Today started off (after a hearty and rather impressive breakfast) with a tour of some of the high points (literally) of Bratislava. We visited the War Memorial (commemorates the Soviet soldiers who died liberating Bratislava from the Nazis), then the Castle (now seat of the Slovak Parliament) and then walked around the old city center looking at buildings, followed by lunch. Bratislava's original castle and fortifications were quite impressive (somewhat reminiscent of Budapest though not as large). The War Memorial gave me mixed feelings -- I wouldn't want to slight the bravery of the Russians soldiers who fought the Nazis, but at the same time 20 years later Russian soldiers rolled into Prague to liberate it from... the Czechoslovakian people. So.. a little mixed there.
After lunch most of us went off to a pottery demonstration/cultural thing and wine tasting. I did not attend so I can't comment on that.
At 5 p.m. we were back on the bus to go to St. Martin's Cathedral for our 6:30 p.m. concert. This church is... amazing. I'm kicking myself because when I was changing into my formal gear I left my camera behind so I didn't get any pictures. It's a beautiful, beautiful church -- the coronation church for Hungarian kings and queens for many many years. We had about 35 minutes to warmup and get used to the space.
Tonight's concert:
- Verbum Caro Factum Est (split)
- Kyrie (from Mass in G Minor) (split) (Shawn, Sheryl, Josh, Terry for quartet)
- Pater Noster
- Beati Quorum Via
- Wasn't That a Wonder
- Aka Si Mi Krasna
- You Are the New Day
- Hombe
- Abide With Me
- I've Been In the Storm So Long
- Cornerstone
- Were You There?
- Battle of Jericho
- Praise to The Lord (split)
- Ain'a That Good News (encore)
We had a small audience, maybe 30 or 40 including our "groupies". Cindy Uecker's family that lives in Bratislava were there and were very enthusiastic. Afterward they thanked us and seemed very impressed. For myself, this was the first time I'd actually sung "Storm" since it was handed out last week and I'd never done it before. I was pleased that my practice paid off and I did pretty well.
After the concert we returned to the hotel and went our several ways for dinner, etc. Tomorrow we are off to spend the day in Vienna, which is about an hour and a half drive from Bratislava.
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