Monday 23rd January

From one touristic spot to another, Villingen is a beautiful walled city in the Black Forest and famous for its carnival which dates back to at least 1467 and consists of an ornate procession with specific characters depicted by wooden masks. The whole event starts with some kind of “hangover” cat and at that point I get a wee bit lost but the costumes are fantastic so it is unfortunate that we are elsewhere for this event.

Before tonight’s concert we dine in a fine Italian restaurant complete with a Lorenzo Amoruso impersonator waiting tables. This waiter is more of a conceptual representation of Lorenzo rather than a copy in the visual sense though one thing seems clear: He has Houghmagandie on the brain.

He is thinner than Lorenzo and his hair it is longer than Lorenzo’s but, just like Lorenzo's, it never dries. Also he has on top of his head a pair of sunglasses, even though the sun has set some two hours before the restaurant opened and it is minus 14 degrees Celsius and there lies outside two feet of snow.

Today it is off to Germering near Munich and Cobbler’s Irish pub. We have played here before and these are top class guys who put on lots of music all year round. Martin looks after us well and the food and drink are excellent. Wild pig and some local Helles beer.

Pils is a northern German phenomenon whereas here in the south they specialise in Hell, a stronger blonde beer, as well as various wheat beers. This particular brewery dates from the 6th century and Martin informs us that brewing skills were introduced to this region by Scottish and Irish monks. I find this hard to believe but more ridiculous stories have been taken as truth by millions so let’s just accept that this one passes muster: The Scots and Irish invented Bavarian beer.

Wednesday 25th January

Today we are off, so after a Croatian meal and a few games of kegelbahn(Skittles) its off to bed.

Thursday 26th January

Tonight we are playing a great gig at Neue Schmiede in Bielefeld. The concert is full and very enjoyable. This fine venue is a cafe/bar restaurant with a theatre attached and is an institution which aims to bring together so-called handicapped and so-called non-handicapped people together (all of this p.c. labelling poppycock gets a bit confusing but you know what I mean.) This café exhibits a typically continental, forward looking attitude to social inclusion.

We are here to play at a festival with a band called Cara. They are an excellent band and we have met Jurgen and Gudrun before. As with other parts of the world, Irish and Scottish music has been popular here for long enough that people have learned to play from a young age and have gone to study traditional music in Ireland at summer schools just as people do here. The result is that the standard of player is much higher than before and all of these people are excellent.

Claus the Flute player was at University in Dublin and Rolf the Bodhranist goes to Galway every year so not only do they play great, but they speak English in the style of these regions. They are the Jan Molby’s of traditional music. After the concert we were keen to get a tune but the only bar open was a schlager discothèque. When in Rome.