Last day in London / homeward bound

Our final day of the tour started with a visit to Westminster Abbey, for which we had specialist tour guides. Some of the most important royals are buried there - Elizabeth I, Mary I, Mary Queen of Scots - as well as commoners (Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and musicians Ralph Vaughn Williams and Henry Purcell, in addition to the many creative artists in Poets' Corner).

We were able to work in a jaunt to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard, the end of which coincided with a nationwide moment of silence at noon in honor of the one-year anniversary of the terrorist transport bombings here in London. After lunch in St. James Park, amid a variety of interesting waterfowl, we took a boat ride on the Thames to the Tower of London. We had some time there to see the crown jewels, poke around the grounds, and pester the yeoman warders (beefeaters) with questions about the Tower (like this random woman, who is not part of our group.)

After a tasty and low-key dinner at Salieri's, people went off on their own. Almost half of us went on the London Eye, which is the giant ferris wheel built for the Millennium celebration. The views were amazing (though scary, at least for some of us).

This is probably my last blog post from London. It is after midnight, and we have a very early departure time tomorrow. I have told band members that I will solicit their best photos for inclusion in a photo album that will be put on the main FCCB site - and I will clean up the blog posts to make a nice recap. Thanks for being our virtual companions on our England tour. We hope you have enjoyed reading about it; we have certainly enjoyed doing it.

London / last concert

Our first full day in London was a long one. After continental breakfast at the hotel, we made our way east into the heart of the city. Some of us stopped off in Leicester Square to get discounted theatre tickets at the tkts booth, while the others went ahead to the British Museum. Everyone ended up there eventually, and while we didn't have a lot of time to explore, many of us hit the highlights (the Rosetta Stone, Egyptian mummies, etc.)

Next up: our final concert. We played at St. Paul's Church in Covent Garden (not to be confused with St. Paul's Cathedral), and got a fair amount of lunchtime traffic. The acoustics were great, and the crowd seemed happy with our performance.

Quick lunch, then off to St. Paul's Cathedral, where some of us climbed over 250 steps to the Whispering Gallery, and a further subset of us continued up to the uppermost gallery. (Not me - I was looking at Admiral Lord Nelson's tomb in the basement crypt, and browsing the gift shop.)

We had a great dinner at the Farmhouse Table, then we went our separate ways - some of us to the theatre (Sean and I, along with six others, saw "Phantom of the Opera"; other people saw "Les Miserables", "Sunday in the Park with George", and other shows), some back to the hotel or off to do their own things. Everyone will be resting up tonight because we have a big day of sightseeing tomorrow!

Oxford / tea / London

On our way to London today, we had a detour to Oxford. We toured Christ Church, one of the largest colleges at the University of Oxford. There was also a bit of free time for wandering around, shopping, and lunch; some of us went on the double-decker sightseeing bus, others of us went to an indoor ride / museum that told the history of the university. Hopefully we all came out a bit smarter.

Before heading to London, though, we had tea at the home of one of our member's parents just outside Oxford. Clare is the one who paired us up with our host band, with whom she played while living in Bristol. Her parents were incredibly gracious, having all 36+ of us traipsing through their house and yard, partaking of tea, scones, and cakes. I think we all had a nice time with them.

Finally, we made it to London. Our hotel is in South Kensington, which is a beautiful area. We went to dinner at a nearby restaurant, which is where he heard the good news that Jerry is a grandfather! His daughter had a baby girl a few days earlier than expected. Congratulations also to his wife, who is reading this right now... After dinner, with nothing else scheduled, some folks watched the Portugal vs. France World Cup match at various lounges and pubs, while others just relaxed and enjoyed the much cooler weather outside.

Tomorrow we have our last concert. But before that, we are going to visit the British Museum. Stay tuned for details!

Bristol

Happy (belated) Independence Day! We spent July 4th in Bristol, starting with a tour of the SS Great Britain. The ship was designed by I.K. Brunel, was built in Bristol, and launched by Prince Albert on July 19, 1843. It was the first iron ship to sail the Atlantic, and was propeller-driven (instead of paddle-wheel). It sailed for 43 years, and circled the world 32 times! It's been amazingly restored and was a great tourist experience. After visiting the SS Great Britain, we had lunch at a French cafe, then set off on our own to walk around Bristol.

Our second concert was in the evening. We met up with the Redland Wind Band for a joint concert celebrating Independence Day, featuring American and English works. Each band played separately, then we played two pieces together - "Deep Water Bay", written by Adam Levowitz, our director, and "Stars and Stripes Forever". Both bands played beautifully; the crowd, who had paid admission (proceeds went to charity), seemed to agree. After the concert, we had some snacks and socializing with the other band, and people are already thinking about when and how they might come visit us in the United States.

Today we are off to Oxford, with tea at the home of one of our members' parents...then we check in to our new hotel in London.

