The time came for our concerts in Germany and we were instantly swept up by a whirlwind named Helen Patton. It seems to us that she has made it her personal mission that we shall be the toast of Europe.
Her great, enduring passion is to connect people and cultures through the arts. To accomplish this, she and her husband, Thorsten Plusczyk, have created the Patton-Plusczyk Stiftung.
Helen searched all over Saarland and found a building in the heart of Saarbruecken full of history and atmosphere. The great loft-space was restored through her efforts and is now a space of peace and harmony --
a vessel waiting for whatever creative hearts will bring to it as they engage in the process of sharing and communication through art.
We were given the opportunity to speak with children at the local school, and their enthusiasm and interest was eye-opening.
Helen presented us in three different venues around Saarland, including her own wonderfully resonant stiftung, We truly enjoyed meeting the people in this area and sharing the music we love with them.
While we were in this region at the heart of so many fairytales, we took the chance to explore a few more German castles -- these were in ruins and so different from the ornate style we had seen in Marburg. We have discovered and love the castle-on-a-hill phenomenon: great, glorious ruins of castles defending the tops of hills, with stunning views on every side. Here is the wonderful Amöneburg.
One of the other things we have discovered in Europe, is that you never need a map because at every possible point, there will be signs pointing to everywhere else that you could possibly want to go. Here we are, for instance, on a narrow footpath, by a ruined castle at the top of a great hill in the middle of nowhere, and yet... 
This tiny fortress near Völklingen really gave me the sense of what it would be to defend a hilltop from an isolated castle at its peak.
We climbed up in the tower to be greeted by ...you guessed it...
And at the end of our tour, we took a trip to Bremen, where we had a chance to see the statue of our esteemed colleagues, the famous musicians. Eric related at once to the donkey, Sylvia to the rooster. Only later did we find out that in the story the donkey plays the lute! And the rooster, of course....
But it was outside a small bookshop in the tiny streets that wind around the central square that we found the real musicians, properly enjoying themselves!
What a lovely experience --
we can hardly wait to return to Helen and her beautiful Stiftung.
