Within
these next few pages Gene and I will bring you some photos from our European
adventure which, we hope, will give those who've never crossed the pond
a little idea of what we saw, and for those who have - - our spin on something
familiar. Our trip was indescribable; trying to pare it down to a manageable
few photos, and - - well, you know my difficulty in trimming excess
wordage - - and trying to still be informative, was an overwhelming
job. We shot over 700 photographs with Gene taking most of the shots. Many
did not work. From the ones which did, we had to chose carefully. Scanning
and compressing photos (so download time is decreased) without losing the
details, takes about an hour per photograph from the beginning of the process
until they are uploaded to this site. I don't even know how many pics are
here - but if you count them, it will give you an idea why this part of
the website took so long to present in its entirety. P.O. Box 935
Dripping Springs, TX 78620
USA
So get comfortable, bring a snack, and thanks
for letting us share with you a truly remarkable part of the world!!
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Europe Part 1
~ photos of our journey ~
We began in Austin, flying to Frankfurt, Germany... it was my first flight in ten years; I took this shot from my window seat...
When we arrived in Germany, we were delighted to stay at the Kempenksi Gravenbruch Hotel on the outskirts of Frankfurt:
We rehearsed in Frankfurt for shows in Offenbach and Dresden. Our
photos of those places did not turn out so well.
But our friends Tom And Vicki Belinoski (from Austin) - shown below
- took several - -
If it wasn't for Vicki, we would have no photos of our first concert on the tour.
Here we are doing the encore - Don't Think Twice - with Richard, Gene, and Carol. The Germans loved the twang in my voice, they said. It was "real country!"
After the show, Vicki and Tom came backstage where they met Joan, then the rest of us gathered for a little mugging for the camera !
Pictured: Me, Mark Peterson, Richard Shindell, Tom, Vicki, Gene,
and Carol Steele
Gene's and my pics of our next stop did turn out - our first favorite city of the tour - Prague, Czechoslavakia (Czech Republic). Our bus was too big for the small street, so Chris - our driver - dropped us off out front at dawn:
The waitpersons who served us our amazing breakfasts, with "shtempel..."
Since we were there two days, some of us ventured out by ourselves at first. Gene and I went to the oldest bridge in the city - a landmark, covered in statues and crawling with tourists, and artists selling paintings and jewelry:
En route to the old bridge (on foot) through the streets of Prague...
Just one of the many statues on the bridge...
As we crossed the bridge, the first snow of Winter began to fall
and everone cheered!
On the bridge, we heard music coming from an accordion - there are many street musicians in Europe who play for tips:
