Choir Tour to Catalonia: The Latest — 13 April 2011

Hello!

Given that the facility exists (after a long period of trying to hook up to the hotel W-Fi network), I’ve decided to give a short little update on our progress on this Catalonia tour so far.

I am having simply the best time. Clutching to the wooden trunk of the nearest palm tree, the weather’s been excellent thus far.

The flight (my first) was smooth, and I was — contrary to regular news reports — pleased to find my own suitcase awaiting to be picked up after we touched down in Barcelona.

On Monday, we enjoyed a brilliant day at the famous Sagrada Familia. For all its hype, the outside walls were somewhat disappointing. Inside, though, it was magnificent, with tremendously modern stained glass windows.

A short 45 minute concert was in the evening, which was nice.

Yesterday (Tuesday) was also nice: we spent the morning rehearsing in the hotel conference room, had lunch at the hotel, then enjoyed several hours of free time (which many of us chose to spend on the beach). We had a longer concert last night… once we finally arrived at the destination! The bus driver got the wrong church, abandoning us at a run-down building, two and a half miles away from the real church. But we got there in the end, and were able to sing a few songs at the mass beforehand, as an ‘advert’ for the concert. The audience loved it, giving us a full standing ovation at the end. And, better still, even Gillian made a special mention to our ensemble group (who performed at the concert) on the coach home, congratulating us on bringing it all together at the last minute — and “making a very good job of it”.

This morning, we’re off to Port Aventura, a theme park about an hour away from the hotel.

See you on Sunday!

Andrew