Monday, 28th of July, 2003
Thursday, 24th of July, 2003
I'm doing everything possible to solve the problem of my room being the warmest room in the house. One thing that I realized I could do to help it was to replace the 3 60W heat-generating incandescent light bulbs on the ceiling fan that I like to turn on all the time. I went to Home Depot and found some 13W flourescent replacement bulbs. I put in two bulbs, and realized that the room was already brighter than what it was with the 3 60W incandescent bulbs. I think I'll keep it that way.
Thrusday, 17th of July, 2003
Friday, 11th of July, 2003 - Chicago, IL
Loading the cellos and our luggage onto the plane
Everything made it in once piece - even the box of music stands!
Thursday, 10th of July, 2003 - München, Germany
Didi and Helmut in front of our tour bus. They have to drive back to Austria where they live.
In spite of the numerous requests from the audience for CDs along the trip, we managed to hang on to the ones we brought and present them to Didi and Helmut as tokens of appreciation.
The München airport was filled with digital displays.
This one has a problem...
The München International Airport, with glass gates corridors..
Flying over Germany
Our luggage at Dulles International Airport
After being delayed at Dulles for 3 hours due to a series of storms between Washington, D.C. and Chicago, we were finally able to fly.
But that also means we miss our connecting flight to St. Louis. Not having called ahead to get on the last plane to St. Louis, we end up staying overnight to get on a flight for the next morning. United Airlines doesn't pay for our hotel, because they don't take responsibility for weather delays, but our travel insurance does.
How are we going to send our letter to our Congressman if they don't refill the boxes?
Camping out as Mrs. P phones around to find a hotel with enough non-smoking rooms for all of us.
Guess we'll have to take the elevator...
An interesting part of O'Hare International Airport
Wednesday, 9th of July, 2003 - Salzburg, Austria - Germany
If you park here, your car will be schlepped.
From Salzburg we head for München, but we stop at Mittenwald in between to spend a couple hours performing and looking around.
There were several castles built on the side of the mountains on our drive to Mittenwald.
Entrace to the Swarovski factory outlet center
View of the Alps at the Swarovski factory
We have avid fans of Lance Armstrong with us, and they've been tracking his progress in the Tour de France for the entire tour. On the bus ride to Mittenwald, Hilary and Rebecca serenade us with Lance Armstrong songs. The tunes sound awfully familiar, though.
Movie - Here is the end of one of the Lance Armstrong waltzes that calls for his picture being put a stamp, considering the USPS is his biggest sponser.
More of the countryside in the Alps
"Climb every mountain..."
As much as I would have loved for a picture of us in the Alps, we didn't take the time to organize it so this is as close as it gets.
I would also like the motorcycle in the Alps like this fellow, but I don't think that can be arranged.
Our tour bus in the Alps
The German Autobahn through the Alps.
The city center of Mittenwald, with a little channeled stream that runs through it.
The restaurant we ate at for lunch was nice enough to let us store our sound equipment there, since obviously the bus couldn't wait anywhere while we ate lunch, set up sound, visited the violin museum, and go do some shopping. Of course, this was the back room of the restaurant - we had to schlepp all the stuff through it first.
Let's hear it for the red Subaru Legacy - in Mittenwald.
How about the red Forester? It's time to back the tour bus into the small roads of the city center and load the sound equipment. Didi and Helmut makes sure that everything is on before we pull out - not that we can wait around with this gigantic thing blocking the road or anything.
The red Forester is schlepping quite a load of... grass.
Hannah, flowers, the Alps, and a silver Audi Allroad. It doesn't get much better than that.
SMART car in Mittenwald
Our last stop in Europe was München (Munich), Germany, where we celebrated and got on the plane to head back to St. Louis.
A tunnel in the German Autobahn.
German Autobahn with electronic signage.
At the hotel in München, we have dinner and celebrate a little. Everyone hand Rebecca your camera...
Didi, Mr. and Mrs. P, and Helmut
Kevin proposes a toast - Ega-shegadre!
Movie - Rebecca and Hilary entertain us with the Lance Armstrong songs again.
After dinner and happy
Mr. Ginsburg completing currency exchange transactions
Partying and taking pictures in the hotel room
Ashish describes Eric's wallet as "insanely large".
Reid is famous.
Hilary's version of taking nap.
Tuesday, 8th of July, 2003 - Salzburg, Austria
Playing with the toys in the hotel lobby.
Mirabell Gardens, looking towards the Salzburg Castle.
The girls doing their Sound of Music pose at a gate where they filmed part of the Do-Re-Mi song.
Mirabell Gardens, looking towards the Salzburg Castle.
The baroque Horse fountain in the Residenzplatz in front of the new carillon of the Bishop's Residenz. St. Michael's Church sits on the left.
