Day 38, Mainz

Greetings from Mainz, another stately old German city, perched on the Rhine and about 30mins drive west(ish) of Frankfurt. Like Marburg and Dresden before it, home to some beautiful old buildings, based on what I can see from my kitchen window and a quick perusal of google images to find the photo above. And there you have the more rudimentary side of touring folks, the part where the late nights catch up with you, you need to sleep in, you need to re-park the car, you have a late breakfast, and then you try to tie up some loose ends on the interwebs in the hope of being able to see at least a little bit of the city you're in before you take off for the next destination. And I may or may not be able to explore Mainz before I leave, but at the very least I'll be making a trip to the (highly recommended) local gelato shop for a bit of soul food, and I'll take with me the memory of that little burst of excitement I felt driving in over the Rhine for the first time. There's no doubt touring can be hard work at times, but the explorer in me will never die...

Had a great time last night at Nirgendwo ('Nowhere' in English) - a touch of the British pub about it which was in stark contrast to Wednesday's living room concert, but enjoyable all the same, in a different kind of way. As much as I like playing unplugged and acoustic in small intimate spaces, my experience in pubs over the years also helps me appreciate those types of environments as well, there's a familiarity to them. Local drinkers swap stories at the bar, the set list changes slightly to adjust to the PA system, there's a different energy in the performance, and I can get a bit of a groove happening on the stomp box. It's taken me a year or so to figure out how best to use it, but slowly I've learned what works for my music and what doesn't. In a simpler sense, I guess it just helps me rock out a bit. Which is always good fun, wherever you are....

A final thanks to Willy at Nirgenwo and our hosts last night Robert and Meike - see you in Australia some time...?! I'm off to find Gelato, next stop Heidelberg... x