San Diego Children's Choir, Germany/Austria Tour
Saturday, July 1, 2000

Please click on any thumbnail to view a larger image; see journal below

Ranney and Amenda have breakfast in the Youth Hostel Jackie and Marisa Eddie and Kristin Courtney and Jason
Thanh and Mr. Herman Jenny and Joe Ranney joins the tour What a view from this point
Our Tour Guide show our hostel 60 year ago The Youth Hostel entrance looks much better today On tour in the market square Feels good to sit while we listen
This guide is well prepared with pictures from the past The fountain in the main square in Nurenberg Ranney tries his hand at juggling while Ryan looks on The view as we walk over the city bridge
We can always see our Youth Hostel at the end of the road Sandy and Rick enjoy lunch The castle next to our hostel Martin Behaim's first globle
The view from the youth hostel We start our party with the Renfrew HS musicians from Scotland Jumping to the bagpipe music Some of us take a rest
Ah - we have a good seat We line all walls of the room We getting in the next dance Who shoved me as I took the picture?
Around the room we go Mark in full swing Boy it's crowded - but we don't care We keep the beat going
Scottish version of bandstand? Annika and Amy Pose for us And Jennie says "Hey, me too!" Marie and Jennie go round and round
And so does everyone else The chaperones love it We form a full circle around the room Amazing how cool this bagpipe sounds
Whew! What a party!

Our adventure began in the afternoon of Saturday, June 1st, when our chaperones gave us the option to go paddle boating on a nearby lake. Knowing that this would be a very exciting outing, we had a turnout of about twenty choristers; all of them not aware of the adventures that would lay before us.

We first hopped on the subway and headed for the main train station. There was so much confusion and chaos, that we weren't even sure if we got on the right train. Amazingly, we got off the train and we were right at the edge of a beautiful lake.

We rented four-person paddle boats and explored the lake, taking tons of pictures. Then we connected all of our boats together and let the current decide where we would go. After an hour of fun-filled paddle boating, it was time to go back to the youth hostel. We retraced our steps and were back in time for dinner!

Written by Jennie and Heather

Additional Entry by the Editor:

This was a good day in that it was the first rest day for the choristers after a walking tour of the city. There were some exceptional items of interest. First the hostel where we stayed was connected to the castle and was used originally as the horse stable and to hold the city's wheat supply on other floors. In the 1930's, it was converted to a youth hostel and used for Hitler's youth (check the 9th and 10th pictures above showing the front then and now).

Another point of interest was that this was where Martin Behaim constructed the first globe of the earth. He was born in 1424 so obviously the globe was constructed around the time of Columbus. Sandy, Rick and I visited the museum and saw it. The picture of the globe didn't come out - but the flat project five rows down on the right did. The globe is amazing - it was fairly accurate on Europe, Asia, Africa except it covered a little over half the globe (we believe one-third is more accurate) - and on the other side, nothing but ocean... no America's.

Finally, we shared the hotel with a group from Renfrew High School from Scotland. They were a musical group who play the bagpipe, drums and dance to Scottish music. It didn't take much for impromptu music and dancing yesterday when we arrived. Their entire group then took the train to see our Concert last night and then together we planned a big dance party in a large room tonight at 8PM. Needless to say, the hostel was rocking. The groups danced for over two hours and everyone was exhausted. The leaders gave us a framed picture of their group in appreciation which we will deliver back to the Choir office and we have each others emails for future correspondence.

All in all, a good day!

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