Our annual tour, this year, took us to Emmeloord, Holland, which is a small town, about an hour’s drive from Amsterdam. The idea came from Adrian Crowley, who has friends in the area, and he, along with our Secretary, Alan, organised the hugely successful trip. This would not have been possible without local contacts and we are very grateful to Sjanie Sterk and her committee who made us so welcome. We left Swansea on Thursday 8th and we had 40 choristers, which was the largest choir that we have ever taken on tour. We flew from Heathrow and arrived at our hotel, the Van der Valk, just outside Emmeloord, at around 8.00pm in the evening where we were treated to a ‘light’ meal, which was excellent.
On Friday we visited the ‘Orchid House’, which houses hundreds of varieties of orchid, along with a butterfly house, and various displays. The highlight for many was a chance to feed some very colourful and noisy parrots, which flew on to your hands, arms, or anywhere (!) to feed on some nectar. In the evening, we sang a concert at the Nieuw Jeruzalemkerk in Emmeloord and were joined by Chr. Mannenkoor Emmeloord. They are a Christian Men’s choir and were over 70 on stage and their MD was Johan Bredewout. They opened the concert with a number of items, including Samuel Wesley’s ‘Lead me Lord’. We then sang our first half and started with Cwm Rhondda, with Steve on the organ, and combined, this made a great sound in the lovely acoustic of this modern church. We were very well received and when we finished our set in the second half with ‘An American Trilogy’, the audience of around 450 got to their feet in appreciation. The concert finished with both choirs joining together to sing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ which included Rhian on piano and their accompanist on the organ, which was a fitting end to a great concert.
We went to the small fishing village of Urk an Saturday morning and received a great welcome. We went to see a lighthouse and took a short boat trip and were treated to a local lunch of soup, fish, salad and rice.
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We then went back to the hotel for a short rest before going to the village of Tollebeek, some 10 miles away, to sing at St Hubertus Kerk in the evening, which, again, was full to capacity holding around 300 people. On this occasion we were joined by ‘Canticum’, Emmeloord, and ‘Cantabile’ from Tollebeek, both of which were mixed choirs. Once again, it was a modern church and the acoustic was wonderful. We started the concert and included our medley of World War One songs and then the other choirs took it in turn to sing. The highlight of their performance was when they joined together to sing ‘De Zegenbede’, which was a beautiful song, where the choirs formed up around the church, creating a fantastic atmosphere. On this occasion we finished the concert and, once again, received a standing ovation from the enthusiastic audience. We then joined together with the other choirs to sing ‘The Rose’. Refreshments were served after the concert and many friendships were made. Thanks to Marian and Martine, the musical directors of the choirs, for joining us in a memorable evening’s music.
We had a free day on Sunday, so a trip was arranged to Amsterdam where we took in the sights of the city and many went on river cruises and bus tours. In the evening we went back to Emmeloord for some light refreshments and a few presentations were made to our hosts for the weekend. We then went back to the hotel for some further drinks and singing until the early hours of Monday morning.
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We arrived back in Swansea late Monday evening following another very successful tour. Huge thanks must go to Alan Clewett and Adrian Crowley for organising the trip. Thanks also to Nick, Rhian and Steve who ensured the choir sang to a great standard and that the concerts were excellent.
