Day 4

Sasha and I started off the day with another great breakfast selection from Eva and Marco. Eva gave us both recipes for Glüwein and spices to make it at home! We had such an amazing stay with them and we can’t believe our time with them was over!

Next was our long bus trip to Leipzig. After a 4 hour drive, we stopped for lunch in Erfurt. This was a charming town that had an amazing dom, Cathedral, too! It had the most intact Medieval structures left in Germany. It was made in 742 and during WWII it was barely ruined by bombing. In 1379, one of the first universities in Germany was made there. Their Christmas market was beautiful! This is the view from the steps of the Erfurt Dom. When you enter the cathedral, it looks beautiful already, but then you turn left and see this amazing altar. To know that someone made this by hand is incredible. You can see how it is shaped like a cross, so cool!!!We had lunch at one of the Christmas market booths. Connor got bratwurst, Sasha got a pork sandwich, I got a chicken sandwich, then Zack and I split POTATO PANCAKES!! That made me so happy because I didn’t think I would get to have latkes for Hannakah this year! Here is other Zach being our table for the pancakes. He offered 🙂Then after our 2 hour trip there, it was time to get back onto the bus. Chance loves giving massages, and he is our personal masseuse in the back of the bus. Corey tried to teach me how to play the card game, Euchre. I didn’t really understand it because they were using Ben as a table for the cards so O couldn’t really see how t was being played. Sam, Luke, and Geoff played and basically said that it’s a farmers card game, but it does seem fun!

When we made it to Leipzig we had an hour to change and then head to St. Nicholas Cathedral. This is one of the two churches that Bach composed for that we will be singing in. Boy, were the acoustics great. We walked through the Leipzig Christmas market by the church and it was packed! We are told that they are known for pickpocketing so we didn’t bring most things. Vinny got pickpocketed, but luckily he had his things tucked away in his tux. The pickpocketer’s got away with his cloth and chapstick. We rehearsed for a little bit, and then we were told they were going to open the doors. There was a line for our concert that circled the church. We had 710 in attendance!!!! I don’t think I’ve ever had that many people come to a choir concert that I’ve been to. They enjoyed us so much, they wanted an encore. Luckily, we chose not to sing Come To The Water, and chose that to sing for it. Then the newspaper wanted to take our group picture which then turned into a paparazzi event. We were standing for at least 5-7 minutes while random people took our pictures. An older man in the audience then started to sing Silent Night, but the German lyrics Stille Nacht. We sang this earlier and then joined in with him, so technically we had two encores! Everyone in choir really was just in awe that we were singing in Bach’s church that he composed for. We were so impressed with the turn out and felt so much love from the German’s. We had dinner after the concert which was a buffet. There were lots of potatoes and great food. I am full and can’t wait to start our day tomorrow at 8:20!