Yesterday was another travel day, another day of schlepping our luggage on and off trains, up and down elevators, and through the London Underground, to travel from Cambridge to Worcester. It meant returning to Kings Cross train station, navigating our way through the Underground to Paddington Station where we could take a train to Worcester. The problem was that our train was delayed, and we got confused by the signs in the Underground, causing us to miss our train. However, we were able to get our train tickets validated for a later journey, and we arrived in Worcester only to have the first taxi driver refuse to take us to our boutique hotel. It was the problem of a rather short journey if you were on foot, but having to go “around the horn” and down pedestrian walkways if in a car!

Our boutique hotel is one in which all of the rooms are decorated differently. I would classify my room as “funky.”

Our first night in Worcester was the Olympic Games opening ceremonies, and in this morning’s Opening Celebration of the Three Choirs Festival, the homilist proclaimed the Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies a grand prelude to the Three Choirs Festival!

Click here to see a short reel about the Festival, which captures some of the excitement surrounding this annual event. The Three Choirs Festival is the longest running music festival, rotating between the cathedral cities of Gloucester, Worcester and Hereford. Since its beginnings in 1715, the festival has provided incredible music which has served as the inspiration for thousands.

This morning was the Opening Celebration—a service of pomp and circumstance, spectacle, grand organ music, a large choir accompanied by organ, brass and percussion, a grand procession of dignitaries wearing chains round their necks, multiple vergers, so many people wearing copes in the Cathedral Procession, hymns with descants, newly-composed music — in short, a day of great festivity! There was music by William Mathias, Peter Aston, Malcolm Guite, Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Neil Cox. There was also the national anthem, “God Save Our Gracious King,” — the first I’ve heard with those words since the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

We saw many, many swans swimming in the river, which must be some kind of city symbol, as even the utility boxes were painted with swans!

There are also many colorfully-painted penguins throughout the city, a charity event for St. Richard’s Hospice. Apparently there is a “happy huddle of forty big brrr-illiant, yellow-eyed penguins on display for eight weeks alongside forty chicks designed by local schools and community groups.” The trail is called the Great Waddle of Worcester, designed to “unite the city and create lasting memories along the way,” and includes 40 large penguins, 40 small penguins, 1 digital pebble installation, covers almost 5 miles, takes around 2-3 hours to complete, and is around 13,500 steps! (No, we didn’t do this … yet!)

There are actually five other events happening today, besides the opening celebration, plus six different performers at the Bandstand, but we are only going to one other event tonight, the Stanford Stabat Mater, plus Choral Evensong. It’s simply impossible to take in all the events of the Three Choirs Festival!

While we were visiting the Exhibition of local artisans, we found Rick Cicinelli and Noreen Naughton! You may remember that I used to see the two of them plus (former Lutheran Church of Honolulu choirmaster), the late Joe Hansen at previous Three Choirs Festivals. Noreen, who lives on Oahu, is the mother of Joe’s children and Rick is Joe’s former partner.