Heino's Cafe

Yes, dreams really come true, but not just in Disney World. When we first signed up to go on this year's bus tour, Elmar was very happy to see that Heino's Rathaus Cafe was on the list of stops. He was hoping that Heino would be there, but no promises were made. Many, many years ago Heino performed in Milwaukee and Elmar took pictures of me with Heino. However, it was back in the days of using film and the film was filled up before Elmar could get a picture of him and Heino. Well, as you can see from the picture on this page, Elmar got that picture with Heino.

Heino and his lovely wife, Hannelore, were very gracious and Hannelore even welcomed our group in English. We had our own room for our 50+ people that were on this tour and Heino when to each person and personnally handed them an autographed picture postcard. This gave everyone the opportunity to speak with him or have their picture taken with him. You only needed to ask and he happily posed for that picture.

We were served the famous Heino Hazelnut Torte. If you look closely at the white chocolate wafers that decorate the torte, you can see Heino's image on them. Heino had studied to be a baker before he became a singer and grew into the super star he is today.

The pictures for the first day of our fabulous 2 week trip are in a Picasa album. I am putting my pictures out here so that other members of the tour can also download some of the pictures I took on the trip and perhaps they can send me some of their pictures and I can put them out here for all of us to share. If you click on the image below, you can go directly to the Picasa album to see that first day.

This fabulous meeting with Heino happened on our first full day in Germany, but the day before we were on the go as soon as we landed and you will see those pictures in this album too. One of the very first things we did was have a tour of the Asbach distillery, a short distance from our hotel. And then a short stop at the Niederwalddenkmal. We even had a boat ride down the Rhein and a glimpse of the Loreley. In the evening Albert Dormann played for our dancing pleasure. on May 6. On May 7, when we went to Bad Muenstereifel to vist Heino's Rathaus Cafe, but in the evening we had a great dinner at the Ruedesheim Lindenwirt where we had the famous Rudesheimer coffee (it has Asbach Uralt in it & the light it & quickly put it out with whipping cream.

Also, that evening a new friend came to visit us. Andrea Ney is the president of the Axel Becker Fan Club " Amore Amore" and takes care of all the webmaster duties. We have been corresponding since last December when Elmar & I went to see Axel Becker in Cleveland for one of Gisela's Christmas shows. It was so nice to meet Andrea, face-to-face. She is a very nice lady, who has a great love for music.

If you were on this trip with us and would like one of the pictures here, just click on the right lower corner and go to the Picasa website to right click and do a save as or send me an e-mail and I can help you. Again a great big thank you goes to Gisela Lewis and Peter Matthai, who truly made this a trip to remember.

European Spring Tour

If you are looking for a great tour this Spring, take a look at the flyer to the left (click on flyer to enlarge). This 2 week tour of Germany, Austria and Slovenia/Czech Republic takes place May 6 - May 20. This escorted tour includes hotels, bus transportation with Bilingual tour guide, all breakfasts & dinners, admissions to several attractions (see daily iterary at our Events page), and entertainment galore.

I found out about this fabulous tour from friends we met on Ted Hierl's German-American Radio Cruises. Otto and Sieglinde wrote those terrific reports in the New Yorker Staats Zeitung about the Hawaii Cruise in 2008 and the Carribean Cruise in 2007.

This tour is being offered by Gisela Lewis of New Jersey. Gisela has provided German entertainment all over the United States and the Milwaukee German Fest. And now she has put together this music filled tour with Peter Matthai of Thuringen Germany. Some of you may remember Peter when he was at the Milwaukee German Fest with his band Die Sandler. You will experience several boat tours (one is on the Danube), Passau and Vienna. But that is only a small sample of what this tour has to offer.

If you would like more info about this tour, give Gisela Lewis a call at: (732) 528-5135. If you prefer talking to the booking agent, call Hans at Murray Hill International (Global Travel Solutions): (800) 776-4655. Hans can book this tour for you and if you would like him to help you book your air flight, he will be happy to help you. By clicking our Events button on the left sidebar, you will find a detailed list of where this tour will go day by day.

Schmalzler on Kabel Eins today

A great big thank you to Werner. If it had not been for him, Hilde and I would have forgotten to record the Kabel Eins show Abendteuer Leben today at 22:50 Germany time.

Some of you may remember that a TV team from ProSeben in Germany was here in Milwaukee for a special that they were recording of the Schmalzlers, who were at German Fest this year. I am anxious to see what they put together.

Those of you who can record German television like Shift TV, be sure to set your recorder to Kabel Eins today, September 16, at 22:50. I don't know if there will be a repeat of this show.

Grand Prix der Volksmusik Results

I am lucky enough to have a friend, Maria Olligies, who was in Zurich to
watch the Grand Prix der Volksmusik live. Maria was the Talent Coordinator for the Stimmung Stunde and arranged for us to have some great interviews with a lot of stars in Europe.

Well I just might be the first person in the USA to find out the results of the Grand Prix der Volksmusik. Maria sent me a text message with the names of the top 3 winners, and here they are:

1. Die Klostertaler --- Heimat is dort wo die Berge sind
2. Vincent & Fernando --- Glaube an Gott
3. Oesch's die Dritten --- Die Jodel-Sprache

It was a real nail bitter because the Klostertaler and Vincent & Fernando both had 35 points at the end. Then they had a tie breaker, but they both had the same number of points. Then they announced that there had been a jury that voted also as a tie breaker and then the Klostertaler were declared the winners.

I was so very disappointed because I really wanted our friends, Vincent & Fernando, to win first place this time. They won 2nd place in 2006 & 2007 and now again in 2008. They were so very close! Just take a look at the video I posted of their song further in this blog.

If you want some more details, just go to the official website showing the total points each participant received.

New Look for the Stimmung Stunde Website

Next month it will be one year since Tim Kretschmann broadcasted the last Stimmung Stunde here in Milwaukee on WJYI. Tim has gone on to doing other things such as running the TKPN Podcast network where he produces the Police on the Scene with a Crime Prevention Lean podcast and has won the WCPPA award in 2007 for that podcast. He is still involved with the Pageant world and does the Pagaent Cast podcast. He has traveled to several cities to serve as an MC or judge at various beauty pageants since he left the Stimmung Stunde. There are links to these websites on this page along the left sidebar and on our Links page.

Tim has been training me on how to maintain the Stimmung Stunde website and I want to thank him for all his patience during that process. My son, Tim, spent 17 years hosting the Stimmung Stunde and had many memorable moments that were captured on his website. I did not want to see that go away, so he is letting me maintain this website in a new style. I have changed the website's look and its content. I hope that the people who previously enjoyed the old website will also visit the new website as well. As Tim has taught me, it is important to update the website regularly and I promise to keep to Tim's philosophy of how to maintain a website.