Kosener in Muenster
We traveled a couple hours northeast to Munster, Germany. Again, I researched and found a few music stores to check out. We found a beautiful campground outside of the city. Munster is a bicycling haven! There are hundreds of people out riding everywhere! This was a stroke of luck, because we pulled our bikes out of the RV and Siobhan’s Chariot and set-off to town. It was about 15 minutes on nice bike paths and we were to the town center. We checked out one of the addresses, but they were closed. We had some lunch at a beautiful outdoor café, then rode about 10 more minutes and we found Our destination, Kosener Violin. Amazing coincidence, but below Kosener's workshop was Vishner Music Store, and they had a beautiful collection of violins for sale.
We started looking at the Vishner ones first. This was an active music store, with a lot of focus on print music. The owner of the store, Vishner was who we talked to. His grandfather founded the store. He gave us a lithograph of his grandfather. His violins were also restored and set-up. Three were very high grade and 3 were a bit more like old student violins. We enjoyed meeting him and seeing his store. They were quite busy that day. They had toys for Siobhan to play with which she still talks about the music store that had toys. Vishner had some marbles that ran through an obstacle course and he offered Siobhan one to take with her, and, just like her dad, she fired back at him, two? Of course, he couldn’t resist and he said that felt a little like negotiations with Alex.
Meanwhile, I had gone upstairs to visit Kosener. He had a large two room workshop on the third floor of the building. I ran the bell and he opened the door formally and invited me in. A Cellist had arrived at the same time, so I mentioned to Kosener what we came for and he said he had some violins for sale, then while he waited on the Cellist, I ran downstairs and told Alex to come up and help me with negotiations.
We started looking at the Vishner ones first. This was an active music store, with a lot of focus on print music. The owner of the store, Vishner was who we talked to. His grandfather founded the store. He gave us a lithograph of his grandfather. His violins were also restored and set-up. Three were very high grade and 3 were a bit more like old student violins. We enjoyed meeting him and seeing his store. They were quite busy that day. They had toys for Siobhan to play with which she still talks about the music store that had toys. Vishner had some marbles that ran through an obstacle course and he offered Siobhan one to take with her, and, just like her dad, she fired back at him, two? Of course, he couldn’t resist and he said that felt a little like negotiations with Alex.
Meanwhile, I had gone upstairs to visit Kosener. He had a large two room workshop on the third floor of the building. I ran the bell and he opened the door formally and invited me in. A Cellist had arrived at the same time, so I mentioned to Kosener what we came for and he said he had some violins for sale, then while he waited on the Cellist, I ran downstairs and told Alex to come up and help me with negotiations.
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