By Request

Now that the boys are back, we've got thousands of photos of their trip. Quite a change from when they were gone and we were all scouring the internet for any mention of them.

I know Riley came home with enough pictures that it took two sessions of watching a slideshow to see all of them. He was the videographer for the choir so he didn't even get a chance to take his camera around as much as he wanted to because he was using the choir's video camera (see him at about 32 seconds).

All that being said, there were some pretty neat moments on tour that need to be shared with anyone who's still reading along. One of them was Joe Reece carrying the World Choir Games banner during the opening ceremonies. I'd think that it's a pretty special moment for the choir and especially for Joe. Roger sent me a few pictures for posting up here. So, here's Joe!

Choirboys in the News

The Land of Lakes Choirboys are featured in an article in the Star Tribune today. Some great quotes from the boys and a picture from their warmups at the homecoming concert on the 17th.

What Happens Now?

Some people asked me, "what happens to this site now? Does it ever go away?"

It's a free site via Google-owned Blogger. So, as long as Google keeps in business and keeps Blogger going, this site will be here.

I'm hoping to keep the site updated for the next few days with links to any news articles that are maybe posted after the fact, but it's likely to be pretty quiet here after that.

There's been some interest in possibly having a blog like this for camp. There's some technical difficulties involved with that since camps aren't exactly known for having easy internet access but, I'll see what I can do. If that happens, it would likely be on a less Viking choir specific site yet to be named. In any case, I'd let Mary Jo know and she'd send out an email to everyone to let them know.

So, thanks to all the choir parents and families who read along. It sure was fun posting things that people were interested in, tanks for reading!

Stats!

Aaron Ziegler made a comment a while back that he wanted to see the stats of the site. There's nothing I like better than stats! Actually, I've got fancy graphs and map overlays and all sorts of nifty stuff to see the stats from the blog. I could go on for hours. But, since that's boring, here's the rundown of some interesting stats:

53 posts. 47 comments.

2,000 distinct visits
7,800 page views
23 countries
26 states
340 unique visitors

Each visitor viewed about 4 pages and spent 6 minutes on the site

Our biggest day for pageviews was July 10th with 763 page views.

The most viewed page (aside from the homepage) was the post on June 20th that had a link to a video of the boys singing in France. 265 views on that page alone.

Most of our traffic came from people clicking the link out of an email or using a bookmark but we did see a lot of traffic from myfamily.com and various websites associated with grizzlygroundswell.com

People came to our site while searching for mostly specific terms like "land of lakes choirboys" and whatnot. We got a few hits from people using search engines to search for "Riley LinDell" and a significant number of hits from people search for World Choir Games info and results.

The most interesting hit from search engines was probably the one that came from someone searching for "landesakadamie, schlitz, germany" (nothing relating directly to the choirboys) but the person who came to our site using that search term stayed and viewed 30 pages.

Home at last!

The boys are finally home!! After five weeks, we finally get to hear their voices and give them hugs. Welcome back boys!

Here's some video from the airport as they came down the elevators to their biggest fans.





We weren't thinking about how to get good pictures so you can't see the hardware... but those are two silver medals hanging around Riley's neck!

Land of Lakes Choirboys in the "Elk River Star News"

The Elk River Star News wrote an article telling about the Land of Lakes Choirboys winning two silver medals at the World Choir Games. Perhaps this is just the first of many articles and stories that will be celebrating our fantastic boychoir.

Viking Today...7/15

Get your "Welcome Home" balloons and signs ready! It'll only be a matter of hours now until we see our boys. I'm sure they've all grown a foot taller, and, in my own son's case, gone another octave lower vocally. They start out 4,565 miles away now, but will at in our arms soon.

The boys leave Munich at 11:50 am their time (4:50 am our time) on NWA flight 8516. They take a 737 from Munich International Airport (airport code MUC) to Amsterdam-Schiphol, Netherlands (airport code AMS). They are due to arrive in Amsterdam at 1:30 PM ( 6:30 am our time).

A little side note for our buddy Jack Z: the Amsterdam airport was in the news a while back for painting flies on their urinals.

From Amsterdam they are to take an A330-300 for NWA flight 0055 to Minneapolis (good ol' MSP). The flight is scheduled to arrive at 5:25 pm our time, but it will feel like 12:25 am Wed. in their brains.

I would guess the boys will try to nap on the flight and they will be very excited and awake to see their families at the airport, but they will crash into their beds (their own beds, finally) by the time they get home. We plan to go out to dinner as a family (getting as many details as we can!) after the airport, and then put Riley to bed.

Viking Today...7/14

The boys' itinerary only says they'll be moving from Graz to Munich as step one of their return for home. Looks like that drive is about four hours.

I think Roger said in an update that they were actually heading back to Eichenau, a suburb west of Munich, to stay with the same people that hosted them earlier in the tour. Looks like that'll tack an extra 20 minutes or so onto the drive. I'm sure the choirboys will all be excited to share the news of their time in Graz at the World Choir Olympics with their hosts.

Perhaps they will see scenes like these on their drive today. Unfortunately for the boys, they are leaving Austria to early to take part in the Lederhosen Festival. I'm sure they're very upset about that. (Actually, Riley probably would be sad to miss that...)

Viking Today...7/13

This morning the boychoir will attend the Award Ceremony in the large hall of the Stadthalle to receive their TWO SILVER MEDALS. Congratulations, boys!

Here is a picture from my new best friend (the man that took a picture of the boys at the parade) of Francis at the ceremony. This picture is clearer, but from further away. Francis is in the front, 1/3 of the way on the left. You can see more pictures from the same photographer here.

The schedule from Roger says, "Common singing with Gotthilf Fischer (traditional german folk songs)" in the Hauptplatz. Here are a couple other pictures I found of the Hauptplaz. Such beautiful buildings surround it! The Graz city hall seems to be on one side of the open plaza.

All I found about the common singing event on the World Choir Games website is this (scroll down to page 24/25 for July 13th). My guess is that this will be a big concert of many choirs. Perhaps the boys will also sing the two official songs of the game there.

