Great Rutland Chorus Concert Tour of Austria

The start of our walking tour of Munich on our first morning

Quite a crowd was gathered already in front of Grace Church in Rutland, VT when we arrived at Noon. Scott is a member of the Rutland Area Chorus led by Rip Jackson and we were going on a concert tour of Austria. Walt & Honoree Cooper dropped us off; they stayed at our house while we were gone. The bus was the most comfortable spot we had for the next 36 hours; we napped on our way down to Logan airport. Our Lufthansa flight left at 10 pm that night. Happily there was great selection of movies as I didn't sleep a wink; it's a 3 movie flight with breaks for OK food.

This concert set up was in the courtyard of the "Residence"

Our schedule after arrival was rather brutal; the idea was to keep us up and hopefully get us used to the 6 hour time change quicker. We had a walking tour of Munich, which frankly was somewhat of a blur - except for the fun Gay Pride Parade through the center of the city (it was 96 degrees!). This was followed by lunch at the Hofbrauhaus, a famous beer garden downtown. Due to our size (74 people; 59 singers and 15 family members) we had to eat upstairs in a cavernous hall. Downstairs they were whopping it up with a Umpapa Band. Our appetizer were delicious and so was the pork roast, but the huge gelatinous "dumpling" was inedible for everyone.

Next was a 2 hour bus ride up to Oberndorf and the Still-Nach-Kappelle "Silent Night Church" where the carol was first performed December 24, 1818. Librettist Joseph Mohr and Composer Franz Gurber wrote the famous piece. The chorus gave a short performance in the tiny interior. After a brief walk over to the lovely view of the river Salzach and the lower village we continued on to our hotel in Salzburg, arriving at 7 pm. Dinner was luckily in the hotel dining room and was very good. We managed to stay up until 10 pm before falling to sleep exhausted. More in my next post.

Outdoor concerts happen all summer around the city

Our tour had a long wait while the Gay Pride Parade passed by

There were lots of participants and floats

of all kinds and sizes

And a huge cheering audience

Lunch at the Hofbrauhaus, unfortunately upstairs

Inside the "Silent Night Chapel", that's Rip in the center

The outside of the tiny church

The view nearby over the lower village of the small town of Oberndorf