The Tour Thus Far

With more than half of our tour over with, I realize this is an odd time to start blogging, but due to various technical difficulties I haven’t been able to blog until now. So instead of completely skipping the all of the previous days I figure I’ll do a bit of a summary of how everything has been going.

First of all, this trip has been a very humbling experience for me. With each new city that we stop in I don’t know which streets lead where, where the restaurants are, how to get to the shopping center, how to get to the pharmacy or drug store if I need to pick something up, etc. I’ll admit I even struggled with the TV the first night because let me just say I was not taught how to read a German TV menu in school. Back at home I’m so used to knowing how to get anything I need and get wherever I need to go, so it has definitely been interesting.

So far we’ve sung in some absolutely incredible and indescribable places that have blown away any expectation I had prior to coming on this tour. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such massive and ornate buildings ever before. Today we even had the privilege of singing in the church where Bach had his first full-time gig and the church where he got married. And although we didn’t get to sing in it, we visited a church that was built in 1270 in a town that has been around since the late 700s. Now there’s some history for you. We also visited Rothenburg, one of the most important German cities during Medieval times, which still has its original town walls standing and intact enough to walk on and explore.

This has definitely been one of the most educational experiences of my life. The significance of the history of all of the places we have been seeing is difficult to comprehend, but everything starts to come into perspective when an elderly German couple comes up to you after a concert, holding back tears, and says, “what you all have is a gift from God. Cherish your voices and don’t ever let them go. Thank you so much.”

If Bach is listening, I hope he likes what he hears.

-Cody Chase

more pictures at www.codyshoots.blogspot.com