The first part of the World Choir Games ends this evening with a concert of the champions and a closing ceremony. At this point, the Games website has not yet posted the official results for the medal round. Check here to see which choirs are the champions.

Viking Today...7/12

Our favorite boychoir advanced to the medal round in each of the categories they performed in.

They will perform in the Children’s Choir category (category 1) sometime during the day at the Stadthalle. It is the same place they sang for the qualifying round. The Stadthalle seems to be the venue in Graz where big names put on their shows. (Big names like The Land of Lakes Choirboys, that is.) According to the latest update on the choir's website the boys will performing at 2 pm this afternoon, our time.)

They will also perform in the Musica Sachra category (category 17) at some point during the day. That performance is at the Mariahilferkirche, also the same place as where they sang for the qualifying round. According to that update the performance will be at 1:35 am tonight, our time.)

The juries for the medal rounds of the Children’s Choir category and the Sacred Music category will have different judges than the ones that were scoring the qualifying round.

The schedule from Roger says they are supposed to perform this afternoon in a Friendship Concert at the Mariahilferplatz. The picture and the name make me think the Mariahilferplatz is a plaza outside the Mariahilferkirche. Hopefully the timing for singing in the medal rounds and the Friendship Concert do not have the boys racing from place to place frantically.

More Results!

The results for the first category they performed in are posted. The Land of Lakes Choirboys have advanced to the medal round for the Children's Category (cat. 1) as well as the Sachra Musica Category (cat.17).

They performed in the qualifying round for two categories and they have advanced in both! They must be so excited and so proud of themselves. What a huge pat on the back this acknowledgment of their efforts must be to them.

They are the only boys' choir competing from the USA and now they've shown they are to be noticed!

Official Press Release from The Land of Lakes Choirboys

Press Release ---------------------------------------------------------------July 11, 2008

MINNESOTA’S LAND OF LAKES CHOIRBOYS ADVANCE TO MEDAL ROUND - WORLD CHOIR GAMES

The Land of Lakes Choirboys’ Viking Choir has advanced to the July 12th medal round in the Musica Sacra category of the World Choir Games in Graz, Austria, which is the largest choir competition in the world for lay and amateur choirs.

These 34 boys, aged 10-15 years old, competed against 35 other choirs, both children’s and adult, for the opportunity to compete in Saturday’s medal competition. As of this press release, the Viking Choir had been notified of their success and advancement, but the complete roster of the final, medal round participants had not yet been released to the public.

During final competition in the Sacred Music category, each choir will perform four pieces with a maximum pure-singing time of 15 minutes. They will all compete before the same elite, seven-member jury of international judges from Austria, Greece, Germany, Ukraine, China and Vietnam.

In scoring the medal round, the judges evaluate the competitors in the areas of intonation, sound quality of the choir, fidelity to the score, and overall artistic impression. The final result is made up of the total of all final scores of each of the adjudicators, with the lowest and highest figure disregarded. The Awards Ceremonies will be held on Sunday, July 13th.

Though they also competed against 41 other choirs in Thursday’s qualifying round of the Children’s Choir category, those results won’t be made public until early Saturday morning, July 12. Should they advance in that category, the medal competition will take place later that same day.

The Viking Choir, which has been touring in Europe since June 12th, began their quest for a World Choir Games medal in December, when Artistic Director Mr. Francis Stockwell applied to the WCG artistic committee with an audition tape, photos, a proposed performance repertoire, and copies of reviews from critics around the world. They are one of only eight choirs to represent the United States.

There are some 20,000 singers in Graz for this bi-annual event, representing 93 nations and every continent on the earth. More than 600 performances will take place in 28 different categories.

The World Choir Games is next scheduled to take place in 2010 in Shaoxing, China.

The Land of Lakes Viking Choir will return to the Twin Cities late in the afternoon on Tuesday, July 15th, having represented their community, state and country with the greatest of integrity and accomplishment.

Notes to the editor: For further information, please contact:

Associate Director Aaron Carpenter
6437 Norris Lake Road
Elk River, MN 55330
763.238.8286
acarpenter@lolcb.org
http://www.lolcb.org/

Viking Choir Advances to Medal Round!

The results have not been posted on the World Choir Games' website yet, but Roger called Mary Jo and let her know the Land of Lakes Choirboys Viking Choir will advance to the medal round for the Musica Sachra category (17)!

The results for the first category they sang for, category 1 - Children's Choirs, are not expected to be posted until Saturday morning around 9 or 10. With the time difference that'll be the middle of the night tonight. I'm guessing there will be at least one or two people that stay awake hitting the F5 key until they see the latest results have been posted.

Medal Round, here we come! Well our boys, anyway. I'm sure they're bursting at the seams with excitement right now.

The Viking Choir will sing again tomorrow for the second round. You can see the schedule for category 17's round 2 here, but I am not sure exactly when they will sing. If you scroll further down the page with the schedule, you will see our boys on page 228.

For the first round of both categories they performed in, there were five judges on the jury. For the second round, there will be seven judges on the jury, and the top and bottom scores will be thrown out.

I'm sure we all believed our boys would make it to the medal round, but there are many strong choirs there so it really shows what a quality of the sound the Land of Lakes Choirboys.

Yipee! Way to go boys! Way to go, Francis!

Viking Today...7/11

This morning the boys have a 10 minute rehearsal to prepare for this afternoon's performance for the jury in category 17, the open Musica Sachra. Both the rehearsal and the performance are in the Mariahilferkirche.

This category doesn't have the same specifications as the one they performed in yesterday. The only guideline is to choose 4 pieces of Christian sacred music.

Yesterday instrument accompaniment was allowed on two of the four pieces and a total time of 20 minutes was allowed. Today's category allows for instrument accompaniment on any/all of the 4 songs but the total time of the music cannot exceed 15 minutes.

The songs Francis has chosen are "Duo Seraphim Clamabant," " O Sacrum Convivium," "Little David Play on Your Harp," and the "Ave Maria" from Eleanor Daley (not the more commonly known one by Franz Schubert).

