The Last Ditch by Tom Paine

So this mad idea reached fruition. After a few beers and a schnitzel, the Navigator (for it is he) and I went to the Old Opera House and saw Bryan Ferry perform. The support act was a young lady from Berlin; musically-educated in London. Her name, implausibly, is Femme Schmidt and she was pretty good. I rather pitied her as a partisan audience of a certain vintage was clearly waiting for the main event but at 25 it was probably a good step forward for her.

The Navigator is a big fan and enjoyed the programme of his later songs. I, like most of the hall, was waiting for the even older stuff. Love is the Drug was the highlight for me, though he saved Jealous Guy for his encore. He took a while to warm up. He's 70 years old and his voice – inevitably – is not what it was but eventually his vocal chords loosened and the sound improved. He seemed to me to be buoyed by the support from devoted German fans in the hall.

It may be bizarre  to drive to Frankfurt and back just to hear a man sing, but it has been a brilliant trip so far. Tomorrow the Navigator gets his Ferrari driving spurs and I will sit in the passenger seat for at least part of the journey. Rather than return by the same route through Belgium which will take us onto the horribly congested Brussels Ring Road, we are heading north to take in the pretty town of Ghent before hitting our bizarrely-named B&B in Belgium.

The map of my tour is here.