(Not sure what happened to my original post so I will try this again)Today was a bit bittersweet as the tour winds down and we spend our last full day together. I know many of the students are ready to come home as they are not used to being with their peers 24/7 for the past 13 days.
We started off the morning with a trip on the Metro to the Louvre. We had about 2 hours in the museum, but you could honestly spend days in there if you really wanted - there is so much beautiful artwork! After the museum, we walked down past Notre Dame which is still under construction due to the massive fire. It hopefully will be completed by 2024 for the Paris Summer games. We visited one of the best ice cream shops in Paris where students were able to get up to a 3 scoop ice cream cone. Wow is an understatement on how delicious this ice cream was. That will be on my list to visit the next time I am in Paris. The students had the rest of the afternoon on their own in Paris to grab some food, go shopping and visit other places that they desired. Our final dinner was a dinner cruise on the Seine. Everyone dressed up to celebrate a successful tour that we had over the past 2 weeks. Our first course was escargot which for many students was their first time trying it. Suprisingly, many said that they enjoyed it, while some didn't quite care for it. The main course was sea bass and mashed potatoes follwed by a chocolate mousse cake for dessert. Our final birthday on the trip was Mandy our equipment van driver that followed us everywhere driving around our instruments. Tomorrow we head back to the United States to celebrate July 4th with our families. This trip has been nothing but amazing for the directors, staff and students. I personally enjoyed traveling with my former students that I would always talk to about my traveling adventures and getting to see them traveling many for the first time was nothing short of amazing. As I always tell all of my students - dream big and never stop exploring. The world is your classroom - for many this was the first class exploring what other cultures have to offer, for others they have been doing this for years. Everyone that stopped to listen to the concert even if for a few minutes were all inspired by the talent that these students all have. I hope you have enjoyed reading about our adventures in Europe...until next time! Today was our first full day in Paris. The temperatures got into the 80’s. Our first excursion of the day was a bus tour of Paris where we got to get out and take pictures at the Eiffel Towers base. We were able to see all of the highlights of the city from the comfort of the bus. Our local guide was very informative. Our second stop was where Napoleons remains are located. We were able to take some fun group pictures there.
Once we grabbed some lunch outside of Luxembourg Gardens. This was our largest turnout and the Parisians were incredibly supportive. The gardens were absolutely beautiful and we were able to get an amazing group shot on the steps to celebrate our accomplishment of completing all of our concerts. Our birthday of the day was Kianna who turned 17! We enjoyed pasta, pork roast, salad, French fries and an amazing chocolate cake. Our last adventure of the day was using the Metro for the first time in Paris. We went to the Champs Elysees to walk around for around an hour before we headed back to our hotel. It was absolutely beautiful with the sun setting behind the Arch de Triomphe. It was a lovely day in Paris. Today's travel recap will be super short as we did not do to much other than sit on a bus and drive to Paris. The bus ride didn't encounter much traffic so we arrived to Paris in a decent amount of time. Once we arrived we went to the Hard Rock Cafe Paris and were able to choose from 6 different menu items along with a brownie for dessert. Many got the bacon burger along with the veggie burger, chicken strips and salad.
Once we arrived to the hotel - the students had free time and I ran into many walking across the bridge where our final evenings dinner cruise will be. After a long day of travel, seeing the sun set over Notre Dame was the perfect way to end the day. I still remember seeing the fire on news channels as I was teaching that day and feeling so heart broken. Tomorrow we will be doing a bus tour of the city and our final performance of the trip. Today's adventures took us to Freiburg for some shopping and food tasting. Freiburg sets up a farmers market in the squares and they have many homemade crafts, fresh berries, bratwurst and so much more. There is a munster/minster in the center of Freiburg which was absolutely beautiful inside to see the stained glass windows. Many students took part in shopping at the stores/department stores to pick up some necessities that they might want for the rest of the trip.
