On Monday we visited Leipzig, home of such musical luminaries as Mendelssohn and Bach. Leipzig was also the crucible for the changes that took place in Germany in 1989. The people of Leipzig, a university town, staged peaceful protests, saying, “We are the people,” and demanding freedom from the oppressive, communist regime. The Blue Bus tour guide, Simone, was 25 and living in East Berlin when the wall came down. She told us she cried and cried.

Thomaskirche, Bach’s church.

Leipzig is a beautiful city with about 500,000 people. Much of the old architecture needed to be restored after World War II and the communist era, so the city is a combination of gorgeous old townhouses and dilapidated homes covered in graffiti. But even that art, usually considered an eyesore, is a reminder of the strength of individuality and people’s basic need to be free.

The altar in Thomaskirche. Bach is buried beneath it.

We visited the Thomaskirche, the church where Johann Sebastian Bach served as choir director. It was an amazing and moving experience to be able to sing his work in the place where he is buried. Someone had placed flowers and a paper crane on his grave.

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Singing “How Lovely Are the Messengers” (by Mendelssohn, not Bach) in Thomaskirche.

By Carolyn Norton

Practicing in the American Church in Berlin.

Our first performance was yesterday morning, Sunday, at the American Church in Berlin, a red brick church that was rebuilt after it was bombed in 1943. The congregation, mostly Americans living in Berlin, with a few English-speaking visitors from around the world, was friendly and welcoming. Our voices sounded strange in the large, stone space – we echoed and rang. It felt good to sing; after traveling thousands of miles, we remembered why we are here.

During our first performance.

After our performance we changed out of our choir outfits and set off in Red Bus and Blue Bus to see Berlin under what the ACB pastor called “the cement sky,” a flat grey that Berliners must be accustomed to. Our tour guides were knowledgeable and guided us expertly around the city, showing us evidence of Berlin’s violent past. Much of the city is completely new, shopping centers and embassies built where bombed-out buildings or parts of the Berlin Wall once stood. How strange it must be to live in a city where twenty years ago you might have been shot for walking near the place where you now buy your jeans.

A part of the Berlin Wall, which our tour guide described as not just a wall, but a “complex system of obstacles.”

Mark Robinson and Nancy Lander at Checkpoint Charlie.

Reminders of the Holocaust are everywhere. Innocuous-looking buildings turn out to be the former offices of Nazi officials or the bank where they kept the gold stolen from the teeth of Jews. The history, horrifying enough to think about at home, is even more immediate and shocking here. We visited the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe by American architect Peter Eisenman. The memorial is a series of 2,700 huge cement blocks that form a grid set in a kind of basin. The blocks form paths for visitors to walk along. Traveling deeper into the memorial is an eerie experience. The blocks tower overhead, giving an impression of burial. The voices of other visitors – solemn mourners and laughing children – come to you around corners, first close, then far away. It is like hearing the voices of the dead. Part of you wants to get away, to climb back on the bus and stop thinking about such horrible things, but you feel lucky to be here to honor the victims.

The Holocaust memorial as seen from the edge.

Inside the memorial.

After visiting more important sites in Berlin, we stopped at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche. A small room is all that is left of the church, which stands at the other end of the street that is also home to the American Church in Berlin. Both churches were damaged in an air raid on November 23, 1943. On the same street, halfway between the two churches, the old American Church in Berlin was completely destroyed by the same bombing run. The American Church relocated to the location where we performed that morning, and a beautiful, new church was built to replace the old Kaiser Wilhelm.

The new Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.

It had started to rain when we gathered in what is left of the old Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church to sing No. 63 from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Matthäus-Passion, “O Haupt voll Blut.” The space was small and warm and the other visitors in the church stopped talking and listened intently as we sang. There was no echo this time, and the small building seemed to cradle our sound. Everyone applauded joyfully when we were done, and a woman with white hair asked Mr. Robinson if we could please sing another. We sang “What a Wonderful World” a cappella, and it really was wonderful at that moment. We were warm and dry and singing, and there was nothing else we could ask for.

Inside the original Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.

Students waiting to board in Anchorage.

Students waiting to board quickly become bored.

