Our Grande Finale

We wrapped up our tour of Classical Europe today, with a tour of Vienna, the classical music capital of the world. The list of composers who called this city home is virtually the same as the "Who's Who" of classical music, including Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, Schubert and many more. The group saw the main sights of the city, and several of the monuments to these composers.

After a few hours of free time in the city center, we dressed up (they sure clean up good!), and went to our grande finale event - a guided tour of Schoenbrunn palace, followed by dinner and a concert at the palace. We even got to perform at the conductors request. (You'll have to ask how we did!)

This is truly a great group of kids, and you should be proud of everyone of them. I have never been on tour with a better group of people. Right now I have a combination of tunes going through my head: some Mozart and Strauss from the concert, and the lyrics my generation might know... "The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades." There's no doubt this group of young men and women make for a bright future. I told them tonight they may not realize the memories they've made this past week right at this moment, but as they sink in and they remember the incredible sights they've seen, I hope they cherish them for a lifetime.

Well, our wake-up call is set for 3:30 a.m., so it's time to sign off and get a few hours sleep. See you tomorrow!

A Rollercoaster Day (part 2)

In the afternoon, we continued on to St Florian in a relatively quiet bus. We had some time for a bit of a late lunch, and then had a private organ concert at the beautiful church which is part of the monastery. This was the same organ played by Bruckner, and the concert lasted about 20 minutes. After the concert, we had a private tour of the monastery. The bus was quite a bit louder after visiting St Florian, en route to Vienna, where we arrived in time for a late dinner (thanks to a few traffic jams on the autobahn).

So it was a bit of a rollercoaster of emotions today, but a good day full of experiences I hope the group will never forget. Tomorrow (today as I type), we will tour Vienna, have some free time, and wrap up our day with our grande finale - a tour, dinner and a concert at Schonbrunn Palace.

A Rollercoaster Day (part 1)

Today was a bit of a rollercoaster ride for the group. We departed Salzburg, en route to Vienna. Our first stop was at Mauthausen, a concentration camp from WWII. We split into two groups, and Michael and Stephan lead us through the camp, explaining its history and what really happened here. It's a somber experience to visit such a place, but it's educational too. At the end of our tour, Michael told us, "Why do we do this tour? Because it is our responsibility to remember what happened here. We have a responsibility not to close our eyes and ears to this, and to say something when we hear people that still believe in this wrong ideology, or say a (improper) joke about what happened." We spent longer than expected at Mauthausen, as most of the kids wanted to see the 45 minute movie in English that is offered, or to take the time to walk a long distance down the hill into the quarry where the prisoners were worked to death, to try to understand more what happened to these poor souls.

Picture: Mozart and the gang

Today the kids wound up their tour of Salzburg with Mozart.

Picture: On tour in Salzburg

The group on tour in Salzburg with the castle in the background.

Some fun at the Hofbrauhaus our first night on the tour in Munich.

It appears I can only post one picture per blog entry, so I thought I would post some more pictures. Here is the view we had of Neuschwanstein.