Remplin Castle Chapel

Today was a very long (6 hour) drive, mainly on autobahns. These are mostly two lane motorways with usually quite long distances between exits which means cars drive very fast. On long stretches these is no speed limit so I might be driving at 140km/hr (87 mph) and a car will zoom by me as if I was just doing 30! There are speed limits of 120, 100 and 80 near exits and less open stretches. Roadworks bring the speed limit down to 60.

The road surface is excellent and drivers behave very well. It’s a good way to cover a long distance. Over the years, the government have made a huge investment in the road infrastructure with bridges going over valleys which allow the fast speeds. On Sundays trucks are not allowed on the autobahn which made the drive the next day much easier as we had to head north up around Hamburg and through the tunnel under the river Elbe where there are always large roadworks.

The concert tonight was in the chapel of the former Remplin Chapel which is now an arts centre. Ray played at the opening of a new art exhibition.

The room was full for the concert with Peter, the organiser, having to bring out extra chairs as people were arriving just after the start.

Ray opened with the title track from his new album Even For A Shadow. This contains the words “a visitor on Europe’s roads” which led to the name of this tour blog AVOER.

Ray writes his set list between the sound check and the start of the concert. However, he will often change it according to the reactions of the audience and how the set is going.

At the Schlosskapelle he changed the end of the first set to play Eyes Of Mercy then started the second set with Whistleblower.

Tynne Laine is an instrumental and leads nicely into Going Underground, both from the new album.

After two sets, the audience brought Ray back for two encores – The Dark Days Are Over (cello) then Dark Sky Park (piano).