My European Adventure: Part 3

July 6- Concert in Zurich
We had to get up early this morning for our concert in Zurich. Since we were also permanently leaving Munich, we had to pack everything out of our hotel. Our bus ride to Zurich was rather uneventful, although long. I went to Switzerland 11 years ago with the BYU-Idaho chamber orchestra. I remember Switzerland being lush and green, with several lakes around. However, the countryside we drove past was farmland, and looked rather dry and brown. It must have been a different part of Switzerland that I went to last time.
We arrived at our venue for our concert that afternoon, where we went to lunch. We ate lunch rather quickly, and still had about an hour and a half before our sound check began. So the bass section decided to wander around Zurich.
Our first stop was a church that was near our venue. The outside looked magnificent. So, we thought the inside would look as amazing. However, we discovered that inside, although still beautiful, was rather plain and modern. It was nice to see a non-touristy church where regular people came to worship. We didn't stay long, and decided to move on.
As we were walking along, we saw a grocery store. Since I knew this would be our only opportunity to buy Swiss Chocolate, I insisted that we went in. I ended up buying three bars of chocolate. One of those, I promptly ate, since I was feeling rather in the mood for chocolate. I was excited to find a Toblerone bar, since they are made in Switzerland. I know that we have them readily accessible in the US, but I wanted an authentic Swiss Toblerone bar.
When we returned, we had our sound check. The venue for our concert that evening was different than what we have experienced during this tour, but very similar to all of our venues from past tours. We were in an arena, call Hallenstadion. This is the home to the Swiss Hockey Team. It took a little while to get used to the sound, since it was so different than what we were used to, but I felt confident for our concert.
After our sound check, we went to dinner, then had some time to chat with other people before our concert. Our concert that night was wonderful. I was starting to get a little tired of our repertoire, but I had to keep on reminding myself that the people who came to our concert were experiencing it for the first time. Several also traveled very far to make it. That was what motivated me to perform my best during our concerts.
After the concert, we loaded the busses and began a 5 hour journey to Frankfurt, Germany. We finally arrived very tired at our hotel at 3:00 in the morning.
July 7- Frankfurt
Kate and I decided to sleep in as much as we could this morning to recover from the day before. Late night bus rides are really not that much fun. We went out attempting to find breakfast, but for some reason, could not find a place to eat near our hotel. We finally stopped just trying to walk and see where it took us, and instead, googled a place near us to go. We found a restaurant close by that served delicious food. We made it just in time for the lunch rush.
We then decided to return to the hotel and see if we could find a group to tag along with to explore Frankfurt, since we had the entire day there. When we entered the lobby, we found that there was a group waiting there to be shown Frankfurt by a member of the choir who grew up in that city. Kate and I decided to join that group.
We left, and rode the subway to the old part of Frankfurt. Our first stop was right as soon as we got off the subway. This was one of the oldest and biggest churches in Frankfurt.



One of the oldest and biggest churches in Frankfurt. I didn't get that great of a picture, but the outside was beautiful.

It was a beautiful church, but we didn't linger there for long. We then went into the old town square of Frankfurt. It is such a charming town square, and the architecture there is in the style of traditional Frankfurt.

In the old town square of Franfurt

Another view of the old town square in Frankfurt

I was really happy that we went with someone who knew this city very well. Our tour guide, Sonja, who is also a member of the choir, was able to give us lots of information about this town square. Once building there is still being used as a courthouse, where one the main things they do is perform wedding ceremonies. The law in Germany requires people to be married civilly before having a religious ceremony performed, and this was the main place for those marriages to take place. There was even a wedding getting out the same time we were there.
There is also a building that before soccer was big, after the German soccer team won a game, they would stand on the balcony of this building and be greeted by the fans below cheering them on.
We spent enough time for us to grab some gelato and move on. We then crossed a bridge into the museum part of Frankfurt.


On the "Love Lock" bridge, overlooking a beautiful church.

The bridge that we crossed over is called the "Love Lock" bridge. Couples come and place a lock with their names carved on it, on the bridge. They then lock it up, and throw the key into the water, meaning their love will never be broken, or "unlocked."
We only made it halfway across the bridge, before we turned around and headed to pass by the new opera house, the old opera house, and into the modern town square of Frankfurt.

The skyline of Frankfurt

The Euro statue in Frankfurt

In front of the beautiful old opera house of Frankfurt



A bear and a bull. Apparently if you touch them, it will bring you good luck.

We then ended our tour by going into the Gummy Bear shop. Gummies were invented in Germany, and so even though I am not a huge fan of gummies, I had to buy some. Kate and I then wandered around on our own. We went to the mall where the longest escalator was, which was 7 stories. Kate and I also wanted to knock some food off of our "German Food bucket list." So, we found a berliner, which is a jelly filled pastry donut with powdered sugar. We also found a doner kebab, which is very similar to a Greek Gyro. We ended the day by getting more gelato, and stopping by the Frankfurt Christmas Shop, where I was able to buy another Christmas ornament.

