Saturday, May 12, 2012

May 11-12

May 11:
 After our first night in our home stays of Boizenberg, we traveled to Lubeck for another day of sightseeing. Lubeck, like many cities of Germany, has new and old parts of town. People spent the day walking and seeing the sights of Lubeck, which include many churches, shops of all kinds, and Marzipan. Marzipan is famous to Lubeck and finding a store that sells it was recommended by some of the host families. It is a candy that oftentimes comes filled inside chocolate and has a very different texture than most other fillings. Some like it, others don't.

 We drove back to Boizenberg to prepare for our concert that night. We were all excited because we had been able to get to know the people that would be in the audience. They were also excited, and their enthusiasm made the concert amazing! We sang our set list and even did an encore. It felt so awesome to see people we had met just the day before so thankful and appreciative of the music we were sharing. After the concert we had a potluck style dinner with the families. Because it was a potluck, we had authentic dishes from the people we were staying with. When we were all filled with delicious food, we headed back home to spending another night getting to know our host families more. Sme students went out on the town and others were tired from the day and went to bed. As the other home stays, everyone had different experiences, so it was interesting to hear about them all.

 May 12:
 The morning was an early, but beautiful one! Boizenberg is one of the smaller towns we have visited on this tour, so the scenery is very different than what we have seen so far. Driving to and from home stays we were able to see the expanse of farmland and fields of Rape. Rape is a bright yellow plant that is used to make oil. It only blooms for a short time, so we were lucky to see it in its prime! "They are like sunshine," one host mom said. She was right too! When we first drove by them on the way to Boizenberg, every one was surprised and had out their cameras to capture these amazing plants.

Back to our morning departure... We loaded the bus, and Pastor Dino from the church gave us a blessing for the rest of our tour. Then, as we left, the line of host families stood waving to us as we pulled away from the church. We were all so touched by this and knew that this town and experience would be hard to top. The people and town were so welcoming, it will be a highlight for many! Our bus drive took us to Berlin. There we stopped at Checkpoint Charlie- the checkpoint where citizens in Germany would cross the border between east and west Germany. A part of it was a great museum that gave a lot of information about that time in Germany's history! We boarded the bus again and drove to Leipzig, Germany. We will stay here for two nights and perform at the St. Nicholai Kirche- the church Bach was a part of. It will be an early morning tomorrow for the church service, but getting to perform in such an amazing church will be a fantastic experience!

Fun in Lübeck!

Lübeck

Berlin Wall


Rape fields on the way to Boizenberg.

Boizenberg church and banner for us.

Berlin

3 comments:

  1. As I read, I felt the warmth of the families who hosted you in their homes, and it warmed my heart!

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  2. Thanks for the pics! Waiting to hear from you!

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  3. It's been 5 days....I'm having European tour withdrawal symptoms...

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