ric-is-across-the-pond

ric-is-across-the-pond
Well it has been six months since the trip. It still remains a great adventure to tell anyone who will listen and it is great to have the other world to compare your life to in the States. We live such a different life here . I think Iwould enjoy living over in England full time.

London Day 2

Up at 8 am and back at it again. Started the day off with a trip to Starbucks for a cup a Carmel lata something. I am ready to take on the day. Today we are off to Hyde Park, London style. With a quick trip to the Underground we are racing away to find our beloved name sake Hyde Park. What a place, a huge green space, lots of trees and flower gardens and people all over enjoying the space. We had a great adventure and feel proud of our ablity to navigate the tube and get to our destination without any problems. We ventured out to see more of the city. Tonight we spend our last night in London and at 8 am we start for the airport and our trip home via Texas.We should be in KCI around 930 pm. (330 AM Monday London time) we won't be worth much the first day or two in the States.
It has been a wonerful trip I still can't believe it and I really want to thank all who helped make this dream come true. The only problem is I must return someday, I have not seen it all and it all went so fast, going to all those places in such a short time. I have hundreds of pictures and will be having anyone over who wants to see and hear all about my adventures. I think the people have been the best part of the trip you know me I don't know any strangers. I have talked to all who will talk to me about everything and anything. See you soon love to all

London

We are in London now and it is free time to see the sites and relax before heading back to the States. We have been all over the city. We had a tour bus pick us up and drive us to all the hot spots. Westminister Abbey, the Eye and the Tate Art museum Buckingham Place for the changing of the Guard. Road on the Tube everywhere, what a transportation system. Big Ben and Trafalgar Square, Thames River and London Bridge. Saw a protest about Palestine maybe it made the news there or maybe not be cause that was part of the protest they are not getting the media coverege they feel would help their cause. We topped off the evening with a night at the Hard Rock Cafe London, really cool.

Our Last Concert

Well we have come to end of our tour. Our last concert was in Oxford at New Road Baptist Church. A nice older church but not the big stone churches we had been performing in this was a frame church with the small round choir loft and the smaller worship space. It was a nice performance and again for 1 o'clock in the afternoon a good size crowd with young and old. This church also fed us it was wonderful. Then we headed for London our last stop before heading back to the States.

All Saints Church in Stamford

Well we went to Stamford that evening after singing in Lincoln Cathedral. What a nice little town. The church is also old ,1086. It doesn't have indoor plumbing, you have to go to the Methodist church up the street a block. Three years ago we sang in this church, it was benefit concert to raise money for a toliet indoors! They have it almost finished but not in time for our concert. The hospitality group made us cakes and sandwiches and tea from home..OH WAS THAT GOOD. It was like having 8 grandmothers cooking for you..the best of the best. Shirley, one of the members at the church, made these little carmel treats with a cake like crust..they were so good I had 2. There was a great crowd considering it was raining. It is a small church St Marys size to all you Germanns reading this. Half of St James turned sideways, Altar by the piano and doors on the other wall. They are allot like St James working for the needy and they go on mission trips to Africa, a very warm congregation. The pastor reminded me of Fr Jerry. We robed in another church across the street the other direction, a very cooperative religious community. I will have to tell you all about this place when I return. Sorry about the pictures but it was raining

Lincoln Cathedral

Hello I am back..so much has happened since I last posted. I am now in London. It has been a great tour. We went to Lincoln Cathedral, Wednesday I believe and sang at the Cathedral for a noon time concert it was wonderful. The church was built in 1073 under the Normans. It has undergone many changes and I went to the basement, there is a term but I can't think of it right now and I had to buy internet minutes to do this so it is a basement( maybe a Crypt)...There are the many layers of history down there showing the Roman floor(street) level and all the levels up to present day. The place is bigger than the last church I described to you. They have boys choirs there. Henry Purcell the composer from the late 16th and early 17th century along with William Byrd have been a chorister in the Chapel Royal. We performed songs by both of these men here today. That was the purpose of the trip to sing these songs in this space to give us the sense of what inspired these men to compose these songs for this space and to feel the sound and connection between the two then and now. I could not fit the place in my viewfinder so I have booklets and postcards to do it justice.

