Rottenburg: Old Friends and a glorious Homecoming

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Today was a wonderful reunion with Baden-Wurttemberg! We awoke this morning and drove to Rottenburg am Neckar, which is only a town or two over from Reutlingen, which is where I studied! We had a wonderful traditional Swabische lunch and then received a brief tour of the city from the Dir. of Cultural Affairs, which was wonderful because today is Pentecost, which is a National Holiday here in Germany. Valpo has study centers in Reutlingen, Tubingen and in Rottenburg - all of which are very close together, so the name is well known. After the tour, our driver whom we have affectionatly named Voldemort (although he is a kind man...just looks a little like him), managed to back the bus up a steep and narrow hill to the Church for the evening. Very impressive. The Church itself was beautiful. We had a brief rehearsal, ate a quick dinner and then headed over to our concert. The concert went beautifully and the packed house was overwhelmingly kind to us. We did two encores! Following the concert, Sam Wilson, Ryan Behrends and I (the 3 Reutlingen kids in Chorale) met up with two of our very favorite professors, the Brixners. The whole Chorale, members of the Kirchenmusik Hochschule that was hosting us, and the faculty (incl. the Brixners) had a wonderful reception and tour of the Hochschule. The school is really wonderful. It was simply wonderful to sit and talk with them all evening. They are two of the kindest people I have ever met and I learned a great deal from them. As we said our good byes and the three of us walked back to the hotel, reminiscing about past times in this wonderful area of this wonderful country, we realized that we will all be back someday soon. All in all a wonderful time spent in our German home.

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Photos

Our balconies all face each other
This spells trouble