My European Adventure: Part 1

I recently returned from Europe as I travelled with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir during the European Tour. I decided that the easiest way to share my experiences and photos are through this blog. I hope that I can make this post easy enough to read as much or as little as you would like. Enjoy!!

June 27-28: Departure from Salt Lake City and Travel to Europe


Doug and I right before I left at Silver Lake

I woke up this morning full of anticipation for my upcoming trip, but also a sense of anxiety and sadness, knowing that I would be leaving my husband (and missing him like crazy) for three weeks. It was just last year that the Choir went on a tour, and I left my husband for two weeks. This was going to be an extra week compared to the last year, so I have been emotionally preparing for this day for quite some time. Doug was kind enough to take the morning off of work to spend some time with me. I decided that after I got some Euros, I wanted to go up the canyons and take a walk around Silver Lake. This is a fairly easy walk, and it was wonderful to be out in nature with my husband before I left.
After our little hike, we had just enough time to get to the airport for my check in. My flight went from Salt Lake to Atlanta, and I was travelling with 30 additional choir and orchestra members. As the flight was boarding, there was a significant delay because the plane was too heavy for takeoff, and they needed volunteers for people to reschedule their flight. Eventually, they found enough people, but it made our flight an hour and a half delayed. From Atlanta, we flew into Amsterdam, and had an eight hour layover in Amsterdam before we caught our flight to Berlin.

On a bridge in Amsterdam, waiting
for my canal cruise.

Because of the long layover, the Choir organization arranged for the 30 of us to travel into Amsterdam and take a river cruise. We took a bus from the airport to downtown Amsterdam. Although this canal cruise was absolutely beautiful, and informative, it was difficult to stay awake, due to jet lag. I was able to stay awake long enough to get a feel for what there is to see in the city when we would return later on in this tour. We passed the Anne Frank house, as well as the church that was next to her, as well as several museums and historic building, that I honestly cannot remember their significance.
We then returned to the airport, for our final leg of the journey to Berlin. I was so exhausted at this point that I slept the entire way,  which is very strange for me, as I do not sleep well on planes or busses. We finally landed in Berlin at 11:30 pm and arrived at our (very nice) hotel around midnight.



On the canal cruise in Amsterdam

June 29: Berlin
Despite our late arrival the night before, our day began fairly early with a trip to the Berlin wall. Although I slightly remember the Berlin wall falling back in 1989, I was much too young to understand the significance. The thing that stood out to me the most was how this time in Berlin was a scary time for people, and that there were people who risked their lives to either escape themselves, or help others escape from communism. I was also struck that all of this happened in the not too distant past. I spoke with several people from the older generation (my parent's age) on this tour at the Berlin wall, and they spoke about how they never even imagined the wall coming down, and the Soviet Union being somewhat liberated from communism. This was a wonderful, yet sobering experience.


Me in front of the torn down Berlin Wall

A view of the Berlin wall from a tall building across the street

 After returning to the hotel, we still had about two hours before we had to head to our sound check for our first concert. My roommate, Kate and I found a choir member who served his mission in Germany. We went to the mall across the street from our hotel to do some shopping and to find food. This would be my first experience trying German food, and I was grateful that we had someone who knew the food well enough to help us order. We all ordered currywurst, which is a German Bratwurst with a curried ketchup over it. They served it with fries and a lot of mayonnaise. It was delicious, but extremely fried and heavy. I could only eat so much of it.
We then headed to the Brandenburg gate, which is a significant icon of Germany. It was beautiful and well worth the short 5 minute walk from the hotel. On the way, we also passed by the Holocaust Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This has 2,711 gravestone-like pillars, and represents the Jews that were killed during the Holocaust.


The currywurst that I had for lunch



Me at the Brandenburg Gate

 We then had to walk to the venue of our first concert, the Berlin Philharmonie. This is the concert hall that the Berlin Philharmonic (which is one of the most renowned orchestras in the world) plays in, and is such a beautiful venue. It was rather surreal playing in this concert hall, as so many wonderful and historic performances and recordings have taken place in this hall.
The concert was very well received by those who attended. There was so much energy in the audience as well as the performers, that the feel in the hall was electrifying. One of the songs that the Choir performs without the orchestra is "The Battle of Jericho." After that song, there was an audible, "Oh yeah" heard from a member of the audience. I did not realize this at the time, but it was pointed out to me later, but that particular song probably had special, significant meaning to those in Berlin, more so than any other place we were going. This is because the people of Berlin really did have a wall that "came a'tumbin down."
The end of the concert was received by a standing ovation (which we were told were very rare in Europe) as well as synchronized clapping (which we were told was the equivalent of a standing ovation in America).

My roommate, and fellow bass player, Kate and I in front of the Berlin Philharmonie

Bass Section Photo

Standing in the Berlin Philharmonie



In front of the sign at the Berlin Philharmonie

June 30: Travel from Berlin to Munich
Today was not too significant of a day. Kate and I had a bit of extra time in the morning before we needed to catch the bus, so we walked around a little bit, then loaded on the bus for Munich.
This was a very long bus ride. What was supposed to be an 8 hour bus ride turned into a 9 1/2 hour bus ride. We were stuck on the back of the bus, and by the time we got to Munich, we were too bus sick in order to get dinner. So, we just stuck with getting some gelato, and wandering briefly through the town square of Marienplatz. This is a charming town square, and appears to have such a great history. We will return later. We then got back on the bus and headed to our hotel for the night.


In front of the Glockenspiel in Marienplatz


July 1: Nuremburg
We travelled to Nuremburg today for a concert. It is only an hour and a half from Munich. Much better than the 9 hour bus ride we had the day before. Since Kate and I got so bus sick from our last bus ride, we decided that we will do everything we can to be out to the busses early, to get a seat toward the front. Because of this, we were the first bus to arrive in Nuremburg, almost an entire hour before the lunch they were feeding us. Nuremburg is where the ballet "The Nutcracker" took place. They also have a world famous Christmas shop in the town square, about a 10 minute drive from our concert venue. Kate's mother made her promise to get her a nutcracker, so Kate was determined to go into the town of Nuremburg to this Christmas shop. I decided before I left that the only souvenirs I would bring home would be chocolate and Christmas ornaments. Because of this, I also had an interest in going to this shop. Since we were so early, we seized the opportunity and called a cab to come pick us up and take us there. I was happy I went, because I found an adorable German Christmas ornament that I will be excited to hang on my tree.

The front of my Nuremburg Christmas ornament

The back of my Nuremburg Christmas ornament

We made it back just in time for lunch and our sound check. After the sound check, we had quite a bit of time to wander around the grounds. I never realized this, but Nuremburg was a popular gathering place of Hitler and the Nazi's. In fact, I learned by wandering around that the venue we were performing in that evening, Meistersingerhalle, was the place that Hitler held his Nazi rallies, until it was destroyed in a bombing. Despite the colorful history of the hall, it was rebuilt, and had a beautiful sound to it. The concert went really well, although I feel not as well as Berlin. They also gave us a standing ovation. I think standing ovations are more common here in Europe than they led us to believe.
After the concert, we had to load onto our busses, and go back to our hotel, getting there around midnight.

A photo of an outside venue of a Nazi Rally. The photo was taken during World War II at a Nazi Rally.

In the photo from above, this is the building that all the Nazi's were standing in front of.

This is the field from the photo above that all the Nazi's were standing in.



On my walk, I found a metal slide that I just had to go down, since all the metal slides here in Utah have been removed due to safety.