Inside the Salzburg Cathedral, with a view of 4 of the 5 original organs, each with mirrors for the players so they can see the conductor stading on the Cathedral floor when a piece that calls for 4 organs is being played.
The fifth organ in the rear, a contemporary model.
More views inside the Salzburg Cathedral
Panoramic view from the castle, constructed from 7 pictures: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
St. Peter's Cemetery, with catacombs dating back to 215 AD.
A view out the window of Mozart's birthplace.
Carriage ride through old Salzburg
A view of the the Residenzplatz, with the Horse fountain in front of the Salzburg Cathedral and Residenz, and the St. Michael's Church to the right.
A sleepy bus after a day spent walking around in Salzburg.
I was trying to read the hygrometer outside the hotel, only to see it rise 1% as I breathed on it. Kevin one-upped me by modifying the humidity reading by 10%.
Meanwhile, Ashish demonstrates his ability to balance a marker on his nose.
Monday, 7th of July, 2003 - Graz, Austria - Salzburg, Austria
An underground retail area next to our hotel in Graz.
We journey from Graz towards the Alps into Salzburg.
Ms. Siebke practices on the bus ride to Salzburg.
The views of the Alps as we journey to Salzburg
Maybe the curfew extension was not such a great idea after all.
In Salzburg, another form of mass transportation that's popular are electric busses that draw electricity from the power grid.
We found this explanatory letter in our hotel room.
Helmut, our tour guide, leads us through the streets of the Salzburg city center to get to our concert venue, Kapitelplatz.
Arriving at Kapitelplatz
Unloading the sound equipment off of the minibus
Performance at the Kapitelplatz (pictures taken by Natalie)
Reid completing his sound tear-down job - speakers, so we can load the sound equipment into our minibus.
Sarah has fun with the toys they've provided in the hotel lobby.
View across the Salzach River towards the old downtown Salzburg, with the Salzburg Castle dating from 1077-1500 sitting on the hill.
The view of Salzburg from the castle, with the Kapitelplatz in the lower right corner.
Climbing our way into the castle for the chamber music concert held there that evening.
View of Salzburg from the top of those stairs.
The view from the other side of the castle - mountains in Germany.
Inside the castle, before entering the concert hall.
Sunday, 6th of July, 2003 - Vienna, Austria - Graz, Austria
The Gloriette at The Schönbrunn Palace
They have these things here too.
The outdoor stroll at St. Stephan's Cathedral revealed that we really needed wind screens for our microphones. I got some 6€ headphones at Niedermeyer, took the cushion off of one earpiece, cut it up with Mrs. Thomas' Swiss Army scissors, and taped them together with Ashish's scotch tape.
With makeshift wind screens on our microphones now, we make our way to Graz.
Lunch en route to Graz - a typical situation. Helmut, our tour guide for the entire trip, explains to the waitress what people wanted to eat while we looked over the menues.
Kevin's an expert at avoiding sunburn. Being skinny also helps when you're trying to use the shadow of a flagpole to block the sun.
Rapids artificially constructed in the Mur River in Graz.
Fascade of a building in Graz.
The streetcars run through a pedestrian zone, which is decorated by blue and green lights to celebrate Graz as the European Culture Capital of 2003.
Architecture of a square in Graz.
The sewed together clothing to make a red-carpet-type walking path for us to walk on. Firearms hung from the ceiling, and the racks were full of old muskets.
The museum also had an impressive collection of antique knives and swords used in battle.
The women were also stylin' with their armor. This is one of the more modern items in the museum.
Of course, we have to have armor for the horses too, right?
Halfway through the tour it started raining. It only lasted a few minutes, though, and the sun came out again. Rapid changes in weather were common througout the entire tour.
A backery that has been around since 1569.
Stairs leading down from the 13th century Graz clocktower, which sits on the Schlossberg.
The countryside along the drive up to Bad Gams.
Performance at Westeirische Hof.
Saturday, 5th of July, 2003 - Vienna, Austria
The Schönbrunn Palace garden.
A view of the Schönbrunn Palace garden and Vienna from the Gloriette.
Miriam was one of the ones who went on the early morning runs through the Schönbrunn garden and up to the Gloriette with Ms. Siebke.
Franz Josef Church, which sits on the Danube.
Inside St. Stephan's Cathedral
The front area of the Cathedral
The organ in the rear, and pulpit again.
The organ pipes at the front of the church tower towards the ceilings.
Inside the Museum of Musical Instruments
Picture with our tour guide in Vienna in front of our hotel, which was across from Schönbrunn
St. Stephan's Cathedral
Gathering at the Vienna city center after walking on our own in the afternoon.
A panoramic view of Vienna from the Vienna Woods, with a view of the old and new Danube and the Millenium Tower, constructed from 4 pictures: 1 2 3 4
Coming down from the Vienna Woods, we spot a rainbow.