Marc S celebrated his 16th birthday today, so we all sang to him at dinner and gave him a delicious pastry from the Freiburg market. The jazz band performed at Lake Titisee and the rest of the band sat around and listened to them perform all of their songs. The students from the Realschule in Kirchzarten that had pen pals came to not only listen to the jazz band but talk to their penpals. Some of the German students were so giddy to meet their penpal in person. They were able to have lots of freetime after the concert before our cruise around the lake. Unfortunately a storm rolled in, it was showing red and pink on the radar map, with lots of lightening caused the cruise to be canceled by the Captain. We all headed back to the hotel for dinner before Bus 3 went to the nunery. We enjoyed Chicken Pallard, peas and rice along with black forest cake for dessert. The students all enjoyed some freetime before bed checks as we have a very long bus ride to Paris tomorrow! A warm summer day greeted us this morning as we celebrated one of the directors, Mr. Nobile, 40th birthday. The kids signed some cards, sang to him in multiple languages and we enjoyed a birthday cake at dinner. We were able to sleep in which was much appreciated by all of the students and staff before a buffet breakfast. Our first stop of the day was the open air farm museum. This museum has buildings that show the history of the architecture, farm animals and many other interactive areas. The students competed in a scavenger hunt to find answers around the museum. The top 6 winners were: Kara H, Peyton Z, Sawyer Z, Matthew T, Caitlyn S and Marc S. They got to choose from among some cuckoo clock magnets or German candy as their prize.
After we left the open air museum, we had the highlight of the day for many which was 2 rides down the roller coaster. It's not a typical roller coaster but you sit on a cart and it has a go and brake. You could ride down as a tandam and I must say it was fun watching the students see if they could beat each other's speeds. I believe the maximum was 50 km per hour - Mrs. Husler and mine was 31.1 - so they were flying! We were able to stop at a grocery store to stock up on some water and snacks as they are much cheaper there and have more variety. It is always fun trying new flavors of chips and such - the students favorite so far that I keep being told I need to try is Paprika! Our dinner was held outside and was a pasta bar with lasagna, penne and spaghetti and many different types of sauces along with a variety of salads. To top it off we had some cheesecake tarimasu topped with different fruits. Before dinner everyone had some free time, and as I write this, I have a big smile on my face hearing all of the kids outside of my room just sitting around talking, joking and playing cards! Tomorrow we will be visiting Freiburg and having a Jazz concert later on in the day. Beautiful sunny day here in Germany. We took a bus ride to go to Heidelberg Castle where we were able to tour around the grounds for awhile and grab some lunch. The Castle wasn't completely opened as it is currently undergoing some renovations. The vanicular took us up to the castle so we didn't have to walk up the super steep hill. Before we departed for the Black Forest, we grabbed a bite to eat before many of us took naps on the 2 hour bus ride.
Once we arrived at our hotel we quickly changed and started our concert which is right in front of the hotel. We are nestled in a valley, the 3rd bus is at the nunnery a little ways away. Unfortunately it is not allowing me to upload any of the photos that I take on my camera (it lets me upload from my phone - so I will upload them once I get a wifi that likes my computer). It was awesome seeing the kids playing card games, taking hikes, seeing the animals and just sitting around talking. We are getting some fresh mountain air and it is a perfect balance to the city style we had this past week. Tomorrow we will enjoy some activities around the Black Forest including the open air museum and roller coaster. Today is a pretty long travel day departing from Amsterdam to Frankfurt, Germany. After about 3.5 hours of driving, we arrived in Cologne, Germany where we were going to tour the Cologne Cathedral. This Cathedral is of the gothic style and looks almost black on the outside. Many students were looking forward to going inside the Cathedral and looking at the stained glass windows. Many don’t realize but to read a stained glass window, you start at the bottom and read left to right and bottom to top. We learned that to make it a Cathedral you need to have relics and a bishops chair. The relics inside this cathedral are the 3 wise men. Each year on January 6th, they open up the gold tomb and display the skulls that are topped with crowns. We were able to grab some food in Cologne before starting another 2.5 hour drive to Frankfurt. Some students climbed the towers during the free time or visited the gift shop.
