The tour bus dropped us off in the middle of the city once again, but this time we had no need for rushing. The day was ours to enjoy at our own pace. Because it was Sunday, some attended mass in a few of the most remarkable cathedrals in Vienna. There were even some of our tour group who bought tickets to hear the Vienna Boys’ Choir perform during a service at one of those cathedrals. What a thrilling experience! We were all a little disappointed in the fact that many of the shops were closed because it was Sunday; however, the “tourist” shops were open, as well as the restaurants and coffee shops. The weather was great until mid-afternoon, and then some of us got a little wet when a rain shower cropped up and caught us outside with no place to go! Actually, it was a bit more than a rain shower. Have you ever been caught outside when it begins to hail, and you have no idea where to run for shelter? Well, ask some of the tour members about this experience, and I’m sure they can enlighten you!

As we made our way through the magnificent city of Vienna on our tour bus, we all noticed immediately how well-manicured and immaculate the city seemed to be. We learned quite a lot of history from our tour guide, Barbara, on our way to tour the summer palace which once housed the royal family of Hapsbergs. The Schonbrunn Castle was absolutely unbelievable in its ornateness and beauty! Some of its original twelve hundred plus rooms have been preserved in their original state, as much as possible, for the purpose of history and tourism. The majority of the palace rooms presently, however, are rented out as apartments–with a ten year waiting list!! We enjoyed some other parts of the city as well on our tour but had to cut it a little short due to schedule changes–remember that 29 hour delay we had earlier in the week?! We had to get back to the hotel and prepare for our concert excursion that would occur about an hour outside of Vienna in a little town called Berndorf. What a lovely, quaint town it was! We thoroughly enjoyed the sights, the singing, and especially the reception after the concert.

Following a short trip back into the town center in Praha, we boarded our luxurious tour bus and headed off to Austria. The travel time was quite lengthy (about 5 hours), but the scenery was pleasant. Did you know that there are no highways on which to drive between Prague and Vienna?!! Therefore, our tour guide, Barbara, tried to keep us well entertained with her information (and her accent!) as we traveled along at what seemed to be the equivalent of around 30 mph!! But we finally arrived in Vienna, found our hotel (after driving in a circle a few times), and settled into our rooms. We enjoyed a marvelous welcome dinner at the hotel followed by a good night’s sleep for some and a good night on the town for others!

Twelve hours after we settled into our hotel in Prague, we were in the center of town at St. Nicholas Cathedral. Our original concert was scheduled for Wednesday at 3:00 in the afternoon, but guess what? For some reason we couldn’t make that–I think we were over the ocean at that time! Luckily we were able to reschedule the Prague concert for Thursday at 11:00. The church was glorious, a little warm, but otherwise glorious! We had to shorten our concert a little, but it was well-received, and the crowd was a nice size. We spent the rest of the day touring around on foot and shopping until we all met at a restaurant that evening for authentic Czech food and entertainment. (You’ll have to ask a tour member for all the exciting details!!)

After hours and hours and hours and hours of flying the “friendly skies” (Oops, wrong airline), our group of bleary-eyed singers arrived in Prague. We were joyfully greeted by our “Magnificent Seven” (or 8 or 9) who luckily flew Lufthansa rather than Air France. We tried to freshen up (some of us did better than others!) and enjoy our “Welcome Dinner” at the hotel. We weren’t a very lively group since it was already around 9:30 pm, Prague time, but we gave it our best effort and then called it a night.

We finally got off the ground at 11:00 pm on June 5. The plane we were originally supposed to fly in was repaired by 3 French mechanics (who had to fly in from France along with the part for the plane) during the day on Tuesday. We all became very proficient at “hanging around” and doing nothing at the hotel. We also became proficient at “hanging around” and doing nothing at the airport, since we were told to go back to the Air France counter at 4:30 on Tuesday afternoon to start over again with “check-in”. But at least the majority of us were sleepy by the time we did finally board the plane, so we all caught a few little “cat naps” while flying.