Santa and Samba: Visits in the northern countries I

A conference on "Music and Mediation" in Imatra, Finland, has been the excuse for some leisurely excursions in northern Europe. My topic was music in science fiction films, but I'm going to restrict myself here to sharing some travel photos. I'll do this for the most part chronologically. My first stop was Brussels, Belgium. I had a 6 hour layover (between Newark and Helsinki), so took the 20-minute ride into town. The first music to greet my ears was provided by this musician who stood by the entrance to the central train station. He played an unusually chromatic moto perpetuo on the cimbalom.
Nearby, I was treated to a serenade on the carillons. These played every 15 minutes. I laid myself down in an adjacent park. It was pleasant to relax, and to see others relaxing in this most relaxed of cities. Downtown Brussels has very little automobile or pedestrian traffic. Even the magnificent Grande Place, though filled with tourists, was quiet. I grabbed a tuna sandwich off the place, sat in the bar-restaurant and listened to Louis Armstrong, Glenn Miller ("In the Mood") and Eddie Fisher ("Lady of Spain").

I'm using SN Brussels as my "hub" transportation here in Europe, and its first service was to take me from Brussels to Helsinki. It was a comfortable flight, much more so than the transatlantic flight, which did not afford much leg room. I'm not sure where this beautiful coastline is located, but it is possibly Holland or Denmark; somewhere between Brussels and Helsinki.



Whereas I was greeted by the cimbalom in Brussels, in Helsinki it was the accordion. The musician, who was most likely Russian--they seem to make up most of the street musician population here, or so I am told--skillfully played a intricate and lovely waltz that alternated between major and minor key sections. He followed with a jaunty major key number (something like the early 20th century "mattchitche"), which I recorded with my digital camera. Here, however, just the smile from the musician.


Down by the harbor there were some kind of festivities going on, which involved different communities dressed in "folk" attire, and the music of a marching band.