After driving to Salzburg this morning from Munich, we embarked on a walking tour . . . in the rain. Oh, we’ve had drizzles on this trip but today, I had the challenge of trying to take photos in the rain while holding my broken umbrella. I finally gave up and bought a new umbrella… Read More Mozart’s Salzburg
When organbuilder Hans-Ulrich Erbslöh was in Honolulu in May, we floated the possibility of seeing one another again while on this GoAhead Tour of Switzerland, Germany, and Austria. So today, Bill Potter and I “played hooky” from a walking tour of Munich and took the train to the Hohenschäftlarn station where Hans picked us up.… Read More An unexpected treat!
The weather changed drastically today—rainy, cold, and “wishing I had brought warmer clothes” type of weather. It was a travel day and it seemed we spent many hours on the bus going from Lucerne to Munich. Without stopping, it should have taken us about 4-1/2 hours. The rain, however, made it possible for us to… Read More Neuschwanstein Castle
Today the weather cooled down considerably, which was a great relief from the heat and humidity we have endured over the last week. The morning was quite pleasantly cool, but the rest of the day was rainy and cold, and for once I’m glad I brought my microfleece jacket. Today on our GoAhead tour, we… Read More Bus. Ferry. Rail. Cable Car. Gondola.
It was another unintentional, early morning wake-up for me— I believe it’s the fourth day in a row that I’ve been wide awake at 12:35 am. This time I pulled out my computer and wrote the blog post about our last day in Zurich. We called an Uber about 8 am and were on our… Read More Sunday in Lucerne
For our last day in Zürich, we decided to follow Vreni Griffith on her weekly walks around Lake Zürich to look at the colorful flower beds. Along the way we saw swans and ducks, an outdoor concert by a children’s Suzuki violin class, and an exercise class where the teacher and participants wore special attachments… Read More Last day in Zurich
The day began early at 3 am when I was awakened by rain and thunder but resulted in welcome, cooler temperatures in contrast to the hot and sticky days we’ve experienced since we’ve been here. Still, even though I woke up at 12:35 am and during the rainstorm, I was able to go back to… Read More Excursion to Rapperswil-Jona
Ever since I visited the Gerhard Grenzing organ factory in Papiol, just outside of Barcelona, I have been on a quest to play and hear Grenzing organs, which I consider outstanding instruments. I was able to play the organ destined for Prague Cathedral, as well as many other smaller instruments in the factory. And remember… Read More Great Grenzing organs!
It was still dark when Bill Potter picked me up early Monday morning at 5:30 am to head to the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu where we flew to San Francisco, then transferred our luggage to Aer Lingus, where we enjoyed the business class lounge before boarding a luxurious business class flight to… Read More 27+ hours to Zürich!
This Sunday at St. Mark’s I’ll be playing two movements from Bach’s partita on “Sei gegrüsset, Jesu gütig,” one of my very favorite pieces of all-time. Even though it has been at least 12 or 13 years since I last played this piece, this week during my practice I was pleasantly surprised to find that… Read More Sei gegrüsset, Jesu gütig, BWV 768