Some of you know that more than five years ago, my daughter-in-law challenged me to learn Spanish. At the time, my grandson was learning to talk, and his first language was definitely Spanish. I went whole hog into learning Spanish, and using Duolingo, a popular learning app, was only a part of the process, which… Read More Adventures in French Land
We are at the Saintes Festival and each day, the festival office sends us a link to a PDF of the program with artist biographies and the order of music. However, what is missing are any texts or translations, so Bill Potter has taken the time to research as many lyrics as possible to compile… Read More A massive wall of sound!
Today the first concert we booked was not until 6:00 pm, so we decided to drive to La Rochelle, a seaport town about an hour away. In case you’re wondering, I am doing all the driving while Bill Potter is doing the navigating. I am absolutely terrible at reading maps so it’s better this way,… Read More A day in La Rochelle
World-class, first-rate, wonderful, excellent, fantastic, amazing … We attended three concerts today, in fact, all five concerts that we have heard so far at the Saintes Festival have been over the top incredible. Unfortunately for us, the Festival actually began on July 12th while we were still on tour in Vienna, so we missed quite… Read More Running out of superlatives …
Our taxi driver was already waiting for us when I came downstairs at 3:20 am and within half an hour, Bill and I were at the Prague Airport with hundreds of other people. Our flight to Amsterdam left on time, but midway through the flight, the crew moved us to the first class seats because… Read More From Bordeaux to Saintes
It took almost the entire day to reach the city of Prague from Vienna, and there was only time for a quick walkabout in the city before our buffet dinner cruise last night. This was a three-hour cruise which started in the late afternoon but finished after 10:00 pm, affording us a look in the… Read More We are in Prague!
Today we visited the Belvedere Palace, which houses a collection of 24 paintings by the exceptional painter, Gustav Klimt, Vienna’s most important artist. Klimt was a founding member of the Secession movement. According to Wikipedia, Gustav Klimt (1862-1918): His work helped define the Art Nouveau style in Europe. Klimt is known for his paintings, murals, sketches, and other objets d’art.… Read More The perfect souvenir
Tonight we went to an Austrian tavern, called a “heuriger,” where the beer and wine flowed freely, along with traditional Austrian food, and musicians played raucous but familiar music, while the people sang heartily and loudly. The musicians, a violinist and an accordionist, asked what nationality we were, which gave them a clue as to… Read More Revelry at an Austrian “heuriger”
After driving to Salzburg this morning from Munich, we embarked on a walking tour . . . in the rain. Oh, we’ve had drizzles on this trip but today, I had the challenge of trying to take photos in the rain while holding my broken umbrella. I finally gave up and bought a new umbrella… Read More Mozart’s Salzburg
When organbuilder Hans-Ulrich Erbslöh was in Honolulu in May, we floated the possibility of seeing one another again while on this GoAhead Tour of Switzerland, Germany, and Austria. So today, Bill Potter and I “played hooky” from a walking tour of Munich and took the train to the Hohenschäftlarn station where Hans picked us up.… Read More An unexpected treat!