Once we arrived in Frankfurt we had a bit of free time before and after dinner. We enjoyed salad, soup, bread, pasta, chicken, fish and sauerkraut, peas and carrots and potatoes. Some students enjoyed the swimming pool that this hotel had before bed. Tomorrow we are headed to Kirchzarten. Cool and brisk between 60 and 70 degrees. We were split into 2 groups this morning where the first group went to Anne Frank's house to strt off and the second group started with a walking tour of the city.
The walking tour allowed us to learn about the architecture of the city. Some fun facts that we learned along the tour are: Many of the buildings have slanted fronts to their house to keep the rain from going straight down on the bricks. Many of the houses have a lifting hook outside to help get furniture in the house since they have such tiny stair cases. Amsterdam is actually all built on posts since the soil is sand and it is actually below sea level. There are canals all over and it is commonely refered to as the Venice of the North. Our second thing of the day was going to the anne Frank museum. We were unable to take any photos in the house. It was a very humbling experience and all of the students were completely silent through the self guided audio tour. The annex was above a warehouse and just thinking about how silent the kids and parents had to be to go undetected for the 2 years was surreal. The annex was hidden behind a book case where they actually had to jump up and walk up these extremely steep steps. The annex consisted of an extremely small bathroom where they could only use it at night because the pipes ran through the warehouse below. There were 4 rooms for 8 people and that included the living area and kitchen. It totally brought into perspective how issolated they were for those 2 years compared to what we thought was bad for during the shut-down. We got back on the busses and headed over to the Van Gogh museum. There were 3 levels to the museum. I know many students, and myself included, were looking for Starry Night, however that is in MoMA. Many of the paintings were painted within a 3 year period and were funded by his brother. The self portraits and how they changed over the years was very interesting. Our last stop of the day was a canal cruise. It lasted about an hour and we listened to some history about how the canals work to keep Amsterdam dry. It was very enjoyable to sit back, talk to some friends and view the city from the water. We are on to Germany tomorrow and will have some predicted rainy weather to deal with in Cologne. A cool brisk morning greeted us this morning in Brussels. The group was split into 2 groups, 1 that started on a walking tour and the other at the Chocolate Factory. The highlight of many was the Chocolate Factory where we learned all about the history of chocolate and how to properly store chocolate. Once we got the background of what actually makes up chocolate, we went downstairs into the basement where each of us was given a hair net and apron that we needed to wear to prepare our treats. We had some add-ins like raspberry, almonds, hazelnuts, sweet chili pepper, raisens and others. We were able to create one bar in the mold with any combination off add-ins, dark, milk and white chocolate. While one partner filled the mold the other was tapping the cooling rack to get all of the air bubbles out. They allowed us to keep making different shapes out of our chocolate on the wax paper - so you could take everything that you made. Some creative shapes, even a penguin were made and will be enjoyed later on the trip.
On the walking tour, we saw many historic buildings in downtown Brussels. We learned about the history of the city, the peeing boy that Brussels is famous for and some information about the architecture of the buildings. This tour was about 2 hours and we stopped to grab food to eat before our concert. The concert was held in a large gazebo in the park. It reminded me of a carousel. The locals were dancing, clapping and requesting more songs to be played. Not more than 10 minutes after we finished and loaded up the equipment van, the skys opened up and down came the rain. Thankfully we were super close to the bus so we didn't get that wet. We had about a 3 hour bus ride to Amsterdam. The first sighting of Holland windmills along with lots and lots of farm fields. It was very relaxing and many enjoyed a nap. Once we arrived to Amsterdam and checked into the hotel, we enjoyed some vegetable pasta salad, chicken, bread, brownies and fruit salad. The students enjoyed about 2 hours of freetime where they rented bikes, went to art exhibits, went grocery shopping and more. I heard many raving reviews about the chocolate tour today and being able to enjoy their yummy work. |