Europe Trip
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Before I write about any of the trip I just wanted to tell you that I had a great time. I had so much fun that I would go again in a flash.We left on 16Wed at 7am. The bus broke down about 10 minutes out of Fargo, so we had to wait for a replacement bus to drive out to get us. We loaded into the new bus and then continued our journey to Minneapolis. We made a wrong turn in Minneapolis, and our bus tried to make a U-turn to fix the situation. He ended up getting stuck in the middle of the street... and his reverse was broken, so we were stuck. Fortunately we were in front of a Holiday in and they were gracious enough to drive us in their busses. The plane had to be held for 45 minutes so we could all load it.
Swiss Scenery
It was a 7-8 hour flight to Amsterdam. We had a 3 hour
layover there, and then flew to Geneva. From Geneva we took
a bus to Montreux, which is on opposite side of lake Geneva.
We met our tour guide Steffan, who is absolutely cool. (He
helped to make the trip “rule-rock”) We arrived at Montreux
at supper time and after supper, we went to Chick Corea
Concert. I slept through most of the concert, because not
only had I been up for30 hours, but the concert was boring.
Chillon
On 18Fri, We played at the Montreux jazz festival. We
were s’posed to play outside, but it was all rainy.... so
they moved us to a restaurant. I played 1 out of the 10
pieces we played. We had a few hours to explore the city,
before going to Chillon, a castle. The castle was really
cool. It was hard to fathom that it was built 900 years
ago-- nothing in Fargo is close to being that old. The
night I walked around the city and went to a jazz club (but
didn’t stay very long since I was tired.)
The Alps Montreux From our Hotel
On 19Sat, We played at a restaurant overlooking a river
walk. (The yellow building in the foreground is where we played)
I played 2 songs out of 11. We were asked to play an
encore, but Mr. Syvertson turned them down. That afternoon,
we rode a train to the top of the Swiss Alps. The mountains
were beautiful and I was very glad that I went up there.
That night we saw Van Morisen and Ray Charles. It was
another boring night of jazz that lasted until 2:30 am.On 20Sun, we departed Montreux for Paris. We arrived at 4, checked into our hotel and then went to the Eiffel tower. We weren’t able to go to the top because there were too many people there. The Tower was amazing. I had always seen pictures of it, and it was hard to believe I was actually there. That night we took a boat tour of the city and saw Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, and other monuments all lit up.
On 21Mon, we woke up early for a city tour. We saw Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Arc De Triumph. I saw the famous Mona Lisa.... it was pretty amazing! That night we went up to Sacre Cour-- the art district.
Versailles
On 22Tues, We went to Versailles, the last King’s palace.
It was very elaborate and cool.
23WED was a free day. We got to do what ever we wanted to. I went to the Museo D’Orsay with Zack, Mark, Erin, and Jess. Then I went to the catacombs. The catacombs were mile upon mile of bones. Paris was building a sewer system under cemeteries, so they piled all the bones up to the side. The catacombs were also a French base during WWII. It was amazing to see all those bones. I went to Luxembourg Park in the heart of Paris to play whist. That night we went to the Eiffel tower, and I walk down the tower-- Let me tell you: There are lots of stairs!
24Thurs was the 2/3rds point of the trip. We rode the chunnel from Pairs to London. We saw the Tower of London that day, but didn’t go in it. That night we saw Maynard Ferguson at a Small Jazz Cafe. It was pretty boring in my opinion, but a majority of the other kids loved this concert.
Big Ben
25Fri, we went on a sightseeing tour of London. We saw
Westminster Abby, St. Paul’s Chapel and Big Ben that day.
That afternoon, we had a few hours to hang around the
Picadilly Circus area of London. That night we saw Phantom
of the Opera.... It was absolutely fantabulous!!! I think
that Phantom was the highlight of my trip. I had 2nd row
seats, 1 over from the center!! It was amazing. When the
chandelier fell down, I could have touched it. It was
wonderful!!!
Westminster Abbey
26Sat was the disaster day. We were going to leave for Winsor Castle at 7:30, but our bus got stuck in a tunnel behind an accident... and it didn’t get to us until 9:30. There was a traffic jam on the way out to Winsor, and it took an hour longer than normal. That afternoon we spent 1 hour (instead of the 4 we were going to originally have) at Portabello road flee market-- you know, the one from Mary Poppins. That night we saw Les Miserables, but it wasn’t as good as Phantom. I also couldn’t stop coughing, so that sort of ruined the musical.
27Sun was our last day, and it was a free day. I went to the Doc Martin store, Picadilly Circus Area, the Camden Market and Portabello Road with Greta and Kristina. That night we all went to bed early because we had a 4:30 wake-up call the next morning.
28Mon: The plane ride back was pretty uneventful. We arrived home at about 11:30 on Monday night.
Hans and Steve
One thing that I loved about Europe was all the fresh
bread. I had fresh croissants and French bread every day.
No place in Fargo has bread that is that good and fresh.
The thing that disappointed me the most about our trip was
the Jazz, and how the performance was handled. My director
had me come to rehearsals for 2 weeks, 6 days a week, for 5
hours a day to prepare 5 songs... I only got to play 2 of
them. Instead of playing all of our songs, the director
played the same show twice.... and in that show his
“favorite” people got to play 7/10 songs, and people like me
got to play 1 or 2. This wouldn’t have bothered me much
if I would have only prepared 1 or 2 songs. But since I
wasted all that rehearsal time when I could have been
working, I wanted to play all the songs I worked on.
Here is what made me madder: We got 30 “I performed in
Montreux” shirts, and 50 of us were on the trip. My
director gets the brilliant idea to award the people who
played the most with the shirts.... and he was the one who
selectively chose who got to play what!!! Even though I worked
up almost as many songs as his "favorites", I didn’t get a
shirt because he didn’t want to play my songs. I wish he
would have drawn names out of a hat. End of sermon.
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