Beautiful Basel

Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome...

 

 

So to Basel on the magnificent Rhine, where we sang for a group of doctors!

The President this year, remembered us from a Cambridge dinner we sang at a few years ago and looked us up... how marvellous people can be!

 

One of the guest speakers was the amazing eminent heart surgeon, Sir Magdi Yacoub... he arrived late because of transport problems and walked in on our singing Caravan including our sand dance... he must have been a little confused... but he and all the other medical people had a splendid time!

Weep O Mine Eyes & Strangers in the Night were equally well appreciated...

A serious and fun evening!



 

Thank you to Herr Uwe Fritz for looking after us so well.

 

Three more photos

 

Despite being a highly cultured place, even here in erudite Switzerland; this is what happens to bookshops... someone called Butler has filled this one full of tat...

 

 

We were performing in the docks area... in a fascinating part of Basel which just across the river from France and a few hundred metres from Germany... (there is a spot - we sadly did not have time to see it - where you can stand on all three countries at the same time!)

...but there was some charming graffiti:

...and on a quick walk into Basel itself, there was a reminder of home for Sarah-Ann... all those lovely flying roads:- just like Birmingham...

 

California

To Ventura, CA on the west coast of the good ol' U.S. of A....

Steve and his wife, Martene (& Chloé) are very much expecting a new member of the family - right now-ish & so we were accompanied on our American travels, once more, by the splendid high tenor, Chris O'Gorman.....

Excellent to have him with us again.

We went to the Ventura Music Festival:

...and it was indeed sunny and lovely (perhaps a bit windy... but no complaints!); the weather had been bad before we arrived... we brought the sun.

...but there was a fine sunset over the beach car park!

All people who looked after us were splendid, Nuvi Mehta, the Festival Director was coolness itself, & Rose drove us about & did everything we needed... with help from Tom too!

The internet (& Rose) led us to two very fine restaurants in the city, the Aloha Steakhouse & The Lure Fish restaurant (thank you, Sarah for finding this great place!)

The concert was a delight, in a local church - thanks to Mark & Geoff for doing the sound.

Good to see California again... & sing to a laid-back CA audience... their contributions to Chanson d'amour and The Lion Sleeps Tonight certainly had laid-back connotation!

Sarah, Rose & Chris outside the church... great blue sky!

The great crowd were just as happy listening to our music from the golden era of English Church Music, as the Beach Boys and Randy Newman... and they laughed in all the right places!

We had a day to await our flight back home, and so we did some filming... more of this very soon, we hope...

Here is a break between takes!

...as you can perhaps see, it had turned a wee bit cooler... Chris and I gamely soldiered on in shorts!

We flew back via New York & so were able to take in the view...

Now we're home in the UK - awaiting more joys to come...

Busy and interesting for the back muscles, but a short trip to California can be wonderful!