York Minster Cathedral

York is a very impressive city. Founded in 71 AD or so it is very quaint with the cobble streets and brick and stone everywhere it is like the Charles Dickens story. There is a store called Old Fezziwig's. The school that went with the Cathedral is so neat. The children were outside playing today while we were there and they all had their little caps on and uniforms. The little British accents just melt you. TOO CUTE, but I AM NOT ELEMENTARY ED.
The Cathedral is 518Ft. long and the Nave is 276Ft. and the East End is 236Ft. The Transcepts are 249 Ft. wide and the Nave is 138 Ft. wide and the East End 128Ft. The height in the Central Tower is 197Ft. and Western Towers 174 Ft. Are you getting the idea that this place is HUGE..it is in the shape of a cross. The hand out states it is the largest medieval gothic cathedral in Northern Europe. I also went below ground and they have exposed the different layers to the Romans level then the Normans in 11th century and the current level. It was amazing to be down there and realize how much history was right before me. I could have stayed all day and tomorrow. We sang at 130 pm today it went well the sound floated up and across the church it was like those CD's you buy of some famous choir in the place like York Minster, only it was US .
Tomorrow we are off to Oxford and Stamford then Thursday we head to London. Stay tuned
Check out the web site it is a virtual tour of York Minstry
http://www.vryork.com/minster/minster_index.html
http://www.yorkminster.org/

Lord Baden Powell

Hell to all my Boy Scout buddies this one is for you.. Stumbled onto a bench at a bus stop that had Lord Baden Powell's name on it and dates of founding the Boy Scouts and his birth and death. It was pretty cool. I guess you can buy a bench and dedicate it to a person or group and the then it is put out on street at bus stops for people to use while waiting for the bus. So I had to take a picture and take a break too.

Edinbourgh, Scotland

Just got back from Scotland tonight. What an amzing place and I sorry I have used that word allot lately but everything we have done and everywhere we have visited is over a 1000 years old and it takes your breath away. St Giles is a huge church and is in a cross shape with altar in the middle and when you go to Communion you go in groups and circle the altar and the preist passes a chunk of bread to a couple of people and they tear off a piece a nd pass it on anethenhe gives two people a huge cup(it could hold a whole bottle of wine) and we passed it around the circle and then we did the sign of peace and then the next group came up and they did it again this goes on until all have received. It takes awhile but it is really a nice way to receive. The choir was wonderful, they sang Mozart in D for the mass parts. We( Wm Jewell Concert Choir) came back at 6pm and sang our concert We had a nice crowd and it sounded great. The church is made for music and acceppella choirs. I have my house picked out just need 300 L andI am there. It is walking distance from St Giles and minutes from everything else. It has a huge park just down the street. I am bussed out we have been on the bus for 6hrs winding on the roads through the countryside there really isn't anything like I-70 here. Is is so green and sheep and lambs everywhere very cute to watch. Had Scotch in Scotland last night that was really fun went to 3 clubs and talked with locals it was great. Soccer is a big deal right now they just won a championship and everyone is pretty pumped. They had a parade yesterday.

Today went went to Coventry Catherdral and performed at 1pm. What an amazing place. The church was bombed during the war(1940) and final rebuilt in 1962 next to the ruins . The walls of the old church are still there and they have a reconcilliation service every Friday at noon inside the old walls. A very powerful service. We drive to Edinburgh Saturday and stay 2 nights and Sunday we perform at St. Giles' Cathedral. It is going so fast, it has been a week already!!!

Ely Cathedral/Kings College Even song

Well today was another amazing day. We traveled to Ely Cathedral and performed in Lady Chapel(picture) and then we went to Kings College for Evensong. The boys choir performed, ages 8 to 13 yrs. It was beautiful and so innocent. The service was a Mass with allot of Pre Vactican II feel. Communion under both forms and all invited to come forward. Another great audience

Our First Concert

Well we performed our fist concert last night at Grantham. St. Wulfum's Church, it went well. The church was very live and we had to check ourselves allot and really count because of the 1 to 2 second delay. It went very well. The people have been very freindly and glad to have us.

Day 2 England

Hello to all. Well we made it no problems and it is Wednesday morning and we are off to Belvior Castle today. Yesterday was amazing and the Estate or Country house is unbelieveable. They used this house in the movie Patton if you have seen the movie there are allot of shots of this place in the movie. Walked to the little village yesterday very nice mostly brick cottages and very clean. I am staying in the carriage house but it is bigger than my house...Weather was perfect Tuesday and had a great time.
More tomorrow and pictures