Hello...

hey guys, I am sorry.
All the time is so full of experiences and my mind is full of thoughts... Obviously I don't even notice I write in the wrong language.
So, finally, another post in English.
There were so many days since the last English post, but I try to resume what happened.

After the wonderful concert in Speyer, I started the next morning to go to Mainz. It was a quite long stage, but a beautiful one. In the evening, I was quite lucky to arrive just before the start of the storm. And it was a real storm. We could watch the trees falling just in front of our house (I stayed at Britta's place, a friend from Detmold). The next morning, after a short practice session, I went on to Rhens, next to Koblenz. First, I had to overcome quite a lot of obstacles - the storm had destroyed a lot of trees that were laying around on the paths. But finally I could go on.

Rhine next to Mainz

Trees...

Everyone had told me before, that this stage is the most beautiful one - and it was.
All the Rhine romantism, which you can find in the works from Heine, Brentano, Schumann, Wagner... you can understand, when you are there in the "Mittelrheintal", enjoying the water between the mountains, the air, everything. I also saw the Loreley, but to be hounest, it's a rock. Simply a rock, and probably, nobody would notice it, if there were not so many poems, Lieder and paintings about it. But it seems, you have to know the legend and to have some kind of affinity to this. By the way, the legend for those who don't know: The Loreley was, according to the legend, an enchanting, seducing mermaid, sitting on a rock and singing. By her singing, she lured the seamen to death. It was kind of invented , or "etablished" by Clemens Brentano, but the most famous poem about her is from Heinrich Heine.
Here is an English translation that I found about it:

The Lorelei

I know not, what does it mean
That I am so sad.
A legend of of bygone days
That I cannot keep out of my mind.

The air is cool and night is coming.
The calm Rhine courses its way.
The peak of the mountain dazzles
With evening's final ray.

The fairest of maidens is sitting
Up there, a beautiful delight,
Her golden jewels are shining,
She's combing her golden hair.

She holds a golden comb,
Singing along as well
An enthralling
And spellbinding melody.

In his little boat, the boatman
Is seized by it with a savage woe,
He does not look upon the rocky ledge
But rather high up into the heavens.

I think that the waves will devour
The boatman and boat in the end
And this by her song's sheer power
Fair Loreley has done.

The Loreley

Later, composers as Friedrich Silcher, Franz Liszt and Fanny Mendelssohn set them to music.


However - the landscape around the Loreley ist wonderful :)

Schloss Stolzenfels

In the evening, I arrived in Rhens. Quite at the end of my tether, but happy. Aaaand there was a swimming pool at the hut where I slept. That was the highlight :-)
Next day, I went on to actually Cologne. This day was my only really horrible day of the whole tour.
It took about 10 kilometers (from 100), until I was soaked to the skin. So the first thing I did, was to go to an outdoor shop in Koblenz and to by a proper rain jacked. It lasted maybe 15 kilometers. Than I was wet again. So, I simply went on and on, freezing and not having breaks, because I knew that then I would really get frozen. After a very long and tiring day and 75 kilometers, I arrived in Bonn. After I had overcome all the temptations to enter a train, I had to take one in Bonn. I was wet, without any force and not able to do another 36 kilometers from Bonn to Cologne; furthermore, the rain emerged as a real storm.
So, I went to the train station of Bonn and took the next train to Cologne. After a rash of other obstacles, such as cancelled trains and a bursted handlebar bag, I finally was in the right train and got to Cologne. There, my wonderful brother Daniel was waiting for me and picked me up. At home, after a hot shower, life was already better :-) And in the evening, after an incredebly match between Germany and Brazil even more!

Party in Cologne

Next day, I went to Bonn, to listen to a masterclass with wonderful Tabea Zimmermann. It was amazing. After this, I managed some stuff, practiced, had rehearsals with the pianist Eva who played with me a concert in Cologne - so, quite relaxed days!
Friday, back to Mainz, where I participated in a really concert from the "Basis", a free church in Mainz. It was a benefit concert against human trafficking and it was a pleasure to play there. Really cool evening.

Saturday, again to Cologne and playing a concert in the Baptist Church there, together with the pianist Eva-Maria Zimmermann and the soprano Constanze Störk. Very nice concert with music from Brahms, Hindemith, Ligeti, Eisler and Bach.
This morning, I played in the Baptist Church from Bonn and in one hour, I will play there in the park. Let's hope for no rain.... :)

Concert in Cologne

By the way, the topic of Human Trafficking got, in this last weeks, a real "affair of the heart" for me. Since I am talking with people who really work in this topic and tell me about the individual fates, it got much more personal and important. That people dare to take other people, sell them and pull everything out what they can, all their proud - disgusting.