I found these pictures of the church where they'll perform (each word has a new picture link). If only we had a picture of our boys there...

Also, nothing has been posted for the category the Land of Lakes Choirboys competed in yet, but you can check the results page to see how other choirs have done.

In correspondence news, we got three letters (2 from Riley and 1 from his tour partner) from this last package. Did anyone else get a letter or two?

World Choir Games Videos!

Corinne Olinger scored these videos. One has our Land of Lakes Chiorboys in the parade at the opening ceremonies!!! Great score, Corinne!

The first video has our Viking boys in the parade. They come in the video at about 0:14. I'm sure you'll watch it a bazillion times like I have. Some boys are easier to distinguish than others, but if you pause and rewind a lot you'll likely find your own red-polo-ed cutie! Riley was easy to find at 0:32 holding the camcorder.



The second is a short (about 7 minutes) documentary-style video about the World Choir Games.




Thanks, Corinne!

Pictures of Graz and Bad Waltersdorf

I found this album of pictures from someone's trip to Graz. There are some pictures from a night out that none of us probably care about, but there are a lot of sightseeing-type pictures from around the city. Perhaps these are some of the things and places the boys are seeing.

I also came across this picture of a park in the city where their hotel is.

Pictures from Opening Ceremonies

The same person that loaded the pictures of the parade on flickr.com also loaded some pictures from the opening event.

Update: You can see all of his pictures by looking at his set.

Choir Games Opening Ceremonies Parade Video

John Kelly found this video of the opening ceremonies and parade. Our choirboys aren't in it, but it still gives a great sense of what's going on over there!

Viking Today ... First Round of Competition

As much of the world is excited about the Summer Olympics in Beijing, we in the music world are paying attention to the World Choir Games in Graz, Austria. The boys had a rehearsal yesterday in preparation for today's first round of competition.

Today the boys are competing in category 1, which is the Children's Choirs. Our Viking Choir is the only boys' choir from the US competing and one of only eight choirs competing in the games from the US. They will sing for a maximum of 20 minutes before 5 judges.

Francis had to submit which songs the boys would be performing months ago. He had to submit before he really knew which songs would be a strength for the choir, and instead had to try to figure out which songs the boys might excel at. The website shows the restrictions on the music the choir sings...

" 1. one piece by a composer from the country, language area or cultural environment of the participating choir
2. one piece by a composer who does not come from the country or language area or cultural environment of the participating choir (see also chapter Competition Rules)
3. one piece by a composer who is alive at the time of application
4. one piece of the choir’s own choice "

Today the boys will be performing (or by now have performed) "All Ye Who Music Love," "Ein Jager Langs Dem Weiher Ging" (this is the German folk song about the hunter that sounds like louf yager, louf yager), "Shenandoah," and "Waltzing Matilda." The songs are listed as they are matched for the requriements 1 through 4.

I'm sure we are all anxiously awaiting word from Roger on how the boys are doing. Hopefully they are getting some rest and enjoying being around so many other musicians.

I think it's so wonderful that the boys are in a little bubble of music-lovers right now. There are thousands of musicians through the many choirs and I imagine there is an electric buzz in the air. I love the idea that the boys are getting to appreciate the sounds of other choirs and that they are being appreciated by other choirs that understand the dedication of effort and time that is required to sound as excellent as they do.

Plus all the concert go-ers in the area right now...because really, it's got to be a zoo in Graz right now so I imagine the only people there are there to adore the choirs. I hope they can soak it all in.

Viking Today... 7/10

I can't stop looking at the pictures from the parade. It must be pretty exciting for the boys to be surrounded by so many people who take their music so seriously. One of the things that Francis talked to me about before they left was the wonderful pageantry. I'm really enjoying looking at some of the other choirs:
Girls in green
Girls in red
Nice uniform for hot weather
Some people think our garb is very flag-like. These girls are actually wearing flags.

From the itinerary, it looks like the boys are doing qualification rounds today. I believe they'll be doing the qualification for the children's choir category at the Stadthalle venue.
Another photo
Interior photo
Another interior photo

It's a convention center from what I can tell, so maybe there's multiple choirs performing in different areas... It looks pretty large.

After that, the Musica Sacra qualifications are here: Mariahilferkirche.
Photo #1
Photo #2

Here's some additional info about the church and a few more pictures.

Much to my personal dismay, the satellite imagery for Graz is less than stellar. But, I'm happy to even be able to see anything at all. Graz has a population of nearly 300,000 people. And, as we've come to expect, it's old. The first mention of it being called Graz was back ni 1128, but the settlement dates back to the copper age. Stacy would know better what dates that actually refers to... but the internet tells me that we're talking about dating back to 4,000 BC!

There's apparently a big hill in the middle of Graz called Schlossberg.
Looking down from Schlossberg
Base looking up
Great aerial shot

Some people might point out that Arnold Schwarzenegger is from a village very near Graz... I find it much more interesting that Nikola Tesla studied electrical engineering in Graz in 1875.

World Choir Games Parade

I just read Roger's update for today. I had to look and see if anyone attending the parade has posted their pictures. All I've found so far is this. Here's a link that will show all the recent pictures on flickr.com relating to the World Choir Games.

If the picture above didn't show up, click here. Who are all those cute boys in red?!

Letters

Bob's still busy, so it's me again...Mary Jo said a package of letters came today. She was at the post office when I talked to her and she was dropping in the mai as we spoke. Watch your mailboxes!

We got a letter from Riley on Monday. It seems he and his tour partner (Joe K.) were prompted by their hosts to write home. I love their hosts! He mostly wrote a silly letter home in response to the silly letter I had previously written him (we used Elizabethan-type wording). At one point in his letter he wrote, "Mine facial stubbery has grown to a point that it is almost visible to the eye, but not enough so that His Majesty John Fitzgerald notices and sentences me to the razor. Oh, I doth quell at the thought!"

