Home!

Many hugs and tears were shared early Sunday morning as we said goodbye to our KRG host families.  The week was a whirlwind embracing music, history, language, culture and family life in this beautiful region of Germany.  Our trip home included much talk about visiting our Neustadt friends again soon!

Friday, Take Two

As I mentioned yesterday, Friday was so busy (actually we have been going non-stop every day!) that I'm just now posting pictures from our tour of Trier and pot luck dinner.  Trier is the oldest city in Germany and Roman ruins stand as sentinels around it.  Landmarks we visited included a magnificent domed church, roman baths, city gates, and palace gardens.  The weather was perfect and we also enjoyed some free time roaming the marketplace and doing a bit of shopping.
A pot luck supper awaited us upon return to KRG -- a feast was prepared by host families and topped off by a jam session enjoyed by all.  Saturday (today) was spent relaxing and enjoying activities with our individual host families.  They have shown us so much kindness and generosity throughout our stay here in Neustadt and we hope the friendships and music connections will continue. 
Tomorrow -- home!  Next week trip pictures from the week's activities will be added to the slideshow at right.  Enjoy!

Last concert

Today's activities are too numerous for one blog!  Pictures here are from the Wind Ensemble's concert this morning at Max Planck Gymnasium, a high school in Trier.  We were welcomed by a harmonica choir and filled an hour of music with many of our favorite pieces.  This was the third concert in three days -- running on empty but never showing it!!  Some of the best music was played today.
After the concert students from the school gave us a tour of Trier -- you'll have to wait until tomorrow's blog to see this fascinating and architecturally stunning city.  And we ended the day with a pot luck dinner at KRG hosted by the families that have been caring for us all week.  More on that tomorrow too . . . we can't believe there is only one day left!

Music 24/7 . . .

Or so it seemed today!  8 AM was the appointed hour for setting up the gym with staging, chairs, lights, etc. -- and at KRG the students do the entire set-up.  So HHS students got a crash course in concert preparation from the tech side.  The groups were on and off the stage in rehearsals for 6 hours, grabbed a few hours break in the middle of the afternoon and were back again in the evening for a three and a half hour performance!!  After bringing down the house with their musical prowess the KRG and HHS students took down the stage they erected this morning . . . so now it is late and pictures will have to substitute for words at this point.  7:30 AM departure tomorrow for Trier and our last performance.

Classes, comfort food, castles and concert

We were back in school this morning -- spending part of the day in classes with our hosts.  English, French and science classes seemed to be popular with our students.  The weather pulled us outside and into the countryside in the afternoon where we climbed up the hill behind Neustadt to an outdoor restaurant.  After tasting all sorts of German specialties we hiked to Hambach castle situated high above the local village where we were greeted with an expansive view of the whole region. 
Our first concert was scheduled early, so the castle-to-church hike down took on some urgency.  After a quick change of clothes in the church and a brief warmup, the students took to the stage and performed a magnificent concert in an acoustically spectacular space.  The Wind Ensemble and small groups lived up to their billing!