Landschaften, Landschaften und... Sturm!

Nicht viel passiert heute, ich fasse es kurz.
Bin von Speyer nach Mainz gefahren, und es war gar nicht so schlimm. Die Landschaften waren unglaublich schön.
In Mainz bin ich von Britta empfangen und bekocht worden, und dann gab es einen ganz kräftigen Sturm zur Begrüßung. Und die Attraktion des Abends war, dass ein Baum vor dem Haus umgeworfen wurde und wir den Polizisten zugucken durften, wie sie alles wegfegen. Ich wusste gar nicht, dass Polizisten sowas machen! Lustig war's.

Gute Nacht!

Schöne Namen für die Inseln und Seen, oder?

Wieder mal Fähre :-)

Familie Schwan

Rheinwein

Der Rhein kurz vor Mainz

Another incredible evening :-)

Ok, I try to translate everything I wrote in German.... It's not always so easy ;-)

Yesterday, after my intonation day, I went to the Musikhochschule of Karlsruhe. Shouting, drinking, cheering. I went to a concert. Really. Ok, first I watched football. But then, at half past seven, I left and listened to a concert in the school, instead. And I didn't regret at all - it was a wonderful concert with students and teachers from the school, playing works from Bartok, Berio and more - really amazing music! Maybe, they should show this all over the world instead of football. All the other shouting, drinking and cheering people would be very happy for sure.
After a short beer in "Purino", the new bar next to the school, I went home as a very good girl to get enough sleep for the next day.

This morning, I got up at half past seven, which was really hard. After a breakfast with the flat mate of Julia and his brother, I went to the post and was there at quarter to nine, to get some advertising stuff that I need for the tour. Aand... Surprise! The post opens only at nine. So, wait. Another surprise! Saturday, it opens only at half past nine. (At this time, the post of Sion is already almost closed again!)

The Rhine in the rain and my bike with rain cap

After a coffee, I finally got my things and started towards Speyer. Now I had to be fast. And I was, so all of a sudden, I was in Germersheim, which is already pretty close to Speyer. There it started to rain, so I had a break in the old brick manufacture at the Rhine, which has a kind of café, to drink a cappuccino. Well, the cappuccino turned out to be a quite bad filtered coffee with a lot of whipped cream. :-(
But therefore, I had a nice view on the Rhine and a refilled water bottle. After waiting for better weather for quite a long time and taking stupid, annoyed selfies (what, I swear, I NEVER did in my life!!

A ship on the Rhine

So I promise, it was really boring!), I decided to go on and took my rain clothes. With them, I look like a diver and the couple sitting at the table next to me started to look at me a bit... confused. But I stayed dry.
50 meters later, the rain stopped. Of course. If you ever want nice weather, just give rain clothes to Miriam, and the rain will stop!

Finally, I arrived in Speyer, and I have to say, it's a nice little town! Somehow, at least in Germany, everyone knows the name and that it's somewhere close to Mannheim, but nobody has ever been there.

One of the stupid, bored, annoyed selfies

It's worth to go! With a beautiful old center and a cathedral, which is beautiful as well, at least from outside. Probably also from inside, but I din't dare to enter, because I had sweated so much, that I thought, they might think that there was a stink bomb attack, if I enter. So instead, I walked through the city, and at half past three, starving, I decided to eat a Schnitzel with French Fries. Yeah. Afterwards a coffee and then again... wait. We wanted to meet at six with the people for the concert at the church, so there was a lot of time to kill. I walked through the Maximiliansstraße, the central street of Speyer, for the next two hours. But this street is not thaat long, so I went back and forth, and the second time in this day, people started to find me a bit strange.
Finally, I went to the curch, where I was welcomed in a really nice way by Bärbel and Norbert and their son. After a shower (the best moment of the day!) and a short scale on my viola, the first problem: I had saved my presentation about Human Trafficking in a dropbox in the internet, but had told them I had it on a stick (what I actually had planned). But there was no internet. Later, we even managed to get internet, but it didn't work to log in into the dropbox. Finally, the best brother of the world, Daniel, saved me and downloaded it and sent it via e-mail.
So, the evening could begin. After a short introduction and a short interview by Andrea, who basically organised the evening with me, I played Hindemith, then talked about Human Trafficking and then played Bach. Well, I'm still not a spellbinder, but I have the feeling it's getting better. And at least, it didn't say anymore in the presentation that it's necessary to pursuit the victims...

