6/20/11
Losing track . . .
Okay, so it's Monday. I am really having a hard time keeping track of time. We are now in Leipzig. We checked out of our hotel in Jena and were on our way yesterday morning at 8:00. We actually had a very early wakeup call – 5:45 so we could all put our luggage outside our doors for the boys to load onto the elevators and send to the lobby. Needless to say – REALLY long day for everyone. First stop was back in Erfurt for our 2 hour walking tour. This was the same place we were in yesterday with the festival. Since we were there early in the morning, the festival had not started. We did learn a lot about the town and we saw it in a completely different way than the day before. Mass was at 11:00 at St. Cruciuskirche. The church was not big but absolutely incredible. Cameron served the mass with Father Seher and Father Umberg. After the mass was over, the boys sang Ave Maria. I'm not sure how my video turned out but I will definitely get a copy from someone. I'm running out of words to describe things! Suffice it to say, they sounded wonderful. After that we were free for about an hour or so to get lunch and visit some shops. Most hung around the main square listening to music and eating. We even had a dance session to some American music! It rained for about 5 minutes then the sun came out to end our stay in Erfurt. We were about to protest getting on the bus and leaving the festival but figured we would lose the fight! From there we had about a two hour drive to Halle on the way to Leipzig. The weather was not great – windy, cool, a little rain. We were only in Halle for about an hour and a half for a quick walking tour of the city and to learn more about the history of this town. It was very quiet – most shops and stores closed on Sunday. Georg Friedrich Haendel was from Halle (one of his famous pieces is Haendel's Messiah). We visited the Mendelssohn House which is now a museum with a lot of original instruments along with quite a few original pianos. The highlight of this tour was when a large group of adults and parents happened to be in the room with one of the harpsachords (sp?) and Dave Allen sat down at the keyboard and started playing! It looks like a piano but is smaller. I'm sure the museum workers were about to have a heart attack! He had enough boys in the room for them to sing the Alleluia chorus from Haendel's Messiah. Anyone who has ever seen one of the Glee Club concerts knows how impressive they sound when they sing this song. Definitely a once in a lifetime moment! I'll post a picture of this "kodak" moment from my phone.
We then boarded the bus again for the drive to Leipzig for a late dinner in a restaurant. Beautiful old restaurant. We were served a more typical German meal – beef stuffed with vegetables, potato dumplings and red cabbage. I think we were all a little spoiled with the hotel buffets from the last couple days. This one won't go down as our favorite meal but hey, on an 11 day trip, that's bound to happen. As a plus for dinner tonight, Gina and I actually got to sit with Cameron and Holden for dinner! That was a nice change.
We finally got checked in around 10:00 last night. Our hotel is on the outskirts of the main city so no walking around seeing the sites on this stop.
Monday morning, it's very cool (low 50's maybe?) has rained recently and is pretty dreary. The weather says it is going to clear up and be in the upper 60's later. Here's hoping! We will be leaving the hotel at 9:00 for a 4 hour walking tour before lunch. Then we have the afternoon on our own. Mass then a late dinner follows that. So, another full day.
I'll update again either later tonight or tomorrow morning. We do get internet here but only in the hotel lobby. I'll be ready to get back to normal internet services, that's for sure!!
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