Saturday, July 11, 2009 - Graz to Salzburg.

Graz was a delightful experience and we could have spent days there but this morning we boarded the buses for the drive to Salzburg through beautiful forests, valleys, and villages filled with the alpine style houses with colorful window boxes on almost every balcony. The area is somewhat like the drives around Jasper with some mountains and lakes. On bus two we entered our second day of german lessons: Yesterday we learned numbers, today we learned the phrase: “Um himmel villen” or “for heaven’s sake”. Our destination at first was the small village on the lake called St. Wolfgang but chose to stop at a Benedictine Monastery at Admont. It is the home of the largest medieval library in the world. Though the monastery goes back to 1074 the present library was built in 1776 and was considered the 8th wonder of the world at the time and after visiting it we can understand why it was seen thus. It’s beauty is overwhelming, even against the large church it is beside.
Around 1:30 we boarded the buses to go to St. Wolfgang a tourist village filled, again, with beautiful houses of the Austrian style. We walked through the town, visiting shops, eating ginger bread(something the town is known for, it was good), and enjoying an air show that was going on above the lake beside the town. The town church was built in 976 A.D. - the oldest we’ve seen so far.
At 5:15 we got on a boat to cruise on the Wolfgangsee for around 50 minutes to St. Gilgen where we got on the buses to our hotel in Salzburg. The boat trip started in the sunshine but we entered a downpour but we still got an amazing experience of this lake. At our hotel we had our supper of veal goulash and spaetzle. Tired and a bit wet many made it an early night. PS: We brought along our own lounge piano player so we had some quiet entertainment in the hotel.

On the Bus

This is Bus 2

More from our Trip Thus Far

The Morning After - Leaving Vienna

After so many months of anticipation getting up this morning was a big of a downer as we boarded our bus in the rain to go to Graz the next stop on our journey. Fond memories of the night before were shared as we drove through the hills, stopping for coffee, and then at the Schloss Eggenberg a castle filled with beautiful works of art well preserved. The Schloss reflects the desire of it's builders to make sure that everyone knew they had a lot of wealth. The rooms are opulant and the paintings fill every room. This was an extra suggested by our guides and it was a great tour. We are getting to know and appreciate our guides Andreas and Pascal.

Arriving in Graz we were taken on a walking tour of the center of the city seeing some of the very old buildings from Graz's long history. At our hotel we got our rooms and shared supper together. Another addition was a tram trip for most of the choir that ended with a cable car ride up the mountain to the ancient tower the city is known for. It was at sunset with a majestic view of the city and surrounding mountains(with a Jazz performance at a nearby pavilion for musical background) We even gathered in front of the city hall at the fountain and sang our national anthmn. Our stay in Graz is only one night but we have seen enough to know a bit of it's ancent history.

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Some Pictures From Vienna

Walking to the last rehearsal

A shoe sale....

The Back Entrance to the church

Breakfast on the Danube

A Quick lunch on the street

More from the Creation

Rehearsal shots...

Ready to begin the concert

And taking a bow..

In this old house of worship, with the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra the choir finally reached this point of presenting Haydn's famous "Creation" as part of an evening concert that included a selection of American musical pieces. The church was packed and the concert was a success. To be able to be here, in Vienna, the home of Haydn was very special. After a standing ovatioin the choir shared a Canadian piece, conducted, as several other pieces were, by our own Dr. Joy Berg.
Brendon Lord's Christmas piece - A Song of Nativity. It is hard to describe such an evening so we will let pictures tell the story. It was also very special to have Joy conduct several of the pieces and be able to bring an Edmonton writers music to Vienna. We are so thankful to all those who enabled us to be here and give praise to our Lord. Concordia has come to Vienna and we have done our best.