Aftewards, there was a lot to eat and drink, and we had some really nice talks with very interesting people. And I even met some who know Sion pretty well! That was really cool, usually, people don't even know that Sion exists ;-)

Now, I am sitting at home of a family from the church. Except of their son, they are all in holidays, but seem to be really nice ;-)


Soo, good night, sleep well and come again. And toitoitoi that I will make the 120 km tomorrow. Or, more important, that my backside will...

Vive la France, Tasmanian Violas and More...

Finally I manage to write to the English blog... Sorry that you always have to wait longer!

After some days with a lot of small and great experiences, I arrived in Karlsruhe yesterday.

And that's what happened:
Monday morning, I had a little street music session, with Bach's 1st suite. Just in front of a bank in Freiburg, next to a building site, under a roof to be protected from the rain. The money I got was enough for lunch and dinner, so I was quite happy :-) Then, I met Hannah, my best friend from primary school - so nice :)

Rhine-Rhône-Canal Path

 Afterwards, I started from Freiburg. According to the principle "I will find some place to stay", I simply started and changed my plans even more: From Breisach, so around 25 km behind Freiburg, I switched to the French Part and went on there. I just couldn't see the gravel path anymore, and people told me it should be great on the other side. It was, so I went on through forests and villages, and really enjoyed it (and also the possibility to talk some French, in order to keep it in mind a little bit...!). Ok, honoustly, after some time, it got pretty boring, because the path was always along the same canal.

"My" Terrace

In the evening, I had to look for an accomodation, which turned out to be much more difficult than I had thought. I was in "Marckolsheim", somewhere in Elsass, and there was supposed to be one hotel in the village. I found it after some time, and there was one appartement free for 300 Euro a night. So I had to go on with my search, and my rescue was "Gites de France": A system of private rooms in France, which has quite a lot of offers in Marckolsheim. After trying at some places that were  full, I ended  up at a wonderful, sweet place from an old Lady. I had my own little flat with a little kitchen and  a huge terrace on the roof, just for me - amazing! And the lady was so sweet :)
By the way, the "Marckolsheimer" welcomed me with a great honking concert for about 2 hours, everywhere in the town. Just didn't get why they were driving around with French flags...;-)

Bridge of Strasbourg

After a short practice session in the next morning, I had to leave this wonderful place. Still got a lot of good and nice tipps and advices, some food for the ride and went on to the north.
Next Stop: Strasbourg! As you might know, I already have a lot of favourite cities, but now I got another one. Strasbourg is just beautiful and amazing. With all the half-timbered houses it looks a bit like a beautiful little German town like Heidelberg, but this with French Charme and as a world city - so special and nice!!

Beautiful Strasbourg

After a break with Frozen Yoghurt, a Smoothie and an old women who told me about all her suffering with the  hips, I went on. Crossed the border again, back to the German side. After quite a lot of kilometers, I thought, it might be good to find a place to sleep. But it turned out to be even more difficult in Germany than in France. I was in a village next to a village next to the little town "Rastatt", which is close to Karlsruhe. So, brief, simply in the nowhere. After another 20 km, I found a guesthouse in the German Metropole "Hügelsheim" and fell into my bed.

Wednesday morning: Going on to Karlsruhe, to the first concert! Following an advise of my host, I changed the side again and went on on the left (French) side of the Rhine. It was a really beautiful way!

There I met a really nice couple from Tasmania, asking me what I was carrying on my back. On my answer "a viola", the women seemed really relieved and replied "Oh, and I thought, you would carry around a musical instrument!"

My beloved bike on the ferry :-)

Some kilometers later, I got the occasion to one of my favourite things: Going by boat! Ok, it was a Rhine ferry, took 5 minutes, was really noisy and smelled bad. But I went on a boat with my Bikey! :-) After around one houre more in the blazing heat, I finally arrived in Karlsruhe at my friend Julia's place. After some ice cream and a shower, I had time for a short practice and then went to the concert. And if you are surprised: Right, I hardly practiced in those days :-(
In the "Laden 33"  in Karlsruhe, I met Annette from "The Justice Project", who had organised the evening with me. The concert was just fixed a few days before, so we adapted ourselves to a cosy evening, and that was, what it got. A cellist played

On the boat :-)

the first suite from Bach, and I played my Hindemith and 5th suite. Between, there were informations about the topic of Human Trafficking in general, and about the practical work from "The Justice Project".

There was quite a small audition, but nevertheless, it was a really beautiful evening with music, interesting information and a small financial contribution for the work of "Gemeinsam gegen Menschenhandel". I wouldn't want to miss it!

