The Journey Begins (May 27th - 28th)

It was an early morning on May 27th. Today was the day that the choir would leave for our tour in Germany and Poland. Our group was split into two groups, one leaving earlier than the other. Our flight arrangements had us flying from MSP in Minneapolis to Chicago. The earlier group would have a longer lay over in Chicago until our overseas flight. I was in the second group so my morning was not as early as others. I was at ease. I had not worried about packing (maybe a little), and I was at ease about traveling. This European choir tour is not my first tour, nor my first experience abroad. For many other choir members, this was their first time leaving the country. At this time I will list for you my choir travel experience and times abroad. This is not intended to boast, but rather to show my veteran status as a experienced touring choir member.

MN Boychoir

• International Tour to Canada (not so much international but we still flew)
• National Tour to New York City
• National Midwest Tour
• International Tour to Australia 
• National Tour to Alaska (Cruise)

Bethel University

• National Southwest Tour (Arizona and California)
• National Midwest Tour
• National Tour to Colorado
• International Tour to Poland and Germany

Basically touring is not a new thing to me and I am accustomed to the constant moving, traveling in large groups of people, and have a rigorous rehearsal and performance schedule. I knew the drill when we got to the air port. 

Our first flight was pretty normal. Most of the choir was super pumped just to get to Europe, as was I. We had some down time in Chicago before our next flight so we got some lunch/dinner and bought ourselves snacks before boarding for our overseas flight. For the long flight we were flying with Luftansa. It was a nice service and the flight attendants seemed pleasant well enough.  On this flight I was somewhat separated from the rest of the pack. I was the only choir member in my area. I was seated somewhere in the mid 30's. This placed me directly in the section behind business/first class with my back to the bathroom wall. This also meant that very few people passed me to get to the bathroom. I was on the middle aisle seat on the left. The seats went 3-4-3. I was the 4th seat. As the flight started to take off, it dawned on me that there was no one to my right. I had two empty seats between me and the next person in the center. This meant that I had plenty of room to stretch out if I needed. I made it my goal to get enough sleep on the flight there. In my past experiences I have stayed up the entire trip watching movies. Fortunately there was not much of a movie selection of movies that I would want to see on the flight. I slept as much as I could and I did not feel that tired after arriving in Frankfurt. 

After we collected our bags in Frankfurt, we boarded our two coach buses and we departed for Heidelberg for the day before busing back to Darmstadt for our hotel. Nothing to report on the ride to Heidelberg. Heidelberg is a lot like Edinburgh. It has an old city and a new one, separated by the bridge and the river. It was a nice town and it has a university. The thing that stuck out to me was that the city is old, but it was made to look old. What I mean by this is that the buildings are older than they probably appear, but everything looked super new and clean. I have a hard time believing that these buildings were from the 17th or 18th centuries which is what I was told. But this is just my observation and opinion. I could very well be wrong.

Once there, we grouped together in groups of 4 because we were given money for lunch (not much I might add). I went with my roommates for the tour. Jeff was my direct roommate and Corbin O and Corbin M were my other two. We walked around parts of Heidelberg with no idea of where to get food. Places were either not open or we were not interested. We could not find a place where we would not be forced to use some of our own money. I convinced them to stop in a bakery and we can pick stuff up there and eat it along the river. That is what we did and it was delicious. It turned out better than we could have thought. 

After lunch we walked around a bit just exploring the town. Below are some of the pictures that I took while exploring the town. Mind you there are more pictures but I just selected a small number.

This is the church that sits in the the platz in the center of town. I assume its the main church.

This is the bridge that connects the two sides of Heidelberg. It reminds me of the stone arch bridge in Minneapolis. When standing on the bridge I noticed that if you looked on way, down the river you could see industry and grayness. If you looked the other way you would see green and earths natural beauty. 

We decided to climb up to the fortress/castle that overlooked the city. We did not go in the front gate, rather we found a back route up the backside behind some houses. Having had a class on medieval castles from the 11th century to 1550, I am well versed in the characteristics of castles. Depending on the structures, I can estimate in what centuries certain structures belong.  Some of the castle looked like it belonged to either the 12th or 13th century based on the fortifications and the partially collapsed round tower. Other parts looked much more palatial with many windows, and that was a post 14th century even 15th century addition. Turns out I was correct on that point as well. 

This is the more palatial structure. You can tell by how many windows. Castles in the 12th and 13th centuries were more heavily fortified with small windows to be more defensive. This many windows are not defensive. This palatial structure is supposed to emote power and authority. The fact that its a castle is more symbolic than functional. 

This is an older part of the castle. This is definitely 12th or 13th century because of small defensive windows. It is hard to see in this picture, but the walls are extremely thick implying that this was a defensive tower.

The view from the top of the castle was spectacular. You could literally see all of Heidelberg. Heidelberg was in the palm of your hand. It was also warm, yet with a nice breeze, making our time at the top very enjoyable. The sights were endless. I could have easily stayed up there for a while just relaxing and looking out over the town.

Afterwards we walked down from the castle and crossed the river where we found some other choir people and we sat with them in the sun. Everyone desired warm weather and sun. It had snowed two weeks earlier in April back at home. So warmth was a welcomed commodity. After basking in the sun for a bit, we boarded the bus and headed for Darmstadt where we had dinner in the restaurant and took showers. Some people went exploring in the town. I just decided to go to bed early so that I would not be tired the next day. Yes I missed out on seeing part of Germany, but I wanted to get onto a regular sleep schedule so I would not feel super tired in the coming days. Our tour was front heavy with lots of things to do in the first few days. So for me it was important to prepare for that.