Students with an ancient sculpted foot at the Pergamon.

Artemis at the Pergamon.

After long waits and short sprints to meet connections, we have safely arrived in Berlin! Our tour guides suggested that, despite our exhaustion, we stay up until dinner was over, in order to get our sleep schedules on track for the new time zone – ten hours ahead of Alaska. I had my doubts, and was about to rest my head in my bread and cheese and call it a night, but I’m sure they were right. My apologies for not posting sooner; you may blame the jet lag.

We visited the Pergamonmuseum before we slept yesterday. It was full of incredible friezes pieced together from ancient Greece, fascinating sculptures depicting some of the first actors in the world, and urns telling stories of the gods.
The feeling of culture is very strong here. Ancient history combines with not-so-ancient history – East Berlin, West Berlin, American occupation – and mixes with a colorful present. All the cultures of the world are represented, at least in food. We passed restaurants selling Thai, Indian, Greek, Italian, and Vietnamese, as well as burger joints. Right next to the museum was a stand selling something called “curry-wurst.” I’m not sure what this is, but I’d like to find out.

This morning we awoke rested and ready to sing. After an amazing breakfast of fresh bread and jam and the best sausages I’ve ever had, we’ll be performing at the Berlin American Church and then embarking on our Berlin city tour. More pictures and stories to come!

Blog note: Please be aware that we must approve each and every comment you make before it appears on the blog. We love hearing from you, but there may be a delay, as we don’t always have an Internet connection! Thank you for your patience, and please keep reading and writing.

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Homer to Anchorage

by Carolyn Norton

The first leg of our journey is complete! After five days of blizzards and howling winds, some of us weren’t sure our chartered buses would be able to make the trip to Anchorage. Mr. Robinson had pilots at the ready to fly us north from Homer in case of a road closure. But, despite a last-minute storm resurgence, we loaded our copious amounts of luggage onto two buses – Red Bus and Blue Bus – and headed up the road.

Leandra and Catherine aboard the Blue Bus

The drive up was a taste of what our bus experience in Europe might be – gorgeous scenery, comfortable seats and highly competent drivers who expertly maneuver through traffic. It was easy to see the results of the recent snow dump all along the peninsula. Mountains were softened and rippled with thick powder and rivers were dark gray and iced over in places. We passed a truck, parked in a pullout, that had been completely blocked in by plow-packed snow berms.

Our sightseeing venture of the day: Fred Meyer’s in Soldotna. We piled off the buses and took the store by storm, collectively buying what had to be near 100 pounds of macaroni salad and chicken strips for the road and cleaning out the deli counter’s supply of turkey bacon wraps. You’re welcome for the business, Freddy’s.

By the time we reached Turnagain Arm, it was dark in the Blue Bus, with the exception of cozy reading lights. The sounds of students giggling and singing made a pleasant hubbub. We are really on our way; we’re really doing it!

Tired travelers at the Comfort Inn

At the Comfort Inn at 9:00 pm, we packed ourselves into the lobby to receive our room keys. Mr. Robinson instructed us to be in our rooms by 9:30 and in bed by 9:45.

“Why?” he asked. “Because breakfast is at FIVE A.M.”

That’s right, friends. 5:00 am will find us munching cereal and muffins, and we’ll be at the airport by 6:00. Then we’re off on a few very long flights before we all meet up… in Berlin!

Welcome to the Homer High School Choir and Kenai Peninsula Community Chorus Travel Blog. We are so excited to be traveling to Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic this March, and we hope this blog will be an easy way to take you along with us.

If this is your first time at this blog, please take some time to investigate our The Trip page, where you’ll find a list of all our fabulous destinations and when we’ll be there, and our About Us page, where you can learn more about the choir. If you’re familiar with a particular location or have valuable travel advice for us, please feel free to leave a comment!

We plan to update this blog as frequently as possible. We’ll be including pictures, anecdotes and insights to help you feel like we packed you in our suitcases and brought you along. In addition, we’ll try to answer any questions you leave in comments. Please understand that we may not have an Internet connection every day, and that some days our travel may not allow us to post, but rest assured we’ll catch up as soon as we can.

Please visit again soon!