Munich hasn't been a regular stop for us in Germany, but it is a beautiful city and we are always excited to visit: large open boulevards, lots of pedestrian-only streets that wind through the old city and some very original use of stucco and paint. We lost the good weather today. We have been so lucky on that front, it makes everything so much easier…but that's life and, more to the point, that's the weather.

At first glance, the venue tonight seemed not quite right: a large hangar like building with a large high stage. But once the seats were put in place, the lights turned down and, most importantly, the audience arrived (our largest in Germany) everything fell in to place. It turned in to a great night, with another excellent, intense audience.

It was a rather uneventful couple of days in Munich but things got a little more exciting on our flight to Paris. Once we de-planed in Paris we were greeted with a security alert and we were all held at the gate and not allowed to proceed to the terminal. Apparently someone had left their bag unattended at a check-in desk. We stood around for about 15 minutes while announcements were made over the PA system asking whoever to return to claim their luggage. Apparently the person never returned, a loud "kaboom" echoed down the hallway followed by the smell of cordite and then, with a smile, the security personnel waved us through. All in a days work at Charles-De-Gaulle I suppose. I guess when they say that all unattended bags will be destroyed, they mean it.

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No matter how tired and dragged out one is, no matter how cold and damp the weather turns, the streets of Paris are difficult to resist. There is something about this city that just makes one want to walk and explore and soak it all in. So that is what I did. It's always a pleasure to visit and every time I come here I wonder why I don't come more often. There really aren't too many other cities in the world that compare.

Apparently the advances of the new CD are getting a lot of positive attention from the French music press. We have never been able to break through in France so it would be a pleasant surprise if at this stage of the game we had an opportunity to tour the country. The gig tonight was at a very cool little club called Café De La Danse, which we played in 2001. Unfortunately Martin, who has been doing our sound, couldn't make this gig so we had a bit of a struggle with the local sound engineer. He did his best but we were use to Martin's attention to detail. It was a good size crowd but not particularly enthusiastic during the show and we didn't have the energy to pull them along. I think we played well, if not spectacular, and they certainly showed their appreciation at the end. Hopefully we will be back soon.

Tomorrow we go home for a short rest, before hooking up with Pete and Al and heading off to the west coast. I think this little experiment has been very successful on many fronts. At the right time and place we will do it again. It's a nice change of pace for us and for our repertoire. See you in the good ole US of A in a few weeks.