The Grammar School at Leeds' BLOG

Day 8 Melk Abbey and Salzburg

Like a line of Matabele soldier ants the girls process nose to tail out of the hotel dragging ever expanding suitcases - the British Airways flight will be the first to have a trailer and a roof rack! Look out terminal 5 - if you think you had baggage problems last month wait until Tuesday. The driver emerged from packing the cases under the bus as a favourite to make the Austrian Olympic weighlifting team.
Fortunately the first stop was only one hour away at Melk Abbey - a beautiful and impressive collection of buildings and gardens. A guided tour took us through some breathtaking rooms filled with the history of the Benedictine prescence at the abbey for over a thousand years. A library of 9000 ancient texts was only surpassed by the beautiful chapel which was about to be the venue for a local wedding. Hence, we could not sing in the chapel as originally planned but instead performed in the arched entrance of the inner courtyard. All visitors had to pass through the arch thus providing a constantly changing yet appreciative audience. The chamber choir and the clarinet choir performed from the balcony above which provided a resonant sound and a stiff neck from looking up for so long (Gretchen! bring the rubbing oil).

As the sun was still beating down and the temperature in the 30s we opted for lunch in the gardens of the abbey. This came as a surprise for the girls and an even bigger surprise for the restaurant when 98 unexpected customers swarmed through the doors. The waiters visibly wilted as a surprising range of food was ordered combined with an equally bizarre combination of deserts. To cap it all an automatic ice cream vending machine blasted out Duke Ellington singing a few lines of an old jazz number ‘Ice cream. Ice cream. Everybody loves ice cream!’ By the time you had heard the song for the 98th time you wanted to kick the machine to death.
All aboard again for the final leg of the day’s journey - west towards Salzburg. As we approached the mountainous valley region the clouds closed in and the rain started. Fortunately it stopped just long enough to unload the baggage and check into the hotel where we met another music tour - the Norfolk County orchestra. This pleased Miss Thorpe who hails from Norwich. She could swap tales of the broads and fens without there being a chance of a hill or mountain being mentioned.
The hotel provided a veritable banquet much to the delight of the girls who retired contentedly and tired to their well appointed rooms. Which reminds me …….zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!