Expect the Unexpected

MANNEHEIM-- Sorry no posting from Salzburg, it was just a really quick visit and the 15 minutes I was allotted for computer time was devoted to email. I'll try to catch you up best I can...

We left Vienna bright and extremely early Wednesday. Salzburg's about a 5 hour drive, so we broke it up with two pit stops along the way. Our first stop was in Melk, a beautiful mountain village. We enjoyed a guided tour of the monastery--the cathedral is amazing, built in the Baroque period with lots of gold and pastel murals. Despite the cold and the spitty rain, we learned a lot and had a good time seeing such magnificent architecture.

After a brief 2 hours, we headed on to Linz. I usually do a bit of homework and learn about a place before I visit, but unfortunately I still know nothing about Linz. All I can tell you is that it's very cute, set on the Danube River, with nice shops and great ice cream. We split into groups for a quick lunch and a bit of free time. I believe the highlights were the oh-so-intense giant chess game between Owen Belcher and Stephen Strickland along with riding the yellow sightseeing train back to our buses.

We got to Salzburg at around 6 PM our time, just in time for a dinner of tomato soup and turkey. My sources say it was great; I skipped dinner and met up with a friend of mine from Munich. After dinner most of the kids were led on a long (LONG) walk which the students are now calling the Battan Death March. Our winds and brass players were the exception, since they stayed at the hotel for an extra rehearsal along with Ms. DeHollander, Mr. McDaniel, and Mr. Stewart. They are a dedicated bunch and didn't complain for a second.

Thursday morning we woke up for a guided city tour of Salzburg. We saw Mozart's birthplace, a couple of beautiful churches, the university, and roamed around together admiring the fountains and the other details that make their architecture unique. The plan was to then grab a quick lunch and meet up before unloading the bus and preparing for our afternoon concert.

Everything went well until the point that we saw our performance venue. The stage would have comfortably fit about 25 musicians rather than our 56. However, the bigger concern was the fact that the whole area had been converted into a construction site. While sitting on the stage discussing our options, we stared at a pile of gravel and watched a crane operator slam a dumpster into a historic site (and almost kill Hunt Russell). It was decided that we should not play in such a dangerous area (not to mention noisy and insulting). After trying unsuccessfully to find another place to perform, we were given more free time to enjoy the beauty of Salzburg.

I don't want this to become the Sarah Wright blog, so these times in our schedule are difficult to write about. I can tell you that some people went up to tour the castle and the museum of medieval torture devices, while others sampled foods at the biergarten, and still others shopped till they dropped. I escorted a delightful gang to Mirabell Gardens, where we rolled down grassy hills, took pictures of roses, and sang the Do-Re-Mi song from The Sound of Music.

Dinner was pretty tasty: chicken breast with gravy, a brothy soup with semolina dumplings, and apricot cake. Some of us walked off the calories while others decided to crash pretty early back at the hotel. Friday's wakeup call was 6 AM and most of wanted a good night's sleep before our salt mine adventure!