August 8th

We got to sleep in this morning, all the way til 7:30! This morning we left Berlin for good, but not before we had visited the Jewish Museum and the German History Museum. The former especially was chilling and very effective. 

The afternoon was spent in Halle, birthplace of the great George Frederick Handel. His former residence had been turned into a museum, with lots of interesting artifacts including manuscripts, portraits, a fancy golden music stand and best of all, a collection of historical instruments! 

 

Due to an unfortunate circumstance with the electronics, I do not currently have access to the instrument pictures. I will have to make a separate post for those when I can. They are so awesome they kind of deserve their own post anyways. 

August 7th

We did better with the 6:30 wake up call than I thought we would. Funny how it's a lot easier to get up in Germany than it is to get up for Saturday rehearsals.....

We drove out to Potsdam, about an hour away from Berlin, and toured the recreational palace of Frederick the Great. This Prussian monarch was famous for playing the flute, composing very brief symphonies, jamming with CPE Bach, speaking French instead of German, having philosophical discussions with his friends and making war on all the neighboring countries. His palace is known as the Prussian Versailles. There were a lot of concert rooms, including one with the very harpsichord on which CPE used to play when he visited. In order to protect the floors from maurading feet, we were all required to wear huge fuzzy slippers over our shoes. We all thought this was Too Funny. An orchestra member who shall remain nameless had a bit too much fun skating and crashed down on his or her behind. 

We had lunch in central Potsdam and took in the European housing squish and cobbled streets. The rest of the day was spent in Juterbog where we performed our second concert. The church was from the 13th century, Catholic-turned-Protestant, with a sense of space and venerable age and a musty smell like a Grimm fairy tale. Our concert organizer performed the Bach c minor Toccata on the huge organ (one of two), and between rehearsal and concert we climbed up the bell tower for a fantastic view. 

Pictures!! Lots of pictures!! I figured out pictures!!!

August 6th

Amid flotsam and jetsam, lost luggage, forgotten bags, oversized percussion boxes, missing timpani and missed boats, the CYO Germany tour is well underway! 

Yesterday (August 5th) was spent flying, driving around Berlin and sailing down the river Spree in the rain. We are staying near the centre of Berlin. 

Today we were awakened at 7am and went on a driving tour of the city. We saw the Brandenburg Gate, remnants of the Berlin Wall, the Tiergarten, the Reichstag and Potsdamer Platz. It was sobering to imagine the Wall, or the two walls really, with No Man's Land in between. We also saw the concert house where the Berlin Phil plays. Awesome! 

We visited two museums, the Gemalde Gallerie and the mighty Pergamon. The Pergamon has the great Ishtar Gate from Babylon, the Market Gate of Miletus (a city on the Ionian coast in Turkey), and the Pergamon Altar from the Hellenistic world. The sheer size, the scope of space was stunning. Wonders of the ancient world!

This evening was our first concert, at Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church quite close to our hotel. Successful, especially given our jetlag, and the audience stood up and seemed to like it. Even Mr Agopian mentioned our "professional sound", and boy, when he's impressed, anyone should be. 

I will not be able to post as many photos as I would have liked, due to the wifi here which takes ages to upload each photo. I will post as many as I can. 

When I get home I will make an extra blog post and put the rest of the pictures up.