Europe Day 2: Monday July 18 (8:30am)

We were up early for our 2nd day in Europe. After breakfast in the hotel (a very nice buffet of rolls - {oh! how I miss the breads of Europe}, cheese, salami, hams, yogurt, fruits and nuts, fish and I can't remember if this hotel had eggs or not - but most did have scrambled eggs as well along with coffee, teas {I took to peppermint tea every morning since I have given up caffeine back in February} and a variety of juices {we loved their multi vitamin juice}) we boarded the buses and headed back into the heart of Vienna.

The choir was to perform our 3 cathedral pieces at the famed St. Stephen's Cathedral. (click the name for a little more on the cathedral)

The cathedral is tightly fit, right in the center of the huge tourist/shopping area. All one needs to do is look up in the sky to see the steeple in order to find your way back to it.

We gathered on the steps as one of our guides told us of the history.

Vienna is a very clean city, and as we stood in front of the cathedral, a street cleaning truck came and forced us all up on to the steps so he could wash the area down and our feet didn't get sprayed. Our tour guide Petra was so cute, but we could tell she was frustrated with his impatience and the noise from the truck.

Then we then entered the giant cathedral.

We sang Vidi Aquam, I Believe/Ave Maria (this piece was originally written with piano accompaniment, but because there was no electrical power in the cathedral - our director rewrote the piano part for woodwinds quintet - it was stunning), and Glory to God (a piece written by our conductor, Dave Dunbar. Jake and several of the other band members played percussion with us.)

Can you see me on the right? 2nd row from the top, second person in.

I was amazed at the number of pipe organs inside the cathedrals, as well as the number of chapels (not sure if that is what you call them) with separate altar areas. In the photo above you see one pipe organ behind the choir. Below, Jacob is standing by the one that was in front of us. It was big - but we certainly saw bigger ones! Then one of our tour-mates snapped a photo of the two of us together.

After we sang we walked around and took many photos. The ones in the post are a combination of Jakes Kodak easyshare C180 and my son Zach's D3000 Nikon that I borrowed. Lighting was terrible inside - so good photos were tough to get.

Below are a couple of the many side chapels.

It is so hard to capture the enormity of the building in these photos. The cathedral was so huge.

Below is another set of pipes for another organ

And another photo of our 'Clarence 5'

We left the Cathedral and headed to the Schönbrunn Palace the home of the ruling Austrian Family "Hapsburg" until they gave up the throne after WWI. Our Band had a concert in the front courtyard and then later in the day we went back for a tour.