Packing for the tour

Was geht?

As we start thinking ahead, the Choir Managers have prepared a packing list, which you can find here and in the Tour Info on the right side of this page. Take a look, to see if there are things that you should be considering now. Also, a previous post (We really ARE going to Europe!) has some other useful tips.

One of the items mentioned on the packing list is a currency conversion sheet. I brought a bunch of these on our China tour, gave them all away, and wish that I'd brought more. Now you can print a few for your own use. They're very handy for figuring out how much you're actually spending when you're in a restaurant or shop. I made them fairly small to be pocket-sized (with some scissors). By putting the exchange rate into the yellow cell of the Excel spreadsheet, all of the amounts automatically update.

Bis bald

The Virtual Tour

If you'd like to take a 'virtual tour' to see some of the places we'll be visiting, I've taken Sandra's PowerPoint presentation and separated it into lots of links for easy Internet exploration.

By the way, if you want to look at the PowerPoint presentation, but don't have PowerPoint installed on your computer, you can download a free PowerPoint Viewer from Microsoft.

Days 1&2 (FRANKFURT - SPEYER)

• Travel, then arrival in Frankfurt, Germany.


• Transfer to Heidelberg for a guided city tour, free time for lunch and shopping.


• Continue to nearby Speyer


• Musical and cultural exchange for the choir


• Free time for strolling and exploring


• Welcome dinner at the charming Domhof Restaurant & Beergarden


• Italian Ice-Cream for dessert


• Stay at Intercity Hotel

Day 3 (SPEYER)

• Guided City Tour


• Recital at Kaiserdom


• Official Reception by the Lord Mayor in the historic town hall at 11 a.m.


• Free time for strolling/shopping


• Rehearsal


• Concert in St. Josef Church at 7 p.m

Day 4 (SPEYER-EISENACH-ERFURT)

• Continue to Eisenach & Erfurt


• Guided City Tour of Eisenach


• Visit to the Bach Museum (Recital)


• Free time for lunch, strolling


• Continue to Erfurt


• Check-in hotel and enjoy town


• Rehearsal & Concert at a local venue to be arranged


• Stay at Best Western Excelsior

Day 5 (ERFURT-CHEMNITZ “our sister city”)

• Morning at leisure in Erfurt


• Drive to Chemnitz


• Guided City Tour of Chemnitz


• Check-in at Hotels


• Welcome Reception by the Lord Mayor of Chemnitz


• Choir sings in the Town Hall followed by special guided tour


• Formal Dinner at the Ratskeller (Historical Cellar Restaurant) hosted by the city of Chemnitz


• Stay at Mercure Hotel

Day 6 (CHEMNITZ)

• Morning sightseeing tour to the nearby Augustusburg Castle


• Treasure Hunt for the Singers at the Fortress of Rochsburg


• Free time in Chemnitz and opportunities for cultural exchanges


• Begegnungsfest for the choir


• Rehearsal


• Concert at Markuskirche at 7:30 pm

Day 7 (CHEMNITZ-DRESDEN-PRAGUE)

• Drive to Dresden, orientation tour


• Choir sings at Sunday Mass or enjoys cultural exchange in a small town en-route to Prague


• Choir continues to Prague


• Orientation tour upon arrival


• Stay at Hotel Merkur

Day 8 (PRAGUE)

• Morning sightseeing tour of Prague with visit to the Castle, St. Vitus Cathedral (Recital) and Charles' Bridge


• Rehearsal and free time for lunch


• Concert at St. Nicholas Church at 2 pm


• Visit to Bertramka Museum (Mozart's Prague Residence, Recital)


• Free time for strolling


• Special Czech Dinner

Day 9 (PRAGUE-VIENNA)

• Drive to Vienna


• Half-day sightseeing tour of Vienna, entrance to Schubert's House, visit to Schoenbrunn Castle (Recital)


• Free time at the famous Prater


• Special Dinner


• Stay at Hotel Ananas

Day 10 (VIENNA)

• Morning at leisure


• Rehearsal


• Choir sings High Mass at Stefansdom followed by a formal concert


• Highlight Concert at St. Anna Church


• Farewell Dinner
  
  

We really ARE going to Europe!

On Saturday, April 14, most of the Touring Ensemble and their parents had the opportunity to meet Sandra, our tour director, and the singers enjoyed lots of great German food. Since I was out of town, I enjoyed my great German food today!

Based on my wife Amy's notes, I'll summarize some of the key points. Dr. Jacobs will send me the Powerpoint soon so that I can share it on the blog. I'm looking forward to seeing it myself.

• Bringing traveler's checks is not recommended due to extra fees and possibly poor conversion rates. An ATM card (and PIN) is a good way to go, as well as bringing some Euros to get by at the start of the trip before you have a chance to withdraw from a machine.
• Since most lunches are not included in the tour price, consider allowing about 10 Euros per required lunch.
• Bring some granola bars, trail mix, etc., if you need to supplement for any possible food that you may not like -- but at least try it!
• Tipping is 5-10% for a very nice restaurant. No restaurant tipping is expected in the Czech Republic, however.
• Expect temperatures in the upper 70's to mid 80's during the day.
• All electrical outlets are 220V (2 round plugs). It's a good idea to check the AC input voltages on your camera battery chargers or any other electrical devices that you plan to bring. Many can handle a wide range of voltages (including 220V), but you need to make sure. If you don't need a transformer to change voltages from 220V to 110V, then you can get by with just an adapter to go from our American plugs to the European outlets.
• An additional $20 will be needed from each person to cover airport tax and fuel surcharges.
• Also, another $20 will be needed from each singer to cover the cost of the four T-shirts that they will receive. For those new to this, we have four tour-specific shirts of different colors. On certain days, certain colors are worn. Other days are free selection (following the rules, of course).
• If you want to start looking ahead on the Internet, you can generally find out about a certain German city by typing its name followed by '.de'. For example, for Chemnitz, type www.chemnitz.de. For Austria, use '.at' instead of '.de', and for the Czech Republic, use 'cz'. You will USUALLY have the opportunity to choose English. If you don't, you can go to http://babelfish.altavista.com/ and use it to translate the website from German to English. The translation is usually pretty entertaining.

Well, that's enough for now. Lots more in the coming weeks.

Auf Wiedersehen

A Touring Choir Smoothie

Just add good music, hard work, some travel, a lot of fun, and be sure to blend well.

Change is Good

A change of scenery can be good every now and then, so here we are on a new site. Hopefully this will avoid some of the reliability problems with the other website, and will allow for a bit more creativity.

So welcome! This should be a fun journey

... and thanks, Denice for the suggestion and setup.

Welcome to the Touring Ensemble Blog!