No specific mention of what he had done or how he was enjoying his tour, but he sounds very happy so I'm sure he's having a great time. Likely all the boys are.

We also got mail from a host of Riley's in France on Monday. It was addressed to Monsier Riley LinDell, but I couldn't stand it and had to open it. It was a newspaper clipping of an article and a big photo of the boys' concert in Sarraguimines.

Last night we received the pictures at the top of this post from Riley and Joe's hosts in St. Florian. She said they live only 2 minutes from the St. Florian monastery so the boys were able to get a lot of sleep and that the boys got ice cream to celebrate the birthday of Mr. Farnberger (St. Florian choir's director). It's so good to hear news of our boys!

Viking Today... 7/9

Bob didn't post any links yesterday and he has a busy day of meetings agian today, so I'm going to try to put something together.

First thing on the schedule for today in Graz from Roger says
11:00 h "Stadthalle: Wettbewerbssaal" Acoustic rehearsal for Cat.1. Duration: 10 minutes
I learned through dictionary.com's translator that Stadthall Wettbewerbssaal means "town hall competition hall."

The schedule also says that today they're participating in "Innenstadt - City": Choir Parade through „Herrengasse“ to Stadthalle Graz. Looks like they'll have nice weather for a parade.

I couldn't find anything related to the wording from the schedule, but I when I typed "Herrengasse" into a translator, it came out as Gentleman Lane. I found this picture
when I typed "Stadthalle, Austria" into google maps.

These pictures came up as near Herrengasse, Graz, Austria on maps.google.com
and so did this one.

A post from Bob for 7/8 likely would've had a map of where the boys were headed. I don't know how to make a link for a map with pictures like Bob does, but I can tell you how to see one. To see the route the boys would've taken from St. Florian to Graz go to maps.google.com and type in "St. Florian, Austria to Graz, Austria." The upper right corner of the map has different buttons to click. If you click "more" you can see photos added to the map, and then click on each photo to see it bigger. You can also change the view of the map by choosing "map," "satellite," or "terrain" and you can zoom in and out using the up/down bar on the upper left corner of the map. To move around the map, click and drag the little hand cursor.

You can also just type in "Graz, Austria" to view a more specific map of just Graz. On the left of the screen, there are some pictures and you can click on "more photos" or "more videos" to see more stuff.

This could be the hotel the boys are staying at. If you type (or copy and paste)
Wagerberg 199, 8271 Bad Waltersdorf, Austria
into maps.google.com you can see where the hotel is in relation to Graz.

I can't make a link to a translated version of the hotel's website, but to see a translated version yourself, go to here, click on "free web translator" in the upper right corner. Then choose german to english and type (or copy and paste) this
http://www.wilfinger-hotels.at/scripts/index.dll?group=2&active=10&page=31
in the space where it goes.

Viking Today... 7/7

The itinerary today just says, "Choir practice" They're still in St. Florian. It's hard to update too much when they're staying in the same place.

An interesting tidbit I didn't post before, but some of you might know, is that Anton Bruckner was a choirboy at St. Florian and later an organist. In a way, he never stopped being the organist... He's buried beneath it!

The big event starts later on this week. The World Choir Games gets underway.

I have a bunch of info about the games courtesy of Corinne Olinger. I'll be converting that and posting it in the days to come.

In "Viking Today" news. Just a few things that I think are interesting. People from 17 states have visited this site. Other than Minnesota, Illinois is the site that's been visiting the most at 151 visits. That might be a little skewed because of the weekend I spent in Chicago but it still beats the next highest by quite a bit.

Germany, Australia, the U.K. and France have also had multiple visits to the site. All said and done, there's been almost 4,000 pageviews since I've been posting!

Viking Today... 7/6

Today there's a concert in Linz Austria, about 20 minutes away.

With almost 200,000 people living there, Linz is fairly large.

There's a concert tonight at "Pfarrkirche Altenberg bei Linz" I found a couple of pictures of what I think is the the church they'll be performing in.
Pfarrkirche #1
Pfarrkirche #2
Pfarrkirche #3
Pfarrkirche #4

Video of the choir

On June 19th, the boys sang for U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg, Ann Wagner. Here's the video:

Viking Today... 7/5

Today the boys are leaving Munich and heading to St. Florian. A few hours in the bus to start the day off.

I believe the boys are being hosted by the St. Florian Boys Choir. They're a great choir that visited us a few years ago. Their choir, the St. Florianer Sängerknaben, is over 1,000 years old. Here's the St. Florian priory.

Here's the contact address for St. Florian.

The itinerary says there's a concert tonight, "Pfarrkirche Krematen an der Krems" I think that means, "Concert in Krematen on the Krems river" I tried to find some info about it... but there's two different rivers named Krems in Austria and two different towns named Krematen. So, I'm at a loss.

Viking Today... 7/4

I'll just recap a little bit about the update from today. Looks like the boys went to Neuschwanstein Castle. A pretty amazing place. If you've ever seen a castle postcard from Germany, chances are, it was Neuschwanstein.

The drive there wasn't a quick one. About two hours.

Roger mentioned that the boys took pictures from Mary’s Bridge. Looks like a good spot to take pictures from!

Neuschwanstein #1
Neuschwanstein #2
Neuschwanstein #3
Neuschwanstein #4
Neuschwanstein #5
I'm wondering if Riley actually went on this bridge!

Aside from the castle, it looks like the natural scenery is pretty stunning too!

Viking Today... 7/3

Today the boys are heading from Ellwangen to Munich. Google says it's about 2 hours on the road.

Now, first off... Wikipedia is telling me that there's two places in Germany known as Munich. One of them is northeast of Nuremberg. I'm going to assume it's the big one near the alps. A population of about 1.5 million people, it really is pretty big. Hennepin county has a population of 1.1 million but has nearly 3 times the area. Imagine how dense it is there! In Hennepin county, it's about 2,000 people in every square mile. In Munich, it's 12,470 per square mile!

