Day 5, Sat, Feb 6 - 2017 Germany Tour Inspection Trip

Ulmer Münster.

Saturday, February 6, 2016

Where were we:
- Ulm
- Augsburg
- Fürstenfeldbruck

- München (Munich)

In Saturday epilogue:
- Regensburg
- München

Great breakfast today in the Maritim Ulm in another good room. I cannot complain about any of the breakfasts so far. They've all been great. Truth be told, it has been the same with the hotels as well. A+ on the selections all around. I was exhausted heading down to breakfast and had only a very quick one, like 4 minutes worth, as I was pushing it on time. We were on our way next to Augsburg to see another restaurant (this time a real, full scale, Bavarian brewery) that would be the site for a party/dinner after our Fürstenfeldbruck performance on the second to last day of the tour (the concert that day is going to be at 5 pm, so we would all gather for dinner and a big party here). 

Augsburg

I believe we left at 8:30 or so and we were to the Hausen-Brau (which isn’t the name of the place), by 9:30 am for our inspection and tour — including beer samples at 9:45 am. 

Augsburg group dinner restaurant.

This place was fabulous. It is such a fun place which great lighting, seating, history, it’s just perfect for a Chorus celebration. We all liked it immediately and, again, were all seeing it for the first time. I think everyone will be quite pleased with it (and it has, by far, the best group sized bathrooms I’ve seen yet. Read that sentence anyway you want).

I know I am the beer lover, but even, fore the non-beer lovers and the under 21s and such, you are going to love this place. We will have a lot of fun here.

Fürstenbeldbruck

Because time was of the essence, we left right 10 am and headed over to Fürstenfeldbruck (FFB), a small city that is a suburb of Munich. Here in FFB we were to see and tour the Abbey and its surrounding (former) monastery grounds. This would be the location of our final performance.

Walking in to the Abbey church.
Massive is an understatement.

Originally, we were looking at this Abbey or the Ottobeuren Abbey. Both facilities are mammoth and incredible beautiful on the inside. Ottobeuren was until relatively recently, the venue we were looking at (it is in a similar town outside Munich), but some recent changes and policies in musical administration were making it far too difficult for a successful Chorus performance there, so ACFEA, working with the music director of the very active South German Chamber Orchestra, Florian, helped connect the Chorus to FFB and its astonishing abbey. Long story short of this FFB has started a huge concert series and has three big events each year - the marquee events of the Abbey - on its “Oratorio Series” where people from all over come to FFB for the concerts. We are the headliner on the series in 2017 and will be performing alongside Florian’s South German Chamber Orchestra. We are very excited about this opportunity and space.

We arrived and immediately went in and toured the Abbey. Its baroque interior and soaring ceiling are something to behold. Beautiful. Amazing. Astounding. You name it. This place is going to be one heck of a spot for our final concert filled with hundreds (maybe into the thousand range) of Germans in just a spectacular venue. Andrew seems very, very pleased with it. Our performance too, will be at 5 pm, so the light coming through the windows next July should be incredible.

My pictures don't do this place justice.
It is just incredible.

I’ll spare you the report on logistics for this venue (but, I will tell you we have the connected “Police Academy” as our holding area!), but it will be great. We are going to have lunch somewhere on the grounds which are big green, open, and likely filled with flowers in the summer. It is just a beautiful place. In fact, it had turned rather mild on this morning and felt like a spring day. Everything about the venue and location seems just right for our final musical farewell to Bach.

The only note I’ll make about our visit inside the Abbey was they took us WAY up to the Choir and Organ loft. We got some incredible pictures from up here of the Abbey church. And, after much nudging, Andrew even play a few notes on the organ. It was really cool. 

We had a nice lunch together on one of the restaurants on the grounds after our tour. Andrew and Florian sat together and talked all things music, and we talked a little bit more through the FFB day with Nick and Sue. There are a few things we need to work on on this day, but, for the most part we are on the same page as we move forward.

Just a little organ. Andrew played it!

With our time in FFB complete after lunch, about 1 pm or so, our ACFEA planned site inspection work was completed. The plan now was for Stephan to drive Nick, Amanda, and me to Munich (to the Maritim Munich near the main train station - the Hauptbahnhof) and then Stephan and Sue would drive back together to Leipzig (Sue lives in Berlin, but she was spending the night in Leipzig). Nick was flying to Manchester, England, later that night, but was going to go to the hotel for a few hours so he would have access to the WiFi. Amanda was flying out of Munich at noon on Sunday, and we were flying out at 3:35 PM on Sunday, so Amanda, Andrew, and I were going to spend the night in Munich.

Our drive to Munich to the hotel was very quick. Less than 1/2 hour or so, and we were soon at the Maritim, unloaded, and check-in. We said a heartfelt farewell to Sue - who truly is a wonderful lady whom I know will help us create such a special tour, and Stephan our incredible driver (who will likely be one of our coach bus drivers in July of 2017!) and they went on there way.

Nick stationed himself in the lobby for a while, but we said farewell to him at this point as well, not thinking we’d see him again.

I can’t state enough how much I appreciate Nick’s work on our tours and the thought he puts in to every decision. Between him, Amanda, and Sue, we have the right people working on this for us. These folks really care about creating and executing for us a fabulous musical tour. They are as passionate about what they do and present as we are - and that gives me great comfort and makes me excited to work with them again.

But, officially, at this point, the site inspection was concluded.