Today marked the opening service of the 289th Three Choirs Festival, and I could not help but think the Brits do it best—the pomp, the pageantry and the sheer grandeur of it all. In many ways it was like the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, with the entrance procession lasting 20 minutes! As we… Read More Who can match the Brits?
My charming bed-and-breakfast is located in the English countryside! I left the Barcelona hotel shortly after breakfast for a flight to Bristol, England, en route to the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester. After spending every single night in a hotel for the last four weeks (!), I decided to make a booking at a bed… Read More Unexpected visit to Wells
This morning, our bus journeyed to the Benedictine Abbey of Santa Maria de Montserrat, located about an hour north of Barcelona. We stopped at the foot of the high mountain and took a cable car ride to the top, affording us spectacular views of the vista below, in spite of hazy conditions. The first thing… Read More Pilgrimage to Montserrat
I could have spent DAYS at the Basilica Sagrada Família here in Barcelona, and even more days at the Sagrada Família shop! It is the most visited tourist attraction in Spain, with more than 3 million visitors per year. Designed by Antoni Gaudi in 1885, it has been in a state of construction for 130… Read More I could have spent DAYS …
After an early wake-up call at 5:00 am, I met our tour group downstairs where we were handed a takeaway breakfast and headed for the airport. We were told that because of the latest terror attacks, getting through security would take extra long. What was strange was that our group of 16 only had a… Read More Barcelona Cathedral
I did not return from Bourges to my Paris hotel until nearly midnight, so I had a leisurely morning trying to repack my suitcase. We leave for Barcelona at 5:30 am tomorrow! This afternoon I met Andrew Dewar, organist, at the American Cathedral of Paris, also known as The Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity.… Read More The American Cathedral
Nathan Laube: “Would you like to go up to the bell tower?” Kathy: “Sure, why not!” Little did I know that after Nathan led me up all the steps to the organ loft at the Cathedral of St. Étienne in Bourges, that was only HALFWAY up to the bell tower. It was not until I… Read More The height of insanity
If there was one thing I wanted to do while in Paris, it was to go to the Sunday mass and organ concert at St Sulpice, the church made famous by the book, The Da Vinci Code, and the church where I had heard my former teacher, Marcel Dupré, improvise all the Sunday services while… Read More Late night change of plans
Today was our first full day in Paris after a welcome dinner with our GoAhead tour last night. The tour has 15 people in it, with a great mix of people, young and old, a much more manageable number than we had in Iceland. Pilar is our guide—she is Scottish, but Spanish is her… Read More All the Paris highlights … In one day!
Je suis bien content de vous voir. I’m so glad to see you. The last time I was in Paris was in 2010, six years ago. It was Carl’s first trip to France, and 42 years since I studied with Marcel Dupré when I was a teenager. I can’t believe how things have changed—especially the many… Read More Bonjour, Paris!