Eating a berliner

My doner kebab



The Christmas ornament that I found in Frankfurt

July 8- Heidelburg Castle
Kate and I woke up this morning and went searching for breakfast. We started walking, then Kate had the brilliant idea to google a bakery close by. We found a charming bakery in a neighborhood of Frankfurt where no one spoke English. We ordered some pastries and delicious hot chocolate (which was steamed milk, and a chunk of chocolate on a stick, that we stirred into the steamed milk to melt). I found it rather interesting that this bakery was on Mendelsohn street, which was right next to Beethoven street.


The corner of Beethoven Street and Mendelsohn Street

We then loaded the busses to Heidelburg. The Heidelburg castle is a Renaissance era castle that portions were built in the 1200s. It was destroyed by fire three different times, either due to war or lightning, and was rebuilt, and added onto several times, up through the 18th century. There is only one portion of the castle that is in its original form, and was never rebuilt or restored. This portion was built in the 1500s. I don't remember much about the history of this castle, but our tour guide was a charming Dutch lady named Hagar, who had quite the sense of humor explaining the history of the castle, including making a point when we were right under the drainage system to the toilets. The castle was amazing, although in ruins in some places. It was wonderful to think that I was touring around something so old.

The main courtyard of the Heidelburg Castle

A different view of the main courtyard of the Heidelburg castle

An old wall on the castle that had several famous people carved into statues.

Overlooking the town of Heidelburg from the high point of the castle



Behind me is the tower where they kept prisoners as well as the mote. They kept animals in the mote for hunting. Our tour guide called it lazy hunting.

After our tour, we had a little bit of time to explore the town of Heidelburg and get some lunch. Heidelburg is a somewhat touristy town, and we found a cute Italian restaurant. Everyone ordered something different, and everything we ordered was delicious. We also found a grocery store, where there was "Milka" chocolate on sale for a really good price. I decided that since I was gone so long, I would buy my coworkers chocolate to give them when I got home, and bought that chocolate here. Because it was a warm day, and the chocolate was in my hands all day, it melted. Hope my coworkers don't mind melted European chocolate.
We then headed to the main bridge of Heidelburg, where you are greeted by a monkey and some mice (statues of course). Legend is that if you touch the monkey, you will have a great chance of returning to the town, and if you touch the mice, you will be blessed with either fertility or posterity, whichever stage of life you are in. The monkey also has it's rear end facing the street, and is built in the face of a mask, mocking tourists of their silliness. I still got a picture of me in the monkey mask.

The tram ride down to the city. I was lucky enough to get a front row seat.



With the monkey in the town of Heidelburg

July 9- Frankfurt concert
Kate and I decided to take it rather easy today. We went back to that yummy bakery for breakfast, then just wandered around our hotel for the morning, before heading to our venue for our concert.
Our concert was held in Jarhundenthalle in Frankfurt. Nothing too significant happened with this concert, it was just very hot. I don't believe the air was running at all, and I was sweating during this entire concert. People loved this concert, and were very happy to have Sonja (my Frankfurt tour guide from a couple days ago) be there for the concert. I think she was more the star of the show than we were. But, they were a very appreciative audience. We also got some very comfy stools for that concert. They looked like stirrup chairs that you see in a gynecology office, but they were so comfortable. The only downside was that they were extremely tall, so I had to put my endpin out almost all the way to accommodate.


My funny looking, yet very comfy stool.

July 10- Church in Frankfurt
Today would be our last day in Frankfurt. We started the day out with church in our hotel. One of the best parts of being on tour with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is that when we have church, it is amazing. The music is always beautiful, and the talks are so inspiring. We heard from Elder Kearon, who was our visiting General Authority. He is also the area authority of the Europe area. He mentioned how we were such a blessing to the saints in Europe, who are going through such difficult and scary times. There have been several terrorist attacks in Europe in the past few months, and he told us that our music brought peace to a troubled nation. It was very touching to hear how our presence there was helping people find peace.
After church, Kate and I headed to our rooms for a much needed nap. We then met up with other members of the bass section for a boat tour down the Main River. This was a relaxing way to spend our Sunday evening, since we didn't really want to walk around anymore. We then finished our time in Frankfurt with a delicious meal. Today just also happened to be the hottest day in Europe that year. Good thing our boat was covered so we could sit in the shade.
As we were heading back to our hotel, we found some choir members in the old town square of Frankfurt, and these members pointed out a memorial for a famous book burning that happened during Nazi Germany. It was a beautiful, yet harsh reminder of the terror of Germany during World War II.

A view of the Frankfurt skyline from the Main River

Kate and I on our river cruise of the Main River



The Frankfurt book burning memorial