The wiki page is pretty complete with pictures. Instead of linking to them all here, I suggest just checking out the wiki page today. The German wiki page has some pictures the English one doesn't.
Panorama #1
Panorama #1

I'll just link to the picture-map overlay again since there's so many pictures to wade through... but here's a couple that I thought were interesting:
Inside a Cathedral
Part of their Olympic park
Castle Haimhausen

The contact address for today is in a town just outside of Munich called Eichenau.

Viking Today... 7/2

Today the boys leave Nürnberg and head to Ellwangen.

Google maps says it's just over an hour.

Over 25,000 people call Ellwangen home. They have an English version of their homepage. From what reading I did on Ellwangen, it looks like there's a large emphasis placed on their religious history.

There's some nice things to see in the city if the boys have time:
Castle Ellwangen
Historic Town View
Town View
St. Veit Cathedral
Wow
Lots of steeples
Again, wow

The church they're performing in (Wolfgangskirche) was founded in 1476. It may be the one with the rounded towers in the pictures above, I haven't been able to verify that for sure but found some info that leads me to believe it might be. The German page I was reading says that there's "an artistic star vault ribs" in the choir area.

This is a picture taken about 1000 feet from where the contact address is listed. Pretty nice!

Review from Giessen

Mary Shay passed along a review she found of the concert in Giessen.

English machine translated here . Original German here.

It's hard to tell sometimes from the translated text like, " Ever heard throughout a far superior unity and was witness to a very precise intonation." Overall, it looks like it was a good crowd and a good review.

Viking Today... 7/01

I'm on day 4 of a sightseeing vacation and I'm tired and my feet hurt from walking so much. The boys are on day 20 today. Quite the troopers!

From the official site of Nürnberg, there's a page with links to pictures and descriptions of pretty much everything that's in town.

The itinerary says "discover city etc." So I assume they'll be seeing some of the sights mentioned above.

Here's a few fancy 360 panoramas of sights in the area:
Opernhaus
Handwerkerhof
Hauptmarkt mit Frauenkirche
More panoramas

Concert in Gießen

Our former foreign exchange student and his mother went to the concert in Gießen. She had some praise for the boys:

We were very impressed. The choir is so fantastic. I`ve heard the `Wiener Sängerknaben`, they are not better, I think. It was such a wonderful concert!

Wiener Sängerknaben = The Vienna Boys' Choir. That's some pretty high praise!

Viking Today... 6/30

The boys have a bit of a drive today. Over 4 hours according to google maps.
Großlittgen to Nürnberg

Scenery along the way.

Nürnberg is quite large. Population of 500,000, it's a pretty big city. It's got quite a history. All the way from the middle ages to WWII. It was heavily bombed during the war . The famous Nuremberg trials were conducted there. A much less ugly topic is the beautiful scenery in the city.

Here's a map with pictures overlaid... way more pictures than I could ever link to.

The address in the itinerary is for "Bereitschaftspolizeiabteilung" translated, that means "Riot police department" (Translated official site) I'm not sure what to make of that one! Here's a picture of the address from space. We'll all have to check the journals when they come back to find out about this place. Stacy claims to have found some info but, I'm not coming across it right now and it's time to hit Chicago again. If anyone comes up with more info, use the "comments" link below and share your links!

Viking Today... 6/29

The itinerary doesn't have much to say for today. They have a concert this afternoon in Großlittgen and a free evening.

I find pictures like these picture that are labeled as Großlittgen that I can't help but stare at and wonder what the boys are seeing today. They're going from ancient towns to huge metropolis to little hamlets almost daily. I hope all those journals are packed with info when they get home!

(We're in Chicago today... so it's only a small update before head out to see the sights!)

Viking Today... 6/28

This update comes at you from Madison Wisconsin. We're on the road for a few days but we brought the laptop and I'll keep updating as I'm able.

Today the boys leave Giessen and head to Grosslittgen. Looks like a few hours in the bus for them:
Giessen to Grosslittgen

Grosslittgen looks to be pretty small. A population just over 1,000 people. I don't even need to mention any more, it's old. First mention in history is in the year 912. The itinerary says they're meeting at the "school by the lake" There's a few little lakes in town. Not sure if any of them have a school by them.

The official site for the city has some good, if small, pictures.

Just outside the city there's an impressive abbey. Abbey Wiki.

Here's the contact address that we've got for the itinerary.

Viking Today... 6/27

Today the boychoir will be spent in Gießen.

The itinerary says they'll be going to "Mathematicum, Gießen" That sounded interesting. Turns out, it's sort of like the science museum, but it's more of a mixture of math and art. Looks very interesting, I wish I were going!
Front of the building
Huge Pi!

I can imagine it's hard to understand something like this in another language but the itinerary says they'll be getting an English speaking tour.

There's an exhibit where you make a huge bubble around your body... I'm hoping we can expect to see some pictures of our boys trying it for themselves.

Here's a bunch of other pictures right from their website.

There's a concert tonight at "Protestant Petrus Church" (in Gießen, I assume)

In the update from yesterday, Roger said they went to Leipzig. That's a little out of the way from the Schlitz to Gießen route (more than 3 hours is what the internet is telling me)... but it looks to be worth the trip. Bach lived there and is buried in a church there. This is a great view of the church and the surroundings. Since there's so many great pictures of Leipzig, I'll just link you to the map overlay with enough pictures to keep a person busy all day!

Viking Today... 6/26

The boys leave Schlitz today and head out for Gießen (Giessen). It looks like a short drive of about 50 miles.
Schlitz to Gießen

Gießen is about 75,000 people. It's pretty dense, with a population 10,000 larger than St. Cloud, they're living in an area a little smaller (28 square miles as opposed to St. Cloud's 30 square miles)

From some of the pictures I've been looking at, it looks much closer to what I expect a city here to look like. Modern looking buildings and whatnot. It seems Gießen was a rail and road network hub and was heavily bombed near the end of WWII.

That's not to say there's not some great scenery there as well.

Until recently (2007), there was a U.S. Army Garrison in Giessen. In WWI there was a POW camp there, here's a BBC feature with a memoir from a former prisoner.

