Day 7 (1JUL) - Krakow

We welcomed July with a wonderful breakfast at the Wyspianski Hotel this morning! All of us noticed, however, that out breakfast was missing eggs – we have gotten very used to having a choice of fried eggs, scrambled eggs, deviled eggs, eggs of every shape, size and variety. At the Wyspianski, they served us three choices of hot meat, lots of choices of cold meat, cheeses, cereal, fruit, breads, jam, apple or orange juice, milk and coffee or tea. Needless to say, no one is going hungry at breakfast.

We met Eva, our city guide, in the lobby of the hotel and took off on a three-hour walking tour. Yes, that is correct . . . three hours! Our hotel is very centrally located and it is so easy to walk to the Krakow town square – maybe three minutes walk. Our guide, however, took the three-hour way around and we were inundated with facts about Krakow. We visited the castle situated beside the Vistula River. We saw the dragon who lived there at one time and drank the river dry (ask your singer to tell you that story).

Back outdoors, we strolled to the city center and discovered that the Krakow town square is the largest in Europe – approximately ten acres. We toured the cathedral and climbed to the top of the bell tower and saw bells and clappers bigger than any we had ever seen before. The climb up to the tower was very interesting . . . many of us were wondering if Michael Millane was going to be able to squeeze through some of the tiny passageways. He made it, but we’re not sure how.??? The cathedral was breathtaking, as so many of the churches we have seen are. So beautiful and with such excellent acoustics. We were outside a little before noon and watched the trumpeter play the “hourly” melody which ends very abruptly as he moves from one window to the next to the next to the next. Again, your singer can explain that story to you – it involves a bow and arrow sometime long, long ago.

We broke into small groups for lunch and free time. Most of us shopped a little and purchased gifts for friends back home. Amber is prevalent in this part of the world, and I’ve seen a few amber earrings (Hallie) necklaces (Tracy) rings (the Hug girls) and even a bracelet . . . Wow . . . so beautiful.
Our first rain of the trip came while we were shopping. Most of us had not carried our umbrellas, of course, but it didn’t last too long. While it did last, however, it really poured!

We met at 2:45 at the Bell Tower and walked to the Dominican Church for a rehearsal. We met Father Thomas, a Dominican priest who had invited us to sing and, of course, he asked if we could participate in the mass. (We had not planned to because we were singing a concert there afterwards.)
We also discovered that the 7:00 mass we had planned to attend was actually at 7:30, and our 7:30 concert would be moved back accordingly. Therefore dinner, scheduled for 8:30, was not going to work. Peter and Eva to the rescue! They walked to the restaurant and talked them into serving us at 6:00 before we sang. A really good move! So, our schedule became….

3:00 Rehearsal
4:00 Free time
5:30 Meet in the lobby of the hotel and walk to the restaurant
6:00 Dinner (guess what? Schnitzel again!)
7:30 Mass
8:15 Concert

I can’t remember the last time one of our singers fell apart during a concert. But tonight, Avery Dauphanais almost brought us to our knees laughing. We begin “O Desayo” with Jack Kessel, Drew Millane, Hallie Clark and Mackenzie Sandor playing percussion instruments along with Ray on the piano. For some reason, Jack didn’t play on beat “1” so the others didn’t play on beat “2”. We were all expecting to hear them, and when we didn’t, Avery got the giggles which became more intense and almost uncontrollable. Several of us started laughing with her, and I think maybe the song was more exciting because, at last, everyone was smiling! I don’t think this was our best concert, but I think the audience thought it was wonderful!

We walked from the Dominican Church back to our hotel and most of us made sure our suitcases were packed, brushed our teeth, crawled into bed and were soon very sound asleep! Z Z Z Z Z Z Z z z z z z z z z

Sandy Miller