The City Hall at sunset, with a free concert being shown on a big screen.
Austrian Parliament building at night. The shack on top of the Parliament Building is rumoured to be Helmut's apartment.
Friday, 4th of July, 2003 - Budapest, Hungary - Vienna, Austria
As we drive from Budapest to Vienna, we enjoy the Hungarian countryside, which is filled with fields of sunflowers.
According to the border control officer, there hasn't been a line this bad at the Austria-Hungarian border in 20 years. There's got to be a faster way to get through this.
After finally crossing the Hungary-Austrian border, we make our way to Vienna.
Highway in Vienna
The Schönbrunn Palace garden with a view of the Gloriette.
A green model of a piano.
Ms. Siebke looking sharp after our performnace in front of St. Stephan's Cathedral.
Thursday, 3rd of July, 2003 - Budapest, Hungary - Kecskemet, Hungary
There is a portrayal of the map of Budapest in tiles on the hotel lobby.
Is the one reading the newspaper from our group? Sure is. "Look at Ms. Hollywood", says Mr. P.
We unload at the farm at Kecskemet. Recent dry weather has caused the dirt to turn into sand in the rural areas.
Reid's a nice guy. He offered to carry everyone's backpack while we were there.
Everyone takes turns trying to crack the whip.
After messing with the whip, there is a Hungarian style rodeo show.
Ms. Siebke gave the kids too early a curfew the night before, so the Hungarian cowboy is treating her with a traditional trick with the whip. Disclaimer: Ms. Siebke was not hurt in the process of producing these photos.
The cowboys have trained the horses to be in all sorts of unnatural positions.
Now it's our turn to show off our horse riding skills.
Hannah riding shotgun on the trail ride.
I could have told you from the very beginning that this is how Didi, our bus driver, rallycrosses on his spare time.
Hannah and the cowboy.
Steafanie gets her goulash.
We eat lunch with live Hungarian music playing. The black instrument is Hungarian, and produces sound by striking mallets on stretched strings.
We perform back in Budapest that afternoon at the Franz Liszt Square.
Sound Teardown
The streets in Budapest are pretty narrow, and people park on the sidewalk and what-not.
A SMART car in Budapest
The chaperones on the trip were awesome - they ended up doing more than half of the sound equipment schlepping since everyone had their instruments to take care of.
Wednesday, 2nd of July, 2003 - Budapest, Hungary
Budapest skyline panorama, constructed from 7 pictures: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Touring the historical area near the Fisherman's Bastion. Magda was our wonderful tour guide for the city.
A model is made of the Fisherman's Bastion with braille descriptions on it for blind visitors.
Trinity Square
Matthias Church at the Fisherman's Bastion. Ceramic tiles are typical of architecture here.
Streets around the Fisherman's Bastion
The Fisherman's Bastion, with the ceramic tiles of the Matthias Church visible.
The view from the Fisherman's Bastion.
The Parliament Building from the Fisherman's Bastion.
Mr. P is trying to get pictures of Budapest from the Fisherman's Bastion.
Fisherman's Bastion, with a wonderful view of the Matthias Church.
More picture-taking from Fisherman's Bastion, except Kevin's got his camera pointing the wrong way.
First day of the trip and we're already leaving Mrs. Yokoyama behind.
The yellow building close to Fisherman's Bastion is a thermal bath house. From this view, you can also see the island that sits on the Danube River.
Fisherman's Bastion.
Beth and I at... all together now... Fisherman's Bastion.
Budapest synagogue, Europe's biggest synagogue
Inside the Jewish Museum next to the synagogue.
The athletic complex in Budapest.
The Museum of Fine Arts sits on one side of Hero's Square.
A building near Hero's Square that remains from the Exposition. In the winter the pond turns into an ice skating rink.
We observe the ceremony with the colour guards in Hero's Square. From this side, you can see the Art Gallery.
Ceremony with colour guards in Hero's Square, with the Museum of Fine Arts in the background.
The government official from South Korea arrives in an Audi S8.
Color guards carrying the wreath up.
The South Korean official blesses the wreath.
Hero's Sqaure
The Art Gallery.
South Korea flag on the wreath.
The architecture at the entrance to the Basilica.
The twelve disciples portrayed at the entrance to the Basilica.
The organ at the back of the Basilica.
The Basilica dome from the inside.
Cornice detail
Sarah, Stefanie, and Hilary enjoy lunch at the city centre's pedestrian walkway.
The Parliament Building from the river - some part of the exterior is always under restoration.
From this angle, you can see some of the remaining walls that surrounded the Castle.
The Rock Church
Looking towards the South on the river, with a view of the construction cranes in that area.
Technical University of Budapest
On the cruise down and up the River Danube.
The Buda Castle lit up and night.
Tuesday, 1st of July, 2003 - Budapest, Hungary