The itinerary says the boys will arrive at the "Sammler und Hobbywelt" this afternoon. Google says that translates to "Collectors and Hobby World". It looks to be a place with all sorts of things. Everything from gas lamps to model trains to racecars to airplanes. I'm imagining it something like "The House on the Rock" in Wisconsin maybe? Surely there's something for everyone to enjoy at a place that diverse.

Here's the satellite imagery of the address that's provided for the choir contact.

If you've got time, click the "comments" link below and leave a comment with any news from the letters you've gotten. Stacy and I really got a kick out of reading some of the other letters that have been shared with us. It really helps to give a better picture of what's going on with the boys. So, share if you can, we'd love to hear even the most mundane of details!

Luxembourg Concert Review

Susan and Aaron Ziegler recently heard from a German exchange student that went to a concert. Here's what she had to say about the concert:

Yesterday night was the concert in Luxembourg. [My family] and I started our trip at about two o'clock. Within three hours we got to Luxembourg and there it became quite difficult because nobody we asked (and we asked in German, in English and in French) could tell us where to go. It seemed like the prostestant cathedral had never been built. But we finally got there just on time!!!

The concert was wonderful!! Really great! The whole choir did an awesome performance! Jack and Gray stood almost in the middle and sometimes it was hard to see Jack because he was hidden by another, taller boy standing in front of him. When they sang the old German [folk song], my grandpa started crying. We all loved it! And while singing their last song, Gray stood direct in front of me. It was great to hear him.

During the concert, I was really busy taking pictures of Jack and Grayson. I think both of them realized that! But I thought you, and perhaps they, might like them. My brother will attach them to an email tomorrow so that you can see them. I definitely put copies into my next letter, too, which hopefully arrives soon.

After the concert, we unfortunately could just talk to Jack and Gray just for a couple of minutes before Fransis wanted them to go. I gave gifts to them for their birthdays, which they accepted at once. My grandma gave some money to them because it is a European habit to give children spending money instead of gifts, if you do not know them well, but you still want to show that you like them. Both of them did not want to take the money, but Fransis said that it would be okay in this case.

Jack and Gray looked a bit tired but very happy. I asked Gray if he liked European food. His answer was "kind of" ;)

Viking Today... 6/25

The itinerary for today is pretty vague. It only says, "Schlitz" But, in the update yesterday, Roger gave some more info that leads to some more links.

The "Landesakadamie" from the itinerary and the concert last night is actually the "Landesmusikakademie".

Here's a translated version of a page about the city with a great photo.
Landesmusikakademie from space

Roger said they're going to be heading out to Fulda today for some sightseeing.
Schlitz to Fulda

It looks like there's plenty to see in Fulda. It's a pretty big city with a population of about 64,000. In size and population, not far off from St. Cloud, Minnesota.

Our own Minnesota city of Fulda was actually named for the one in Germany. Fulda Minnesota has an area of 1 square mile... Fulda Germany has an area of 42 square miles.

A page of pictures of Fulda
Cathedral of Fulda
Fulda and the countryside
Fulda has great satellite imagery

There's a lot of good pictures on the German wiki. If you don't care to try and decipher the German, at least check out this nice panoramic shot!

The boys are slated to watch a soccer match between Germany and Turkey today with the Fulda fire department!
Another preview of the match
(Update: 6/26 8:24 - Looks like Germany won the match.)

Also... Mary Jo got a package with letters in it yesterday. She's forwarded them all on... if you haven't already gotten a letter, watch your mailbox!

Viking Today... 6/24

Today is a tough update. There's only a single line in the itinerary:

8.00 p.m CONCERT in the Landesakadamie

From what I've been able to find, a Landesakadamie is a high school.

Roger says they'll be getting a greeting by the Mayor of Schlitz. Wikipedia says that'd be Hans-Jürgen Schäfer. I think it's sort of funny that the German word for "mayor" is "Bürgermeister"

If you've looked around on your own, you'll know it's really hard to find good info about the town of Schlitz amid all the hits to Schlitz beer!

Schlitz Street
Captioned as Schlitz Town Hall

Let the Java load up and there's some neat 360 panoramas of Schlitz here:
Summer
Winter
Autumn in the country
Christmas

Has anyone gotten any mail yet?

Pictures, Thanks to Corinne Olinger's searching!

Corinne Olinger found some more info and pics of the boys! Sheesh, with a network of parents scouring the web for updates, we're sure not to miss a thing!

Scroll down through this thread and find some pics of the boys in Strehla.

Make sure you click on the link on the bottom to go to the next page. There's more pics there!

Either learn German quickly... or piece together the gist of it from this machine translated version.

Viking Today... 6/23

Today, the choir moves from Sarreguemines, France to Schlitz, Germany.
Sarreguemines to Schlitz

From the itinerary and the map, it looks like it's going to take them a while to get there.

On the way, this is what it might look like out the windows of the bus:
Blick, a city near the route
Rittersheim, a city near the route
Steinfurth, a city near the route
Annerod, a city on the way to Schlitz

The city of Schlitz itself is known for its 'Burgenring', or a ring of 5 castles that sort of surround the city. The population now is about 10,000.
Nice Schlitz View

The official Schlitz site has some good pictures on it... and a picture of the boys!
Schlitz Homepage

It looks like there's quite a few "old style" buildings in Schlitz
Buildings
Buildings 2

One of the towers in Schlitz resembles a candle and is decorated and lit like one over Christmas.
Normal Tower
Candle Tower
That's a big candle!

Tonight they have a BBQ planned with host families. I'm sure they're not actually staying in an open field, but here's a satellite image of the contact address from the itinerary.
Contact Address Map
Bridge Picture near contact address

Viking Today... 6/22

Looking at the itinerary, it looks like the boys will be spending their day in Sarreguemines. Maybe a good thing because from the official updates from Roger, it sounds like the boys are getting pretty worn out. Since I've already posted a bunch of links about Sarreguemines, I'll put a few other things up.

