Saturday, October 10, 2009

Germany!

Here is the last stop of my tour of Eastern Europe. Germany! First we went to a town just outside of Munich and stayed there for a night. When we were done with rehearsals that evening a bunch of people wanted to go to the Hauberhaus in Munich. We rode the metro to the center of Munich and this was the first thing we saw when we got off. It was right above the metro!
It was really fun to walk the streets and see all the German writing. It was something I recognized after all those other weird languages like Czech, and Slovenian, and Hungarian... even though I still didn't understand it.

I really love the ivy... I don't know how I would deal with all the spiders though.

Here is the Hauberhaus. You could hear the music from inside walking up to it.

And this guy was miming just outside the front door.

The inside reminded me of Disney World's Germany section. It looked exactly the same! Except that people were speaking English in Disney World.

There were polka bands on every level!

John, Me, and Ann

Here is our group. I can't believe we found a table for all of us. It was so crowded!

Here is my suckling pig. Mmmm. And those nasty dumplings. What is wrong with mashed potatoes?

I just had to get Apple strudel. Yummy.

Here is Dr. Allred with his apple cider. Sure looks like beer doesn't it?

And he drank it all!!!

Here is the polka band. They would do pretty neat stuff and crack whips and yodel. It was pretty neat.

We decided to take a small tour afterwards even though it was dark. When will I ever get to see Munich again?

This is the hotel we stayed in. Hotel Bauer. I had to take a picture because it is like Jack Bauer from the tv show 24.

Here we are in Marktoberdorf at the International choir competition. There were 13 choirs there total. All the choirs were accepted after 100's auditioned, and we were the only ones from America to make it.

We had our mixed choir concert in the afternoon, then those of us in the youth choir sang another concert mid afternoon, then we all sang another concert in the evening with other groups. 3 concerts a day for 4 days in a row. My voice didn't work for a month after that. Here is one of the evening concerts.. it was us and Argentina singing it out one after the other like a soccer game. Soccer is big out there.



I broke down and ate at McDonalds. It was much more expensive than it is in the US. All of this cost me 5 Euros. But it was really good. Much better quality than in the US. Did you know that you have to pay extra for your condiments? A lot extra! So I only got one.

Goofing around.

Here we were on our way to another evening concert. I loved the cute houses they had in the country side.

Here is the church we sang in for the evening concert.
The inside ceiling was beautiful! This picture doesn't do it justice.

This meal was pretty good.. except for the dumpling of course. The purple cabbage was delicious.

Goofing around again. We were all ready to go home.

Here was a morning concert we did for another mass. We were up in the rafters.

This is a theater we got to sing in that was built for King Ludwig II's death. He died in a lake and no one knew whether he killed himself or just drowned. Only a few days earlier he had found out that he couldn't rule the country anymore becuase his mind was deteriorating.

And here is the lake that was build right in the middle of the stage. It has a fountain in the middle of it. I don't know if they can use this theater for any other production because the lake it permanently there. When another group was practicing for the concert one of their members fell in and I guess it was really cold.

Here is King Ludwig II's castle. I found out after I got home that I am related to King Ludwig II through my dad's side, isn't that crazy! Well, this castle was built and the King only lived in it for 186 days or so before he died. 60 days immediately after his death it was opened for public viewing and never lived in again. WHAT A WASTE! They should have let someone else live in it for a while, maybe the new king or something. It is hard for me to think that all that work went into only 186 days. Sad. Ohhhh, and just incase you were wondering... this is the castle that Disney based their castle off of. Very cool.

I took this to remember the name.. Neuschwanstein.

The Castle up close.

We weren't allowed to take pictures of the inside of the castle, but we could take some from the castle windows, and I thought the view of the country side was beautiful.


Here is a picture of the castle from a bridge in the mountain side. It was WAY worth the hike. This side has scaffolding on it, but it was beautiful anyways.

Me!!!

The other side of the bridge.


This is the castle King Ludwig II lived in while he was growing up. It was only a few miles away from the one he built for himself. They were neighbors!

I just had to include this... we had a wardrobe malfunction before one of our concerts. This guy.. Jared, forgot his black shirt. Soooo, we found one of the girl's skirts and pinned and pulled and....

Ta da!! The arms were a little short, but he just stood in the back. Too funny.

Here is the awards ceremony in Marktoberdorf. It says Announcement of the results.

And here our name, The University of Utah, Prise 1! Wahoo!

It was such a great experience to go to Europe. Singing in so many places was so much fun and we were able to see so much. I loved the architecture and how old everything was. There was so much history and so much to learn. Sorry it took me so long to put them all up. But now I can finally say...

THE END!

Thanks for staying tuned, I loved your comments!
Keep 'em coming!

8 comments:

The two old crows said...

Thanks for the beautiful pictures. Germany is certainly prettier than I thought it was. I'm glad you were able to go and once in life time thing. At least it would have been for me.

Tina said...

Very interesting Halley. I would love to go and visit the places you did. What an awesome opportunity!

ClaysJenna said...

What a beautiful place. One day I'll go to Europe, one day!! By the way, you always have such darling earrings in!! Where do you get them all?? I love them!

King Family said...

Oh thanks Jenna! The green ones are the only ones I can think of right now, and I got those from Hungary. The are hand painted and are my favorite earrings in the world!

I hope everyone is able to take a trip like this sometime. It was such a great experience.

King Family said...

Ohh, I guess I am wearing pink pearl earrings too.. I got those ones in Austria. Earrings are my favorite piece of jewelry so I am a sucker when I find ones I like. I HAVE to get them. Haha.

ClaysJenna said...

Oh, sure, they're both from out of the country!! haha! Well they are seriously darling!

Unknown said...

I loved seeing all your pictures! I love the castle, and you can see the resemblance from the one in Disneyland... very interesting fact! You are so lucky to have seen all those wonderful places!

Tina said...

Had to come on your site to get my "Halley" fix!!! I can't believe dad is coming to visit and I'm left behind :( boo hoo! Dad tried to get us to come, but I'm saving our pennies for your senior recital! Let us know, as soon as you know, when it will be! Have fun with dad . . . . hopefully you have some time together! LOVE YA!!!

OH! and sorry you lost all of your Europe pictures in the computer crash . . . . have you thought about asking some of the other people who went for discs of them? That might help you to feel better! DARN!