What’s spoken isn’t always heard, What’s felt can’t be contained.
Theodor Storm

There is more to the picture than meets the eye.

And there is only one place to experience live music in July and August. Some people say it’s even better than Wacken (WAAACKEN!!!), down the road from Tating, on the first weekend in August. I say the true highlight of the summer is Garding, right next to Tating, Germany’s second smallest city, where “Musik für Garding e.V.” organises three open air stages every Tuesday in July and August with the finest music north of the river Elbe. Pádraig is a regular visitor here, as he was last Tuesday, 29 July 25. As every Tuesday evening in Garding, we had a Bratwurst, shared a Currywurst, each had a Jever, and, as a desert, shared a Crêpe with Zucker and Zimt.

There is no place like Garding on Tuesday evenings in the summer: It’s pure fun, with no excuses being made for anything, and with tons of pride for just being who you are. Completely nonjudgemental. Open. Tolerant. Easy going. No matter the age, appearance, or condition. A place the world could learn from.

They say “Great Projects require strong Partners”. Those organising music for Garding do that in a registered association, an “Eingetragener Verein” or “e.V.”, a legal form unique to Germany. They turn the otherwise abandoned “city” of Garding into a lively, mad Hub for people who are anything but mainstream in a region that in the summer couldn’t be more German, more mainstream.

It’s completely surreal, absurd, bizarre, mad, and eccentric. In one word: Wonderful.

We walk out to the beach, the dunes, and the dikes. The Arche Noah is still our favourite destination. It brings me back 50 years when I spent my summers here with my family, not just working but living here, a mile off the coast, basically out on the sea. While the owners since changed and with it the ambiente, the magic of the place remains the same.

We’re living the life.

We drive a slightly bigger car to accommodate the wheelchair. Pádraig sleeps in a bed that moves up and down and even allows him to (nearly) stand. We exercise together for the best part of an hour every day. We have BBQs, prepare really good meals, and go out for dinner – as you would when you are on holidays.

We are out and about as much as the weather allows. We admire the vastness of the horizon, the dramatic sunsets, the wind driving the sand across the dunes.

Words can vanish without being heard. But our hearts speak so forcefully they cannot be ignored.

We rock ‘n roll. We are here to stay.

Hey hey, my my.

Hey hey, my my
Rock and roll can never die
There’s more to the picture than meets the eye
My my, hey hey

My my, hey hey
Rock and roll is here to stay
It’s better to burn out than to fade away
My my, hey hey

We will keep rockin’. Rust never sleeps. We might burn out but we won’t fade away. Rock ‘n roll can never die. Because there is more to the picture than meets the eye.