There's no pictures of the boys, but here's a listing of pictures that have been posted from Fête de la Musique all over France from yesterday.
Fête de la Musique

From the 19th, the American Women's Club of Luxembourg was advertising for the choir:
American Women's Club of Luxembourg

Also, here's the edited video from the TV performance they did. If anyone would like a copy of the video, I can email it to you, it's about 1.5mb and should fit in email just fine. Just drop a note in the comments and I'll make sure to get you a copy. Make sure to leave your email address in the comment so I know where to send it.


Tomorrow they change locations so, there should be more new links and info.

As an interesting aside... This blog has seen hits from 13 states and even hits from Australia (Hi Frank & Lindsay!)

Strehla Concert Review!

Christie Gordon passed this link on. Great pictures of the boys and an amazingly in depth review of the concert in Strehla! You have to see it!

Thanks Christie!

Viking Today... 6/21

Today is National Music Day (Fête de la Musique) in France. It began in France in 1982 and has since spread to all sorts of other European countries. New York celebrated it for the first time in 2007. It emphasizes free music to be created and performed wherever possible. Here's an English description on the official homepage:
About Fête de la Musique

The boys will be visiting the town hall in Sarreguemines and then participating in the music festival by singing a small concert at a podium downtown.
Sarreguemines satellite photo with Pictures

The itinerary says they'll be visiting "pays de Bitche" Roughly translated that means, "countries Bitche" So, taking a little bit of a leap from there, I found a scenic town/area nearby Bitche, France. I'll assume it's something like saying "Lake Country" in Minnesota.

It's a short drive from Sarreguemines
Sarreguemines to Bitche

Here's the site of the official tourist office. It's in English with the oddly translated title, "Let you allure!"
Bitche Regional Tourist Office

Bitche view

One of the most stunning things in the Bitche region that I found from quick searching was The citadel of Bitche.
Aerial view of the citadel
This one really shows how it towers above the town
Elevated citadel

More of the citadel

Aside from the citadel, the hilly country and offers plenty of scenery itself.
Lonely bridge

The itinerary also says they'll be swimming in Bitche. There's a lake to the southeast of town. Maybe they'll be swimming there?
Bitche Satellite View

If anyone has anything to add, go ahead and post it in the comments area below.

Viking Today... Video!

Remember how the boys were scheduled to perform for a TV station on the 18th? The video is now up on the internet! See some video of the boys from tour!

You have to watch till after the weather guy... then a commercial, then you'll hear and see the boys! I'm not sure if that clip is it or if there's more... If anyone can watch the entire show, post a comment and let us know if there's any more video of them.

Enjoy!

Video!

Viking Today... 6/20

This morning it sounds like the boys are heading from Sarreguemines to Hambach, France. It looks like a pretty short trip:
Sarreguemines to Hambach, France

Why are the boys going to Hambach?? To visit the Smart Car factory!!
Smart Car Factory

I have to admit, I've been a big fan of these since I first saw them over in the U.K. a few years back. In the Viking update from June 20th Roger calls them "rolling death traps" If you haven't seen them, here's a good picture that shows why a person would get that impression:
Tiny Smart Car

Actually, as they're just being introduced into the US, there's been a flurry of news stories talking about how surprisingly safe they are:
Safe and Small

The American version is actually a little bit bigger than the international version. Before you write it off completely, take note that their full-hybrid is getting nearly 100mpg! (and not available in the US!)

The itinerary says the boys will actually be singing in the cafeteria at the factory and then having lunch there. I'm jealous! Maybe Riley will pack one in his suitcase and bring it home for me!

After the Smart factory, they'll be taking another short hour-or-so jaunt back into Germany to Saarbruecken.
Smart Car Factory to Saarbruecken, Germany

Interesting art on the town hall

Saarbruecken Official Site

Just to show that it's not always so different over there!

Saarbruecken looks to be a pretty big place. 180,000 people. One of the main historical attractions there seems to be the Ludwigskirche.
Outside Ludwigskirche
Inside Ludwigskirche
Ludwigskirche wiki

The itinerary says they'll be having a workshop with Pablo Assante and the
Children’s Choir of the Saarbruecken Opera House but I'm having a heck of a time finding any links or references to the choir or the opera house. It doesn't help that I don't speak German... I could be looking at pictures of it that are clearly captioned... in German!

---

UPDATE - 9:42
Barb Foster comes to my rescue and adds this info about Pablo Assante the Children's Choir.

Barb writes -

I did do a little research on the Saarbruecken Opera House and the Children's Choir. I found that the Opera House is called the Staatstheater and here is a link that talks about Pablo Assante and the Children's Choir.

Saarländisches Staatstheater

Saarländisches Staatstheater #2

Pablo Assante and the Children's Choir

And here is the rough translation of the caption with the picture.

For all children and adults who love to sing, there is a possibility that the "Theaterspatzen" (for children from seven to nine years) or in the children's choir of the Saarland State Theatre (from ten years) to cooperate.

To the young singers in the children's choir of the Saarland State Theatre to better prepare their demanding tasks, there is the "Theaterspatzen" as Vorchor for younger musically gifted children. He will since October 2007 by Alwin Michael Schronen.

Interested inside for the children's choir, choir director at Pablo Assante reported since the summer of 2007 over the line.

Viking Today... 6/19

The boys start out today with a trip from Sarreguemines to Luxembourg. Around a two hour trip
Sarreguemines to Luxembourg

Luxembourg is actually country unto itself, officially known as "Grand Duchy of Luxembourg" The entire country is only as big as one and a half Hennepin counties and has a population of about half of Hennepin county.

Luxembourg at Night
Ruins of fortifications
Bonus Picture I found after I sent the email!

