Day 4 - Prague Castle, On to Pilsen!

Today was our last day in Prague. We're so sad we have to leave, but we're excited to be heading to Pilsen, our sister city! After breakfast we headed to Prague Castle, which was really cool! We got to tour St. Vitus Cathedral at the castle (where Good King Winceslaus is buried), and we then got to sing an open-air concert at the castle. We got our biggest audience yet for this concert! After the concert, we had some time to walk around on our own and buy some souvenirs at the castle, then we boarded the bus and headed for Karlstejn Castle for lunch. We didn't get to tour the castle itself, but we got to walk through the town and eat lunch at a wonderful restaurant. After lunch, we walked around the town a bit more and got some more souvenirs. Then we continued to Pilsen! After a long bus ride, we finally got to our hotel in Pilsen. We ate a delicious dinner and then went to the local mall to shop for a bit (lots of shopping--this was most likely our only souvenir day!). Unfortunately most of the stores were closed, but we still enjoyed it. Then we came back to the hotel to go to sleep! Two more concerts tomorrow!

Before we entered the Prague Castle:

Entering Prague Castle

The Prague Castle was some of the boys favorite thing of the day.
Many had never been anywhere near one, let alone inside to see
all of the magnificent architecture, art, and sheer awe-inspiringness (new word)
castles can have. A short stop, but very fun!

Place of the St. Wenceslas.
Most of us know him as "Good King Wenceslas."

The back... entrance... exit? of the castle.
I paid close attention on the tour.

More walking through some gardeny areas to one of, if not the, best views of Prague. These pictures don't do it justice. Maybe we'll find even more good ones to put up.

Way to go, Noah! Lovin' on yo' momma like dat!

Then a short outdoor concert. Well done by all! It's not easy to sing well outdoors and the boys did very musically. Our biggest crowd of non-parents/chaperones yet!

After the concert, we ate a yummy pastry/donut thing, then rested.

 Really rested.

Or leaned on really cool cars. You're not cool unless you're leaning on something. And you have to be ginormous to lean against red cars. Good job Matthew.

The walking tour near Karlstejn Castle. Very cool small town with shops along the street.

Isn't this the cutest sideways picture?

On to lunch. We chose ahead of time: pork, or trout.

Um, excuse me? This fish is still staring at me.

Others did not have trouble eating the trout.

Some shopping was had by all after our lunch.
Looking good, marc.

 Then we traveled on to Pilsen (or Pilzen). None of us looked as good as Andrew.

Yay dinner! It was nice to sit down again, though still relatively fresh from lunch.  

 However, I think this speaks for more than a handful of the boys:

 Speaking of being worn out. Good night to all and to all a good night.

P.S. Pictures I missed from yesterday:

Long story. Insert your own caption here. Best one will win a prize.

A Quote a Day...

Quotable moments from our trip:

"One thing that was tacky about the events today: in the airport of our first flight, there was a really weird-dressed guy with a Mohawk and a ton of piercings on his face and ears." - John Thomas Ellison

"One event that was fun so far was being on the airplane and playing games on the entertainment system." - Deason Heifner

"What I thought was strange was that they sold almonds instead of peanuts on the plane." - Trevor Brown

"What I thought was most fun was probably the first plane ride because we got to play games." - Connor Lee

"One thing that was interesting today about Prague was the tower was really tall and there was an elevator and a ramp to get to the top, and after we took some ramps and stairs, there were more ramps  in the tower still." - John Thomas Ellison

"One interesting thing we did today was we went on the boat and ate lunch." - Deason Heifner

"Hi, I'm Jana, I'm from the Czech Republic, Prague, and yesterday I went to see the choir concert at the church. It was the first time I saw something like this. It was absolutely amazing! I was super excited and it impressed me. I was like 'Wow, wow, wow.' It was really... I cried all the time because I was really, was so, so deep, and yeah. Thank you very much, I really liked it. I really appreciated the Czech song from Anton Dvórjak and I really loved that song about the smiling (Ed. Your Smiling Face). I sing it all the time, again and again because it was fantastic. Thank you very much! Thank you!" - Jana, our hotel attendant at Hotel Expo in Prague

Day 4 - Thursday, June 4 anticipated

Chaperone's Log
Stardate 05.04.2015.5PM-at-home=12AM-here.

Today will be another full day, and another city!

8:15 - Breakfast. Update: they DO IN FACT have Nutella.
9:30 - Prague Castle tour. This will be so exciting! We may even get to sing in St. Vitus Cathedral, one of the oldest churches in the city!
11:15 - Open air concert in Hradcany Square. More singing!!
12:30 - Off to Pilsen, Birmingham's sister city (and also the home of pilsner beer... none of the boys will have any, don't worry, parents).
1:30 - Lunch at the Karlstejn Castle. Two castles in one day! Whoa!
2:45 - Continue to Pilsen
4:00 - Sound Check in St. Bartholomew Basilica in Pilsen. Preparing for yet another concert!
7:00 - Dinner at the hotel, then a procession from the church to the main square! Not really sure what this will entail, but it should be fun and interesting. I guess we'll find out!

Sing to the Lord, all the earth! Proclaim from day to day the good tidings of His salvation!

Day 3 - Prague

Today was our first full day in Europe, spent in the beautiful city of Prague! After a wonderful breakfast at the hotel, we headed to our first official European performance! While another choir was supposed to be singing with us, they had to cancel at the last minute, so we got the show all to ourselves. We then headed to the boat for our lunch cruise, which was delicious and fun. Once our bellies were satisfied and we had enjoyed a beautiful view of the city, we went on a guided walk of Charles Bridge and Old Town. We got to climb the clock tower and see Prague from above! Beautiful! After our tour, we rehearsed in the church for our evening concert, then came back to the hotel and ate a delicious dinner. After dinner, we went back to the church for our second concert! It was beautiful! Then we headed back to the hotel to finally crash after a long and exciting day. Off to the Prague Castle and Pilsen tomorrow!

What would we do without Susan Berg!

David Lake decided to become a Priest. Today was his first sermon! It was really short.
"I'm just taking pictures <begging tone>. Ok, I'll get down..."

A German accordion player was our on-board entertainment.
Fun fact: Birmingham used to have an accordion band!
Sad fact: Birmingham USED to have an accordion band... sigh.

"You didn't ask permission to put up that picture from yesterday's blog, Jeff and Phillip!"
This was the last image we saw. We regained consciousness while on the walking tour.
Sorry Cathy! We'll never post another picture without your written consent.
Starting tomorrow. Maybe..............

Yes, we're still tired.

 The River Cruise

The Walking Tour

The Clock Tower!

A bit of the view from the top of the clock tower. That was a bit of a climb...

This picture is sideways. Sorry. It's art?

 

The night concert. was. glorious! I'll be the first to admit that we just have yet to truly "click" as an ensemble. The Salvator Church was definitely a gift in acoustics, but you can't manufacture singing with beautiful tone and in tune! There was more than one song at the end of which there were overtones with the final chord.

Quotes from the Boys:

"Deodorant is good." - Chris Jenson

"My favorite part of the day was taking a nap on the boat." - Alex White

"I thought the astronomical clock was really cool!" - Marc Ayers

"Fun first full day." (Gotta love that alliteration) - Sam Kirkpatrick

"My favorite part was spending the day with my friends!" - Joe Kendrick