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Published: October 25th 2011
Lobby
Getting ready to head to rehearsal...So, waking-up in Salamanca, knowing that our entire group (at least who we expected to have at this point) are here… That felt fantastic.
We woke-up at 7-something to get cleaned-up and have breakfast before a 9am rehearsal at the Palacio Figueroa, which is a place often-used for concerts and other fine and performing arts. Rehearsal went until noon, which was good, since we hadn’t sung together since being in the US. Rehearsal went very well, and the space was nice, not super-live, but not dead, either.
After rehearsal, Daniel and I wandered a little bit, found a couple of shops where we got some new scarves, a sweater, and some gloves. It’s kinda cold here, so the scarves are particularly nice to have. After some shopping, we walked around a little bit, got a touch lost, but made our way back to Hotel Abba Fonseca. But on our way, we felt like a little homecooking, so we had McDonalds with two other members, Melanie and Ben. I had a “McIberia” burger, which is a cheeseburger with a special cheese and Serrano ham.
At 3pm, we started a walking tour of Salamanca, led by a woman named Carmen,
So Good!
Brendan being a good choir member, studying music before rehearsa... who was really quite good. She showed us a lot of details throughout the Old City, including the old university, various courtyards, finally leading us to the Cathedral, which was even more amazing up close than from a distance. After seeing some beautiful architecture, including a little frog that was put into the building’s sculptures in defiance of some people in the church, we went inside, where it was beautiful and had a really nice acoustic. We got permission to sing a song while we were in there. We sang a strain of Biebl’s Ave Maria, which (if you don’t know it) is one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written. It was a very special moment.
After the walking tour, Daniel and I came back to our room, where we took a nap. We had to be ready for an 8pm call and 8:30pm performance. The venue was pretty packed, which was very satisfying. We sang a varied set of music, which included a Japanese song, some Basque pieces, a Sephardic song, a pop song, some American folk songs, a spiritual, and a blessing. Jacques Maitre did the little announcements before the songs, utilizing cue cards
Plaza
La Plaza Mayor of Salamanca. from Daniel. Jacques did a lovely job, in my opinion. While some of the singers felt that it wasn’t maybe our best performance ever, the audience was very appreciative and moved by our performance.
After dinner, we went to a restaurant with the whole group, one of our planned group meals. It was a place called El Bardo. They served a torta for the first plate, then lamb with French fries, some lettuce and tomato, and finished with a cream dessert with strawberry drizzle. Wine was freely flowing. In thanks for excellent food and service, we sang Ubi Caritas for the workers. They liked it quite a bit. The room was quite good and we felt really great after singing that song in the restaurant.
Now I need to wrap this up so that I can get some sleep. We leave for Burgos tomorrow.
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