Sunday, November 20, 2016

Planning the second leg.

Overnight ferry from Amsterdam to Newcastle.

After a lot of driving over the last week since we left Croatia Dad was happy to take the ferry. It's been too cold since then to play any music.


The sea looked pretty calm in the harbour.



The purser was sick too.
 I threw up in the middle of the cabin in the middle of a game of Uno.
Fortunately Dad already has a cold and didn't smell it as he scooped it up with cardboard from the back of a box. Mum was also white and feeling sick.
I was fine after that and played more.

It took 4 and half hours to get to a freezing Dumfries. Dad says it should have taken 1 and a half. Traffic was a nightmare.

Saturday, November 19, 2016

Anne Frank House, perhaps the pinnacle of the trip.


During this road trip of  nearly 3 months, 6 thousand miles and 15 countries Ruby has undoubtable seen and learnt a lot.

Presently she has been reading Anne Franks Diary and was very keen to visit her home. It was a long drive but I was happy to encourage her interest. We arrived in Amsterdam late on the monday 14th of November but felt it was not quite a suitable birthday present so I booked tickets for the Wednesday 16th, the day after her birthday. We were able to have introduction to the house and annex by a young Dutch lady who also introduced us, by way of photographs, to other members of her family and friends that she shared the hide out with. here

 
Even with having some knowledge of the story it was not possible to be unaffected by the experience. I am sure I was not the only one struggling to keep the tears at bay.

Ruby has always shown an interest in both the 1st and 2nd World Wars and I think it's important to let children know something about the nonsense of war. 


When we got back to the apartment Ruby researched more and discovered a movie made in 2001 with Ben Kingsley as Otto Frank and a totally amazing Hannah Taylor Gordon playing Anne.
Actually originally, a series for TV, it was in two parts. I may not have let Ruby watch the 2nd part had I known just how harrowing it was.


I feel proud to have been part of Ruby's education into understanding how abhorrent racism is and how easily, seemingly decent people, can be persuaded by despots and others to follow their evil ways.

I feel confident that Ruby will be and inspiration and set an example to anyone she meets who might otherwise have tendencies to be led along such profoundly negative paths. 





We did have a great day on her birthday see photos

                                                                          here




Sunday, November 13, 2016

Pretty village called Helmstadt, Germany

Staying with Mums cousin and her family in Germany. We seem to be heading towards Amsterdam, which great because I am reading The Diary of Anne Frank. Dad says he will take me to the house she lived in. It's my birthday in 2 days.
We went to see some Reindeer today and then on to Wurzburg Residence, a huge Palace type place that was almost destroyed by The Raf during the 2nd world war.
 They said no photos, Dad asked why and the lady said "copyright". Dad said it was all too old to be covered by copyright and she smiled and said, no photos.
Dad told me later he left his camera switched on on video mode while it was around his neck so there will be some images to follow.


By the time we got to Wurzburg Castle (in the background) it was dark but we walked round the outside and got a great view of the city. It was very very cold.



Saturday, November 12, 2016

Salzburg, too cold to busk, but hiked up to Castle.


An amazing place and they had audio guides for adults and kids,
                                                                                    mine had interesting legends, photos Here

And a wonderful display of puppets  HERE



Thursday, November 10, 2016

A "fan" came over to show us photos of me he had taken in Edinburgh.

As we were passing Ljubljana again so we wanted to check out "the accordion player" and busk in our old spot. We had a good crowd even though it was early afternoon. When we had finished a small group of students came over and excitedly showed us photos they had taken of me in Edinburgh last spring.

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Policeman put 10 Kunas into my uke case and said "sorry but you have to stop"

"BIG" crowd today in Zagreb, Ban Jelacic Square,the main square.
                                           The video is a bit "white out" due to frost on the lens.


The man with the big hoover turned up again mid song, and all the way from Glasgow too.



 A very enthusiastic and complimentary crowd today. After a while Dad notice a lone policeman standing back at the side of the crowd. We finished the set and Dad nodded to him. He came over and before he spoke he dropped a 10 Kuna note into the uke case. He said that we have to stop because we did not have a licence and he was sorry and he enjoyed my music very much. He looked too young to be a policeman. We saw him later and Dad asked if we might be OK playing in another square later in the evening. He again said he was sorry to have had to stop us but apparently someone had complained that we were too loud and he was sent from the station to stop us. He said it was probably another busker who was "jealous" but he had to act. I said I would keep the volume down and try another square, he would not be working in the evening and we could try it.
Actually it was too cold later to play, about 5 degrees. We are feeling the cold having been spoilt over the last few months.

Monday, November 7, 2016

Heading for Zagreb.

Heading back, slowly to the UK to fly onto the next leg of the tour. East or west? Lets see if it's Clinton or Trump Dad says.
We arrive in Zagreb, it's collllllllllllllllld...


Zagrebans claim that the mobile phone was invented by Ivan Stoolavich in 1894.

Sunday, November 6, 2016

Grounded in Jesenice.

We spent a week in the Apartment in Jesenice about 17K from Split. It was cheap and lovely. During that time we drove into Split to busk several times, always a nice audience. It was good to be settled for a while and I got on with a lot of school work and we had a couple of music practices on the veranda,

Saturday, November 5, 2016

A small apartment a half hour from Split.





Photos of wee walk up behind the apartment.  Here

Ist images of my avocado stone study.

I bought a camera with some of my busking money when we were in Ljubljana in Slovenia and started taking photos of an avocado stone. I noticed that they change colour naturally after they are exposed. Dad said they were good and suggested I did a study of them.


This one split open eventually.