fingers went cold and white as summer in Scotland does not always guarantee summer temperatures, but my one-man-band will always play on.

Some days were lovely and I had several interesting experiences busking my beloved Meadows. Toddlers and mums with babies were dancing and lots of people chatting to me. They had very interesting inquiries, like 'Is this the new style of electric piano?' I had to tell them that it's just the old style of acoustic piano. It was a lovely vibe in the park with everyone in a good mood and the Meadows crawling with people barbecuing and having beers.

[Photo: Edinburgh Meadows 15 September 2011 by Shiori Usui] After all this busking we went into winter hiding, my van, piano, hat and all. We will come out again next year to stroll through Europe and take on even bigger challenges on our street piano tours. [Photo: Cold Fingers after Playing by GSFP] Goodbye say piano, van and hat...

www.streetpiano.com

T U|z g{tÇ~ lÉâ

To Ilse for van sponsorship and for looking after Sophie while I was away on tour, my lovely Sophie for being easy-going when I was touring, Joffy for bringing the van to Scotland so the piano could start its journey and Joey for piano fixing and tuning. To Stina as tour partner, photographer and for hotel sponsorship, Sonja for accommodation in Regensburg and llse and Sophie as great tour partners in Vienna and positive spirits when things were tricky in Bratislava. To Eric as tour partner, photographer and for bridge sponsorship, Christian in Rosenheim for helping us load, Claudia for accommodation in Ulm , The Steingraeber Piano Manufacturers, and especially Herr Schäffler, for tuning and showing me where my piano was made. To Alex for accommodation in Halle, Thomas for convincing us to stay and play and helping us load together with Heiko, Oliver and Bettina for accommodation in their lovely flat in Copenhagen, Roni and Michael for accommodation in the most beautiful place on earth, gig organising and piano loading and Ingvar for letting me play at Trinkselkväll. To Petra for accommodation again and navigating Cologne with us, Jean-Marie in Brussels for helping us load, Gerry and Sophie as tour partners and photographers and Paul and Sam for accommodation, dinner and wine. To Anja as tour partner, for hotel sponsorship and as photographer. And a big thanks to all the strangers who helped loading and unloading the little yet very heavy piano, and all who supported these busking travels by putting money in the hat.

Streetpiano Tour of Europe 2011

Published 3/3/2012 by Glen Street Factory Productions

© Vroni Holzmann 2012

Title Photo and all labelled GSFP by Glen Street Factory Productions

© GSFP 2012