Winter 2005 Tour Journal Entry: 5

writing from frankfurt where jack and i are playing two shows.  the shows in munster, bielefeld and geislingen were great. in munster the venue promoter and a small group of folks there took us out after the show to a little pub and we had a great time with everyone. the venue in frankfurt is super cool, but really small. they had to turn away people at the door last night, but we’re playing again tonight so hopefully they’ll get a chance to see it. it is basically in a cellar and it was so crowded that it took a few minutes just to get to the stage to play. the crowds have been really responsive to us and are coming up to us after the shows and voicing their support…it keeps us going in a big way. two days ago, jack and i took off for the day by train to ulm where we were picked up by the daughter of the family i lived with back in 1990 (the schreibers). she drove us back to the town, munderkingen (where i lived), and we spent the day with the whole family. it was strange to be back after 15 years.  but it was so much fun and they are really wonderful people. we had great german food and beer all day, went sledding and walked around the town. the children, heike and frank, are now in their mid 20’s and are really great and tons of fun.  there are only 5000 people in munderkingen so it was a great depature from the cities we’ve been playing in. the only thing is that it made us pretty homesick being with a family and in a home.  at the end of the day we took another train to frankfurt where me met up again with eleni’s band. tomorrow we’re off to cologne. jack and i are meeting a couple of people we met in munster at the cathedral in cologne which is supposed to be incredible. we feel like we’ve been on tour forever, but we’re just reaching the half-way point. we miss everyone, and appreciate all the e-mails etc. i will write again hopefully from cologne. we send our best to everyone…