October was dominated by our visit to Kraków, Poland, which took place from Thursday 6fed to Monday 10fed. The first day was mostly travelling, but we were able to take in a few sights of the city during the late afternoon and evening, especially as it was quite warm.
Unfortunately the weather turned on the Friday when we had a tour of the city arranged for the morning. However, we saw the outside of Schindler’s factory (which has now been turned into a museum about World War 2) and visited the old town and square. We went into the Old Synagogue and a number of churches including St Mary’s, on the square, which had an amazing blue marble stone interior. We had some rest in the early afternoon and, later, visited the salt mine at Wieliczka. This was a magnificent experience culminating in the fantastic underground cathedral, where we sang a few hymns. The acoustics were wonderful! We had walked down over 800 steps to a depth of 300 metres by the end, but, thankfully, there was a lift to take us back to the top.
Before leaving Wales, we knew that we had to find a bar which was showing the Rugby World Cup matches, and early on Saturday morning we had 6 taxis waiting outside the hotel to transport a number of the choir to the Irish bar, Nics Nowego, which had been located. As we all know, Wales won, which left us in a good mood for the rest of the trip! We then had the rest of the day free until our first concert at St Mary of Lourdes R C Church. The concert took place straight after the mass, which is traditional in Poland. Apparently, if the choir doesn’t go straight in, the congregation will leave! However, before that, we sang Schubert’s ‘Sanctus’, during the mass, from a balcony at the back of the church which our ladies said was beautiful. In fact, it was so good they didn’t realise it was us! The concert was a great success and the choir sang well, and we had a standing ovation from the audience at the end.
The next day we went to Auschwitz II Birkenau and Auschwitz I. It was a dank, cool, still day which only added to the atmosphere of the place. We were taken around a number of the buildings and our guide gave a very detailed account of the atrocities which went on there. We had arranged to sing in the camp, but were informed that we could only sing outside the boundary fence after the tour. However, when the time arrived no-one really felt like singing, so we respectfully declined. We then went to Pijarist Church to sing our second concert of the weekend. Again we went straight in after the mass which caught out a number of our ladies, who were in the pub, as the service finished early, so we went on earlier than expected. Again, the choir was on form and another standing ovation followed our last item and we were requested to sing an encore. After the concert our MD spoke to one member of the audience who had enjoyed our first concert so much that she also came to the second one. Later in the evening we had arranged to experience a typical Polish night at a local restaurant. A group of musicians welcomed us in and we enjoyed some traditional food. The whole tour was arranged by Mark Burrows of Melody Music, Cardiff, and he was also there and bought a drink for everyone in our party.
On Monday we spent the morning at our leisure and travelled to Wroclaw in the afternoon to catch our flight home. While on board, the chief stewardess asked if we could sing to a new bride and groom, who were making their way back to Britain. We duly obliged by giving a rendition of ‘Sunrise, Sunset’, which brought tears to the eyes of the new couple and the stewardesses! A note of thanks from both the stewardess, Ewelina, and the ‘newly weds’ can be found in our ‘Guestbook’. This meant that we sang at both 35,000 ft in the air and 300 metres underground – The ‘highs and lows’ of a male voice choir!
This was the first concert tour our choir had organised for many years and was a great success. Many thanks went to Mark Burrows and Maciej Pezerwa, our guide for the weekend, and, although we had some problems with late changes to our flights, the organisation of transport, hotel accommodation and concerts was excellent. Thanks also to Alan Clewett, our secretary, who liaised with Mark and Maciej and made sure that everyone was on time for trips, concerts, etc. Thanks also to Nick and Steve, our musical team, who had worked so hard to get the choir to perform so well.
For more pictures of our visit, please visit the gallery page.