Yep, and today, there was already the second concert, in Baden-Baden! With a lot more people listening, another really nice evening in the Methodist Church of Baden-Baden, which, by the way, has a very nice acoustic, it's a great pleasure to play there. Afterwards, with some sparkling wine, we had a couple of nice talks with interesting people :-)

Now I am sitting here, not knowing if I shall go on tomorrow or the day after.... We will see, maybe I will get the conclusion in my dream tonight ;-)

Freiburg!

Finally arrived in Freiburg. But I am dead. I have no idea how I managed 2 years ago to go up to 130 km a day on the bike, in the mountains. Today I made 95 km and am sure that I will never be able anymore to sit or even to move.
But I arrived in Freiburg and am sitting in the beautiful room from a friend of a friend of a friend :-)

After a night in the really nice YMCA-Hostel Basel (except of a snoring woman..), I started at 9 this morning.

Bye bye, Basel!

The weather forecast had announced only rain, but I was incredibly lucky and only got some very short showers.
The viola on the back is much less annoying than I had thought, and by the way, you always get into conversations with people :-) Nevertheless the extra-weight is more tiring, and the gravel path doesn't make it better...

Beautiful Rhine

 Anyway, the trail along the river is really beautiful. The only thing is, I forgot to check about the water level (who would have thought about that...). The result was that I once had to carry the bike and all the luggage through a river, that was crossing my path - it is usually probably just a rill...

No chance... Carry!

 Conclusion of the day: Don't plan too long stages. I changed the plan for the next days and will start in Freiburg one day earlier than I actually wanted, so already tomorrrow, in order to distribute the distance of 2 days  on 3. Otherwise I probably wouldn't survive, and the people who have to listen to my playing neither ;-)

Let's get started!!

After weeks of preparation and work, finally I start to ride my bike :-) So happy and exited!!

Sorry, no time right now anymore, have to catch the train to Basel, from where I will start tomorrow morning!

Hey there!

Finally, I managed to create an English version of the Blog about my project!

I can't translate everything that I wrote already on the German one, but from now, I try to write on both of them every day :-)

So, first of all...

What am I doing here?!

I am a 23-year-old music student with a passion for Jesus, my Viola, for people around me and for travelling - especially on my bicycle! 

So, what else should I spend my holiday with then to take my bike, go along the Rhine and make Music in favour of people who are less lucky than me in their life.
Middle of may (so only 5 weeks ago!), I got this idea and started to write to people in cities like Freiburg, Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Mainz, Cologne, Dusseldorf... Most of these people I didn't know, but I encountered a lot of open and interested people, who trusted in an obviously totally crazy girl that comes there on a bike and wants to play a concert.

Finally, I managed to get SEVEN Concerts, which is amazing. I will play:

2nd of July in Karlsruhe
3rd of July in Baden-Baden
5th of July in Speyer
11th of July in Mainz
12th of July in Cologne
13th of July in Bonn
and 14th of July in Dusseldorf.

If you want to know the exact places and times, just check on the German Version of the Blog, on the right side!

Besides of the concert occasions, I got E-Mails from people offering me a place to stay, from people who wanted (and did) create flyers and posters, from people who just wanted to tell me that they are impressed from the project and wish me a good tour.


And tonight, it's FINALLY the moment to start!!! :-)
Of course, there are still so many things that need to be organized, the advertising material still didn't reach the concert places... But I am very confident that at the end it will be a very cool time with great encounters and a lot of good impressions and memories. And maybe it won't stay the last action like this ;-)

Just, short, what I am actually playing for: The proceeds of the concerts will go to "Gemeinsam gegen Menschenhandel e.V." (translated: "Together against Human Trafficking"), which is an alliance of different organisations and persons in Germany that are working against Human Trafficking - directly with the victims, or on the political level, or how and where ever.
The topic of Human Trafficking is so important for me, because it's a crime and a shame, that is not only taking place in developing countries, that are fare and we actually don't really know. It's something that is happening here, just in front of our doors. Western Europe and the USA are the most important target countries for Human Trafficking, especially for sex work. The fact and the way how young women, especially from Eastern Europe and Asia, are attracted by a Job in Western Europe such as a Nanny or in the gastronomy, and then kidnapped and forced to horrible sex work, is not acceptable and I want to do my part against it. 

So, I am very happy if you follow in the next weeks, what I am doing and how everything is going. Positive feedback is the greatest and most important motivation for my crazy idea, so just write me, I will write back :-)
And, of course, prayers are never for nothing! :-)