Lustig Tours

26/09/2024

Ross, Robert, Eric and Valina are ready for the Fort Worth Oktoberfest! The festival begins Thursday Sept 26, Das Ist Lustig (That's Fun) performs Friday and Saturday, Sept 27 and 28!
...pssst: Ross' birthday is Friday Sept 27, and he'll be on stage from 5pm till 7:30...

23/09/2024

Thank you Addison Oktoberfest for inviting us back to play for you! It's been a fun weekend with happy reunions with friends!! We were blessed with DELICIOUS sausages from Siegi's Sausage Factory: Restaurant & Deli who always take great care of us, excellent sound crew, stage hands to help schlep and transport equipment, cold beer, ran out of 2025 tour brochures, lots of names entered in the Texas Polka News subscription drawing, and good times.
...per chance, did anyone get video of the crowd dancing in Major Tom? Rich Keesecker ?

Polka Beat

22/09/2024

We're ready to Prost Y'all one more time! Sunday Sept 22, at 1:30 at the Texas Prost Stage, at the Addison Oktoberfest!!

19/09/2024

Are you ready to party with us at the Addison Oktoberfest? The event starts today, and we'll be there Friday - Sunday Sept 20 - 22, with Ross, Robert, Michael and Valina.

Brand new 2025 tour brochures for the trip to Austria / Germany June 12 - 26 will be available at our merch table during our shows.

The Texas Polka News drawing is going on again! You can register to win a one year subscription at our merch table during our shows.

22/08/2024

We've worked our tail ends off (on band stuff, and unexpected tasks thanks to Beryl) without a break since July 13. Next week will be solid prep for the Oktoberfest season and wrapping up all of the paperwork I've been working on the past several weeks. We're craving some The Sauer Kraut food truck, and some time with friends. SO, we're trading our phones, computer and internet access for a couple of unplugged days.

:D ...it's 5 o'clock for the next 48 hours wherever we are!

10/08/2024

PSA from Lustig Tours
Now is an excellent time to get that passport! If you already have one, check your expiration dates. If you've never had one before, begin the process now!

I had to renew mine when we returned 4 weeks ago. I mailed in my packet 3 weeks ago, and the new book arrived yesterday! Pretty quick turn-around time right now.

Remember, when you travel internationally, make sure your return date is a full 6 months before the expiration on your passport. I came in just under the wire this last trip. My passport was "good" until Jan 25, which means I had to be back in the USA by July 24.

27/07/2024

Save the dates: June 12 - 26, 2025.

I'm busy busy in the office, building next year's very cool itinerary including a day in Vienna! A day in Salzburg! Time at Eagle's Nest! Boat rides! Music! Dancing! Exclusive guided tours!

Wanna go with?

21/07/2024

Difference in cultures: Even when the hotel in Germany has TWO elevators, there is still a traffic jam on the staircase!

Follow me for more tips on how to burn the calories from all that Bier and Schnitzel on your next Lustig Tour!

16/07/2024

Our friend Carl Henderson made a video from this past Lustig Tours Holiday to Germany and the Czech Republic. We know how bad he was feeling, and somehow, he still managed to capture all of this footage for us to look back and enjoy! Carl, you're a blessing to everyone who gets to know you! Thanks so much!

Valina's 2024 trip

03/07/2024

Happy Independence Day!!

We hope you will have a wonderful day and weekend with friends and family, celebrating the freedom and liberty we are blessed to have in the USA.

Here's a video of Ross playing Sousa's Stars and Stripes Forever at Mt Rushmore in Sept 2020. (This is one song he can never perform on stage because it doesn't fit on the production accordions.) In this video, he is using a beautiful accordion borrowed from Alex Meixner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjNpAdXhe7s

Of all the songs Ross plays on accordion, this very difficult and passionate arrangement is Julie Stroup and Kenneth Thompson's favorite!

Mt Rushmore is such an amazing work of art, and feat of engineering! We visited in September of 2020. We spent an 8 hour day there, and could easily have s...

19/06/2024

We just received an e-mail from a couple who were eating lunch on the Laber Berg yesterday when we played music for our tour guests. They were so excited to have the surprise of music for their day trip from Augsburg, and wanted to thank us again. I wonder if they know how very happy that makes us?

18/06/2024

Another action packed day today, from singing the bobsled song as we drove the curvy mountain road to being welcomed by the Musikkapelle Farchant, seeing Linderhof Palace with all of its opulence, playing music on the mountain top, the locals joining in, and watching the cows come home. I can't believe it's almost over. Definitely still too busy enjoying time with our guests to load photos. !