Stonehenge/Salisbury

Today we went to Stonehenge and Salisbury. You all know Stonehenge - all I'll say about it is that it's quite impressive.


We spent the rest of the day in Salisbury. We had lunch on our own, then met up for a tour of the Salisbury Cathedral. The cathedral was built from 1220-1258, and has the tallest spire in England. They have one of the four existing copies of the Magna Carta; seeing that was amazing.

Afterwards, we had some more free time to roam and shop. I was personally intrigued by a store called "Poundland", where everything costs one pound, and there was some serious American-style air conditioning. (I know it sounds like I'm complaining about the heat a lot, but so is everyone - it's turning into a heat wave, and on TV they are warning everyone about staying hydrated and being sensible.) We bussed on back to the hotel and had dinner there. Right now, we are being "entertained" by a high school prom going on in the hotel.

Bath

Sorry for lack of update yesterday - the hotel was having a problem with its Internet access. If you haven't heard by now, England lost to Portugal and the country is taking it pretty hard.

We spent yesterday in Bath, which is a beautiful city, named for the Roman baths built as a restorative center in 44 AD. The water contains 30 different minerals, is three times harder than regular water, and is slightly radioactive(!).


After a short drive around Bath Crescent, Bath Circus, and the Pulteney Bridge, we took a self-guided audio tour of the Roman baths, which were excavated in the 1700s and 1800s. Some of us even paid 50 pence (about $1) to drink a glass of the warm, sulfuric water. Tasty! (Not really.)

We had some free time to wander around, then we met up with members of the Redland Wind Band for a picnic lunch at the Bath Parade Grounds (the site of our first concert). It was cool to meet the band, and they brought us a delicious potluck picnic lunch. A few of them sat in with us on our concert.


Our concert, by the way, was great. (It was also the premiere of our new band polo shirts, which look sharp.)


We were crowded into a bandstand, and had quite a decent audience in the Parade Grounds. The English are apparently enjoying their streak of hot weather (we are not - it's just like the weather at home, minus the air conditioning, ceiling fans, and ice.) It did start raining at intermission, but it stopped by the end of concert - our diehard fans retreated under the trees to wait out the rain.


After the concert, we went on a tour of Bath Abbey. One of the people buried there is Mr. Pitman (sorry, didn't get his first name) who invented shorthand. Then we had dinner at a hotel restaurant in Bath, and headed back to Swindon for a good night's rest.

The story so far

Greetings from the bar of the De Vere Hotel at
Shaw Ridge, in Swindon. Sean and I are
currently watching the England vs. Portugal
World Cup match, and they're going into penalty
kicks. It's crazy rowdy in here. An entire wedding
reception even wandered in here to watch the match.

Let me catch you up on yesterday and today. The
Virgin Atlantic flight was relatively
uneventful (someone misplaced their passport at
security, but made it onto the flight in the
nick of time; also, someone else's instrument
didn't make it on the plane, but I believe it's
en route now). The flight attendants were the
nicest and cheeriest I have ever seen. We were
all seated in the same area of the plane, but
we did a lot of seat-swapping as the
assignments had turned out somewhat
inconveniently.

We landed at Heathrow around 7:00 AM and were
met by our guide Richard. By 8:10 AM, we had
boarded our cream-colored coach and met our
driver Terry, who warned us against using the
toilet on the bus. We were each given a number
to help Richard keep track of us.

We started our westbound journey with two
unscheduled stops - one in the town of
Marlborough, and one at the stone formation at
Avebury (which is larger than Stonehenge,
although the stones themselves are smaller.)
We passed by Silbury Hill, which is the largest
manmade mound in Europe.

Our next stop was Lacock Abbey, where we did a
self-guided tour, and some of us explored the
shops in the village. By this time, we were all hot
and tired. It is an outright lie that England doesn't get hot.
The temperature today was over 90 degrees F,
and air conditioning isn't all that common. We
were ready to head to the hotel and get cleaned
up and rested up. The hotel is nice (but no
a/c!) and is surrounded on one side by Pizza
Hut and on the other by a strip mall which
includes a bowling alley. So, you know, we
could really paint the town in our copious free
time. :)

We have dinner in about half an hour, so I'll
leave you now. Our Internet connection is
weak, so I probably won't be able to upload any
photos tonight, but hopefully it will work
tomorrow...the day of our first concert!

Let us entertain you...

Here is a photo of the band members who are going to England. This was taken in May, but I haven't yet posted it on the main FCCB site.

T-minus 1 day

After our final rehearsal last night, I think everyone is really excited about the trip to England! Our esteemed librarian suggested (jokingly, I think) that someone blog our trip, so I figured I might as well take a stab. Hopefully I'll be able to provide ongoing updates and photos. Check back here for more!