OVERALL ROUND TRIP MILES -- 13,781 (or pretty close to this amount)
Cap 'n Baldy here!
Prelude...
Goldilocks (Barbara, that is) and I both sing in the Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church Chancel Choir. Of late, we have been singing a LOT ... because ... a 40-member portion of our choir is now in final preparation for a 10-day concert tour in Europe, starting on July 18th! Yes, Goldilocks and I are taking this tour! The tour preparation is a joy and hard work for each member of our traveling chorus ...
Verda Friesen, a non-touring member of our choir and an accomplished artist, has made a Bon Voyage poster which is one of THE coolest posters we have ever seen...which brings me to my next point ... that we shall visit three cities on our tour, namely Budapest, Vienna and Prague! Verda has drawn maps of Hungary, Austria and the Czech Republic, respectively the nations of which the above-mentioned cities are the capital cities!
Our tour group of 51 singers and non-singers will travel to Europe with Music Celebrations International (MCI). Our program features excellent arrangements of popular spirituals, as well as traditional classical works by Franz Schubert and Thomas Tallis. A total of six concerts are planned so ... as y'all can see...this will be a WORKING tour for us! That's a good thing! The choir is made up of seasoned musicians and we like to keep our chops in shape ... Goldilocks sings Second Alto and I sing First Tenor...
In rambling around Google, I find some information to clear up a little of my personal ignorance. I had assumed that Hungary was a Slavic nation in the manner of Russia, Ukraine , Serbia or the Czech Republic. This is NOT true I find! Hungary is Hungary...with a distinctly different language related to Finnish and having roots in western Asia! This is what I like about travel ... I learn interesting stuff!
Here's another new tidbit I learn today ... since Hungary, Austria and Czech are all members of the European Union, I had assumed that the Euro would be the common currency in all these countries! Another wrong assumption! The Hungarian unit of currency is the Forint ( HUF,about 1/270th of a Dollar) while the Czech unit of currency is the Koruna (CZK, about 1/25th of a Dollar). Austria deals in the Euro (EUR, about a Dollar and Ten Cents). We shall be handling three different currencies on our journey! The dollar designation is USD and you can now see I'm unnaturally fixating on three-letter codes for currencies ...time for me to return to normality!
My Wikipedia meanderings tell me that Hungary is a leading center for R&D and the top electronics manufacturer in Central Europe...that Hungarian food is unique and is flavored with paprika...that Hungary is home to Europe's largest natural grasslands. Hungarian culture and history is, of course, too immense for me to wrap my brain around...but we learn bit-by-bit by immersion! That's why we look forward to our journey to these places. On our last visit to Central Europe, Budapest and Prague were off-limits to us...they lay behind the Iron Curtain!
As Goldilocks and I stare at our open suitcases, there is one thing we must strive to remember -- we are not packing for a mountaineering trip in Nepal! Less is best ... we need to remember that!
Goldilocks' State of Mind -- have I forgotten anything?
All y'all stay connected and stay well!
There is more to come!
Lift-off is FAST approaching! Things are getting interesting!
Affectionately,
Baldy aka Bob
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