Tour - 2012 England and Wales
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April 21: Our Bon Voyage Concert in Provo
After a busy and rewarding year of making music in Provo, the choir has just sung their last concert on the de Jong Concert Hall stage. Several of the Singers graduated yesterday, and all of the choir finished finals in the last few days.Despite how hectic the last few weeks have been, they have still managed to learn some additional repertoire just for this tour--and most have even packed their suitcases!
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April 23: London, England
Greetings from London! We truly are here, and made it in very good time – from the bus in Provo through construction to the airport, through the check-in line and security, and onto the first plane to Minneapolis. Even the overhead bins had enough room for all of our extra carry-ons plus the men’s tuxes. We arrived a few minutes early and had 10 minutes to consider life before boarding the plane to London.
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April 24: Milton Keynes
A new day after a full night’s sleep – just what the choir needed to have energy to head into our first complete day in London. We packed up the coach, said goodbye to the Umi Hotel until tour’s end, and headed for the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. It’s not easy to have a very good view, but we did our best. The crowds were large when we arrived, and it only continued to get more and more crowded.
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April 25: Cambridge
A new day, and we were off to our next new city, Cambridge. This is a storied city, and it is a thrill to be here. Incredible buildings are everywhere we look, even through the raindrops. Yes, yesterday was the fluke and we are back to not just showers, but heavy rain at times.
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April 26: Norwich
We awoke to a brilliant blue sky today, with a strong wind that has mostly kept the clouds moving through quickly. Our coach arrived in Norwich (say it without the “w” and you’ll be close) soon after 11 a.m. after another drive through beautiful green fields and blossoming trees and flowers. It’s fun to just sit and watch the countryside go by.
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April 27: Gloucester
While most of the day was spent on the coach driving to Gloucester (pronounced “Glah-ster”) and many caught up on sleep most of the drive, we still looked out the windows occasionally to see all the fields of rapeseed - bright yellow - against the deep greens. The contrast is quite wonderful. Sadly, there has not yet been a chance to photograph any, even through the coach windows. They are too rain-spotted. Any of you on the Ireland tour will remember the beauty of it.
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April 28: Bath & Bristol
Today’s tourism highlight was several hours spent in Bath, the most beautiful and historic city in England. Judging by the mobs of tourists we walked around and through and beside, the secret’s out. The city was first established as Aquae Sulis (the waters of Sulis) by the Romans sometime before 65 A.D. Baths and a temple on the surrounding hills were built around hot springs, and served as a real gathering place for people from all over the Roman Empire. We took a two-hour self-guided tour around their excellent museum/recreation with one of those players that you can key in which bit of information you wish to hear. The whole thing was very well done, and was fascinating.
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April 29: Bristol
And a cheery hello from a soggy Bristol! We've had a wonderful Sabbath here, though I hear Bristol got a month's worth of rain today. Somehow I believe that. We were split between several different congregations today, but I can attest to the quality of the meetings we 10 attended. I hear there were great meetings, wonderful food and conversation with hosts (that lovely extra day here!) and some equally wonderful naps.
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April 30: Cardiff, Wales
We met early this morning – at least about half of us did. Our host families were very widely dispersed about the area, so the rest met us down the road a bit. I have no idea how many miles it was, but it took well over an hour to reach them in morning traffic and with a key road denying our coach access. (The nerve!)
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May 1: Cardiff, Wales
Today was a day with a couple of amazing occurrences. I know you’ll be surprised to hear it, but we put on our coats, opened our umbrellas, and dove into the day. We began early to pick up our Singers, and proceeded to the Cardiff Castle. The castle is 2000 years old, and has witnessed much history through many different renovations and uses.
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May 2: Exeter
We began today as we did yesterday, with some meeting us at the coach where the leaders were, and the rest being dropped off at the Rhiwbina LDS Chapel in Cardiff. (I’ll let you figure out the pronunciation of that one – a few vowels seem to be missing in Welsh.)
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May 3: Oxford
Hello from the coach as we are driving through beautiful countryside on the way to Oxford. This is such a wonderful part of the world. I wish you could see the lush fields, the many trees, and the vibrant yellow rapeseed fields in the midst of it all. We have our rain and cooler weather back, but the colors make up for much. And we have the memory of yesterday to sustain us until the next patch of blue sky appears.
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May 4: Crawley
We wheeled our luggage through the streets of Oxford one more time to reach the coach for our morning load-up. Our coach driver had to leave us this morning for the weekend – laws require him to take a break from us – but we hope to have him back on Monday. Meanwhile, we have a new driver who is taking good care of us.
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May 5: Bournemouth
We drove for several hours today to reach Lulworth, a beautiful seaside town with a famous cove and a great view from the overlook. Since we drove through rain on the way, there was a great debate over whether to risk the stop. Ultimately we did, and the rain held off the hour or so we were there.
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May 6: Bournemouth
We were split between three wards today, so the fireside was a small reunion. It is such a luxury to stay two nights in the same bed without having to pack up one’s suitcase and run! A real bonus is the extra time to become acquainted with our host families and others during this extra day. We all enjoyed being with them in their testimony meetings and attending Sunday School and Relief Society/Priesthood meetings.
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May 7: Oxford
Our bus is a double-decker, with a small section of seats on the main floor and the majority of seats up top where the view is much better. Our coach driver is shut away in the cockpit of the bus, separated by a door. This door is about 4 feet high by maybe 18 inches across. The only microphone on the bus is in there, so anyone with an announcement has to crawl through the “rabbit hole.” We have been astounded with the agility and flexibility of Singers of all sizes.
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May 8: Hitchin
We have had a good day today, with some free time for wandering and a tiny bit of blue sky under which we wandered. Rare but nice combination. Our plans were flexible, and changed as the clouds thickened or thinned. First we went in hunt of good patch of rapeside seed for a group photo – but then we needed room for the coach to park near the vista point. It took a little while for the two to come together. We found two spots, and lots of photos were taken.
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May 9: London
Today began the final phase of tour as we left Hitchin for the last four days in London. We drove two hours to reach our Umi Hotel, which is where the tour began April 24. It feels much longer ago than just two and a half weeks! We arrived before check-in could begin, so we split into groups and hit the city for an hour or so. All the buildings in this area of London are either cream or white, so it pays to know what your hotel actually looks like.
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May 10: London & Guildford
Today was a free half-day in London – if it could be done in a few hours, there’s a good chance someone tried it. Museums, music stores, just walking around, sleeping in, other tourist attractions, and probably more. We met at 1:15, scrubbed and dressed for the concert so we could take the coach to Guildford. It was only about 30 miles away, but London traffic is horrendous; it took us about two hours to reach our destination.
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May 11: London
Today was one of those perfect days that we’re allowed to have once in a while – if only for comparison purposes! It began auspiciously with some blue sky that just kept enlarging. Soon there was more sky than clouds, and delirium began to set in. We earned this day!
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May 12: London
And now it’s our last day of tour, our last concert, and consequently the last blog entry from England. We have had such a marvelous tour seeing this beautiful country - even if mostly through rain-spotted coach windows, or running while holding a brolly in one hand and wheeling a suitcase or two with another. (The latter skill took a few days to develop fully.)
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