The itinerary says they'll be seeing the town with Dominique Vitali, Head of Protocole with US-Embassy and then having tea with Ambassador Ann Wagner.
Ann Wagner at the US Embassy

They'll be visiting the American Military Cemetery where most of the more than 5,000 interred there died at the Battle of the Bulge which was fought nearby.
Satellite View
American Military Cemetery
American Military Cemetery 2
General Pattons Grave Marker

Next they have a performance at the Luxembourg Protestant Church. There's an announcement on their homepage about the boys.
English Homepage

A note that I'm sure will be interesting to the boys is that in 1939 when the church was being renovated, it was discovered that there was a crypt hidden beneath the church behind a plaque reading "Sanguis Eius Super Nos" which, from what I can figure out, roughly translates to, "Let his blood be on us" and is known as "The Blood Curse"
Blood Curse

Viking Today... 6/18

The boys head to Heidelberg for a tour, just a short jog this time
Hoffenheim to Heidelberg

A far bigger city than the ones they've been at, it has a population of about 144,000 people, about two and a half times that of St. Cloud but it's only 10 square miles bigger!

Yesterday I mentioned that Hoffenheim pre-dates Princeton, Mn by quite a bit... well, near Heidelberg, archaeologists found Homo heidelbergensis which is also known as "Heidelberg Man" and is estimated to have lived in the area up to 600,000 years ago!

Maybe more interesting to the boys, there's a stunning castle in Heidelberg that they'll be visiting.
Castle
Castle
Castle Ruins

If you like wine, you might think Heidelberg Castle is a special place to visit. It's home to a giant wine cask than can hold 58,100 gallons of wine!
Wine Cask
That's a big cask!

Mark Twain even commented on the cask (which has mostly been empty since it was created):
"I do not see any wisdom in building a monster cask to hoard up emptiness in, when you can get a better quality, outside, any day, free of expense."

There's too much in Heidelberg to comment on in a single email. I'm sure the boys are getting an eyeful today. Here's some links where you can read up as much as you want about the city and the castle:
Heidelberg wiki
Heidelberg Castle wiki

Next, they switch countries and head to Sarreguemines France. About two hours or so:
Heidelberg to Sarreguemines

A former choirboy I know always raved about Sarreguemines, it was his favorite place of all his tours. I can see why!
Senic Sarreguemines
Sarreguemines Scene

They'll be singing in the Protestant Church, as seen from outer space below:
Church... FROM SPACE!
(this *might* be the church)
Protestant Church?

The itinerary says they'll be recorded by a TV station. It looks like the station has part of their broadcast online, maybe if we're lucky, we'll catch them!
TV Station Site

Phew... big update just finding the links today... I can only imagine how busy the boys are going to be!

Viking Today... 6/17

The boys are in Hoffenheim again today. To continue the mini-comparison to Princeton from yesterday... People first started living in Princeton in 1847 with the first house being built in 1849. At that time, people had already been living in Hoffenheim for over
1,000 years!

The itinerary says the boys are visiting the stadium. Looks like there's two in Hoffenheim... an old one that seats about 6,000 and a new one under construction that seats 30,000
Stadium


It looks like the boys are also going to be taking a trip to Steinsberg. About 120 miles away and appears to be in a nature preserve.
Steinsberg Map


The performance today is in the Evangelische Kirche in Hoffenheim. We got a great view down the street yesterday from Maxfields... Here's a different shot I was able to come up with:
Evangelische Kirche in Hoffenheim

Here's what I found captioned as the town hall:
Town Hall

And a nice street view:
Street View

Viking today... 6/16

Today the boys leave Strehla and go to Hoffenheim. The internet tells
me that it's roughly a 5 hour drive to the south west.
Strehla to Hoffenheim.

Here's a satellite view of the city with a marker placed on the
address in the itinerary:
Hoffenheim map

It's amazingly hard to find any info about Hoffenheim that isn't about
soccer! I see that tomorrow the itinerary says the boys will be
visiting the stadium so I'll put some links in about that tomorrow.

The itinerary says "Willkommenzeremonie im Garten und Grillparty"
Google tells me that "Grillparty" translates to "barbecue". The
wonders of the internet!

I was able to figure out about Hoffenheim, that it was first mentioned
in historical texts in 773. It has a population of about 3,200.

Just for comparison, I found a Minnesota city with a similar
population (Princeton) and took a look at the satellite view with the
same scale. It's amazing how differently our cities are composed. In
the same space that our cities are still popping up housing
developments, they're finishing off one city and starting on a new
one!
Princeton, MN map

Viking Today...6/15

Today the boys go into Dresden (Dresden Wiki). A population of about 500,000, it's quite a change from Strehla! In WWII, Dresden was firebombed by allied forces and over 90% of the city center was destroyed (Dresden Bombed)

From what I could find, the choir they'll be performing with tonight, the Dresden Kapellknaben (Dresden Kapellknaben) at a fabulous Cathedral (Dresden Hofkirche Picture) that was only fully restored from the bombings in the 1980s. I believe it's located about here:
Church Map

Here's some other interesting pictures I was able to find:
Church Organ
Inside Church

This wiki page is in German... but has some additional pictures of the inside and outside:
German church wiki

If you want to get all fancy, here's a 360 video of the Cathedral and the area at night
(360 video)

Viking today... 6/14

Today the boys sing in the same town they stayed in last night. Strehla.
Strehla Map

After a bunch of searching around and translating... I found the
church they'll be singing in today!

You can get a rough translation of the text on the page by going here:
Translated Church Site

Or you can just vist the site directly here:
Church site in German

Either way, make sure you click through the menu on the left and see
the pictures that come up on the right. Some of them are pretty good
shots of the place the boys will be today:
Outside Church Picture
Inside Church Picture

Viking Today... 6/13

The boychoir gets into Amsterdam today at 6:30am
Amsterdam Map

They transfer to another flight and go to Berlin:
Berlin Map

They finally end up in a hostel in Strehla (as far as I can tell,here's the actual place they're staying)
Strehla Map

Interestingly enough, the official website for Strehla has a graphicup advertising "Nixenfest" with an anatomically correct toplessmermaid. (It's a cartoon, not really offensive, just interesting):
Official Website for Strehla

Strehla - First mention in historical texts, 1002 A.D.Here's a taste of what it looks like:
Strehla Picture