July 4th began with breakfast and packing up the entire operation. Much of the heavy gear (for staging and sound) as well as the heavier instruments were packed up after the concerts and sent ahead of the tour. The group loaded up on three buses and set out for New York.
There was still tremendous energy in the group, even though they had to be completely exhausted (I thought) after the four previous days. We arrived at JFK late Thursday afternoon for our flight to Frankfurt, Germany. Leaving just after 9: 30 p.m. on the 4th of July gave some of us a spectacular views of some of the fireworks being launched throughout NYC. While there were some large displays, I must say I enjoyed even more having a wide angle view of 80-100 different smaller displays happening simultaneously. (Sorry, no photos -- bad view from the plane!)
The overnight flight took us to Frankfurt by late Friday morning. Everything went fairly smoothly, and we again boarded three buses (our mode of transportation on the tour) to set out for our first stop: Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany.
This is a beautiful city with walled ramparts surrounding the town center, which hasn't changed much since the 16th century. Great old shops, cobblestone drives, sidewalk cafes, and a large town square ('marktplatz') (photo above, Jacob and two of his tour friends). Tomorrow night (July 6), the Sound of America will perform their first European show in this very town square. The choir also will give a short performance in St. Jacob's Church. This flyer was hanging in a shop window a few blocks from the square:
There is a webcam that should allow a view of the concert in Rothenburg (but without sound, unfortunately). Go to the SOA page at soundofamerica.org and click on the "Fun Links" tab on the left. There should be a Rothenburg button there, and find the web cam. The concert is 5:00-7:30 p.m. local time, which is 10:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Central time in the US.
That's all for now...hope to post more tomorrow!
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