Mountain Climbing...Chorale Style

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These past two days have been filled with a large amount of exercise. I find this to be a good thing, but I think I may be in the minority. Yesterday morning, we began our day with a hike up the hill to the Hochschule for a lecture that Dr. Cock was giving on American Music. We were the demo choir. The lecture was actually very interesting and we had fun. We then jetted off with Prof. DeMaris to Hohen Zoellerin Schloss. The castle is located atop a large hill. Half of the hill can be climbed with a car. The other half must be climbed. It was the hottest any of us have been since we were here. We were disgusting while we were sitting at lunch. The tour of the castle was neat, though I have been on it before. I always think it is interesting when a current monarch still owns the castle. We then got on the bus for our 8 hour bus ride back to Leipzig. This morning we awoke and headed out to Bernberg. It is a small town where the concertmistress of the Leipzig Baroque Orchestra teaches. We had lunch and did a walking tour of the Schloss...unlike any other walking tour we have been on. First off, the guides didn't speak English. This didn't bother me though. The climb to the top of the tower was insane. It was a long way up, but it was also dangerous. Stairs that were easy to fall down...hiking off of "cliff" edges. And of course, today was tour attire, so we did this in dress clothes! It was fun, though. Then we visited a torture museum...not so fun. We finished our walking tour, rehearsed and then went to dinner. They booked us at a place that was too small for us...brilliant. So 12 of us had to eat outside. In the rain. And cold weather. I was one of the 12. Definitely an interesting experience... Concert went extremely well. We have our final concert with Leipzig Baroque Orchestra this evening in Kothen followed by 3 services at the Thomaskirche. Be sure to check out Valpo's website for that blog and photo collage!

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