17/06/2024

We've been spending more time away from our hotel room and computers the past few days, and haven't loaded any more photos... There are only a couple of days left with our traveling friends, and I don't want to miss a moment of the gemutlichkeit!
This morning, we woke up in a brewery, drove through acres and acres of hops, some of us visited the memorial in Dachau, some of us went on Trachten shopping sprees, then roamed the supermarkt for snacks and lunch. This afternoon, we zigge zagge'd our way out of Ettal after visiting the Kloster and distillery (and tasting...) then, this evening, we joined in with Holzhacker and yodeling kufstein at the top of our lungs with the accordionist in Garmisch between Schuhplattler performances. Ahhhhhh, Germany! Prost Y'all!

12/06/2024

Seeing places we've never seen before, and exploring them together! Lustig Tours visiting Bautzen, a beautiful little city about 30 minutes west of the Polish border, proud to have 10,000 international visitors a year. Our tour guide was the only one who speaks English. This tourist office also just really went the extra mile for us, and were excited to have visitors from Texas. We all had to really use our German language skills today, and dinner was extra special, with a traditional Sorbian greeting of bread and salt, then a musician playing Sorbian bagpipes for us after dinner! What fun! Prost Y'all!

11/06/2024

The tourist office in Goerlitz really took amazing care of us today when our schedule was flipped around thanks to a 4 inch long nail in one of the bus' tires. In the contract, it says "you miss your tour time, you pay anyway" But we called ahead and let them know what happened, then when we arrived, Ross walked everyone to our lunch reservations in Poland, and I went in to see the tourist office. They bent over backwards for us, and we were able to take the walking tour we were supposed to have at 11am, at 4pm. Wonderful little city with a fascinating history. History that has been preserved thanks to people who thought ahead to preserve their architecture and artwork, which is now hundreds of years old. No damages during war times either! Very rare, and very respected. Pictures to come at some point, I promise. I'm several days behind... Tomorrow, we spend the day touring Bautzen, with lots of free time to explore. Then, a culture evening, learning about the Sorb people!
..oh, and I'm up to 11 servings of white asparagus in 7 days...

11/06/2024

Yesterday was Dresden, a new experience for all of us. Everyone wants to return and spend more time there! Today we go to Goerlitz, have a walking tour, then dip our toes into Poland for lunch!

11/06/2024

It's still so sobering to stand in these places, and learn the struggles that lasted decades, and ended just 33 years ago. This is Moedlereuth, a tiny little village that was also split in two. The story of two brothers who lived 150 meters from each other in this village, but were separated and forced to travel long distances and comply with so many rules, just to have the time to have a coffee together a few times a year. It'll get your heart all squishy, and make your eyes look like you've been slicing onions.

08/06/2024

Another magical day in Germany. Spent the entire day in Wittenberg today. Leisurely breakfast, time to do a little shopping, site-seeing, a very intuitive tour for our group of the Castle Church, a lovely service with full pipe organ, deeeeelicious white Asparagus soups (I'm up to 6 bowls of it already!) Everyone in our group are enjoying these seasonal German treats! After a nice dinner together, a quick hop with some of our group to the Irish Pub down the street for a pint to toast Saint Arnold Brewing Company for their 30 years of craft brewing, followed by some playground shenanigans. Someday I'll get photos and videos posted. We're all excited to share our experiences with you!

08/06/2024

Berlin was amazing yesterday! ...but the internet is sooooo slooowwwwwww, that it will take 27 hours to upload photos... Our little group is living Germany to the fullest!
Today, we lounge about in Wittenberg, do some shopping in the weekly market, have a tour of the Castle Church at 2pm (after the shops close), then will attend a service at 5pm, have dinner, then go bar hopping in honor of our friends at Saint Arnold Brewing Company, who are celebrating 30 years of brewing some of the best local craft Bier in Texas, right there in Houston! Prost Y'all!!! Von Germany!

06/06/2024

Loooong travel day today, with a tour of the Museum Moedlereuth (Little Berlin) The tiny village that sits on the border between Bavaria and Thuringia. When the wall went up, this tiny village was also split in half!
After that, we'll go to Germany's oldest chocolate factory, and tonight after dinner, we have a guided tour of the old city of Wittenberg! ..and now, for a biiiig helping of that good GERMAN FRUEHSTUCK!!!! :D Prost von Germany y'all!

05/06/2024

We're there!

Send a message to learn more

31/05/2024

4 days away from that German Breakfast!!!!

Germans are strange, what they eat is even stranger. Find out what kind of food people eat in Germany for breakfast, you might never look at them the same wa...

28/05/2024

6 days...
Lustig Tours has gotten the suitcases out of storage...

21/05/2024

https://alpspix.panomax.com/ I can't believe we'll be in that village down below in less than a month!!!

AlpspiX: Die spektakuläre Aussichtsplattform am Osterfeldkopf schwebt 1.000 Meter über dem Abgrund und eröffnet einen fantastischen Rundumblick auf Zugspitz, Alpspitze und Co.