Wednesday in Bath

Today we began our work with our first concert in Bath.  After a sumptuous meal for breakfast, we boarded the bus and rode the 12 miles or so to Bath - the second most visited city in the United Kingdom next to London. The city is a wonderful example of Georgian architecture, most of whose structures were built to serve the aristocracy and those with aristocratic hopes as they came to "be seen" at the baths. 

We arrived at the Abbey excited to begin our work!  As we entered the cathedral, the man minding the door announced, "The Choir has arrived" in a most distinguished, British accent - and the fun began!  The abbey was truly beautiful.

We entered the abbey and awaited our instructions before beginning our rehearsal.  We were lucky enough to be allowed 15 minutes to find our voices in the room before the concert started.  A good crowd was already gathering.

After rehearsing for a bit, we began our concert.  Apparently we had anywhere from 80-100 people sitting down to listened - superb!  The choir sang fantastically, and clearly enjoyed the sounds they were creating in that fantastic space.  Kudos to all!

After the concert we quickly changed our shoes and ran off to a tour of the Roman Baths - truly fascinating.  Even in ancient Rome, this was the place to come, be seen, make deals, find a spouse...the "Las Vegas" of its time, as our guide John told us.

After the tour of the Baths, we went our separate ways for lunch.  Larkin, Angus, Daniele and myself went to the Pump Room - ooh la la!  A very elegant meal complete with beautiful napkins,smoked teas (a new one for me) served in a beautiful room.

Afterwards, we were treated to a walking tour of the city.  Some of the highlights - The Circus, where the richest of the rich lived:

 The Royal Crescent:

 We then took a tour of the assembly rooms, where people came to socialize and meet interesting people.  Several of us took a tour of their costume collection, which included some fabulous outfits from movies such as Young Victoria, Elizabeth, Shakespeare in Love and Gladiator. Kate Greer was kind enough to let us "play Barbie" and dress her in some period costume...

Afterwards, we had a bit of free time before returning to Bristol for dinner and a free evening.  After another sumptuous meal (we are truly blessed in that regard), a group decided to go see the Harry Potter movie - we needed a low-key evening before our residency began in the morning.  I think the adults were more frightened than the young choristers...

Tomorrow our residency at the cathedral begins - pray for us as we continue our ministry!

How could I forget???!!!

Perhaps our most devoted member of the group, Plastic Baby Jesus.  He thoroughly enjoyed his visit to the SS Great Britain...more of his adventures to come.

Tuesday in Bristol

Today we enjoyed a short walking tour of Bristol to get ourselves acquainted with the area we'd be working in.  This included a walk past the cathedral where we'd sing later this week.  We couldn't go in because of rehearsals for graduation ceremonies for the University.

The Bristol Cathedral Choir School is shares a history with other prestigious institutions in Britain for having a private school which supplies choristers to lead worship in the cathedral.  There is only one in the United States - St. Thomas (Episcopal) in New York. 

After the tour we split up to explore the city.  A group of us decided to visit the SS Britain, the world's first ocean liner made from steel and propelled with screws.  The ship has been restored and turned into a fantastically realistic museum. 

We took a ferry ride to get to the ship.

We had a great tour of the hull underneath the water:

and a great view of the restored hull up top.

The inside of the ship featured some pretty realistic scenes of what life would be like for crew and passengers of all types - lots of fun. 

After touring the ship we trekked off to find lunch at Lloyd's No. 1 Bar just across the water from the SS Great Britain, where we enjoyed fish and chips, mushy peas and Pimms - yum!

We spent more time exploring Bristol before returning to the hotel to rest up and have a brief rehearsal before dinner - we haven't sung together for almost 3 days!  We are all looking forward to our concert at Bath Abbey tomorrow at 11:30.  Our work begins soon!

Monday night - our first dinner at the Grand Hotel in Bristol - a fantastic meal with fantastic company!

Passing time at the airport...

Tommy shows off his funky new bag made for him for the trip by Vanessa and Virginia - we haven't seen it since...

 

Mother and daughter traveling abroad together!

We're landed in Bristol

After an interesting day of travel for many people, we have finally anchored ourselves in Bristol.  I don't think any one's flight was actually on time!  But we finally all met up at Heathrow around 9:45 and set off for Stonehenge.  It was, perhaps, one of their busiest days.  But the monument was still an astonishing thing to behold in the midst of an incredibly peaceful countryside.  We enjoyed a slow-paced audio tour on a day where the weather was pretty much perfect (sorry, Clevelanders!).  We had a quick lunch at Stonehenge while enjoying the local sheep grazing in the field and headed towards Bristol. 

Gorgeous views of the countryside rolled by our windows as we wound through a few small towns before driving through the huge town of Bath, where we'll sing our first concert on Wednesday.  Our wonderful tour guide, John, gave us a few teasers about the history of the town to whet our appetites for later this week - very interesting architecture, indeed. 

We finally arrived in Bristol, and after some virtuosic maneuvering by our excellent driver, Alan, we checked into our hotel  - The Grand by Thistle.  Very comfortable, very European style rooms.  That is code for small, but lovely.  After dinner we have the evening to ourselves.  I see a few pubs in our future!  Tomorrow, we take a walking tour of Bath and enjoy some free time before our true work begins on Wednesday - music, music, music!

Welcome to our blog!

Welcome to our blog! We hope to chronicle our pilgrimage to Bristol Cathedral and points in between. Feel free to send a note as we share our stories with you.

We are currently waiting on the tarmac to take off - our plane is quite late! We met up with the second flight group briefly while waiting to board. Looking forward to fun times ahead!