Our Final Day & Coming Home...

After a late sleep in, and a delicious breakfast, we all got on the bus well rested for our final day in Amsterdam. We headed towards Dam Square where we divided into our shopping groups for more time to shop and explore the city. There was a lot of interesting sites around the area, some groups even went on a canal ride! After a wonderful afternoon, we all met up at a restaurant for our final supper of tour. After a delicious meal, we headed back to the hotel to get our bags packed and get a few hours rest before our very early wake up call for the airport. Bright and early in the morning, we brought our bags down to the lobby, checked out and said our final farewells to Johan, our amazing tour guide. We presented Johan with a special gift of a Shallaway hoodie and a set of our cd's (which he very much appreciated). 

Though we were all ready to go home, we were sad that it was the end of an amazing tour. It was great to explore such beautiful cities, meet wonderful caring people and share our culture with them. In particular it meant a lot to be able to go see Beaumont Hamel and Vimy Ridge together. It brought us closer to our heritage and helped us to better understand what those men went through on that tragic day. This tour was a wonderful experience for all of us. It brought us closer together and we have made memories that we will never forget. We are all very thankful for all those who have helped to make this possible. Without your help, we would not have these wonderful opportunities.

Ashley and Niamh

Saturday, March 26

Hello Everyone!

I'm sure you're quite interested to hear how our trip is going this year, so we'll give you the breakdown of it. This morning we left our wonderful Belgian hotel and drove for three and a half hours to Amsterdam. Once in Amsterdam we headed to Dam Square and had some lunch and streached our legs. After lunch, we were ready and excited to see the city. We broke up into groups with local guides to go on a walking tour of Amsterdam. During the tour we got to eat the "Best Fries in Belgium", but in Amsterdam, created a human train as we crossed a shopping area and took in the beautiful Dutch architecture.

After that, we went to Anne Frank's house, which was very surreal. The fact that this place is somewhere we have heard about almost our entire lives and to now have a picture and location to put to it was pretty astonishing.

Well that pretty much wraps it up. We've had a great tour, but we're excited to share more with everyone when we get home!

Jacquelyn & Taylor

Friday, March 25

Today was our first morning in Bruges, Belgium. We enjoyed our first buffet breakfast at the hotel and headed towards the historical part of the city for a guided tour. We were able to see buildings that dated back to as early as the 9^th century. Still amazed by the beautiful weather (around 20 degrees everyday!), we found it ironic that we were getting sunburned while our families back in St. John’s were in the middle of a snow storm. The walking tour lasted about two hours.

We then spent the afternoon shopping and exploring the city. H&M was the group’s most popular shopping destination. Some of us were able to enjoy a lovely horse and carriage ride, while others decided to rent bikes and see every corner of this city. Finally, after a great supper in a local restaurant, we did our last concert of tour. The church was magnificent and the acoustics were the best we have ever sung in. We went back to the hotel and packed as we need to be ready to leave for Holland in the morning. Anyways, off to bed! Goede nacht!

Alice & Emily

Thursday, March 24

After an early morning wake up call, we were all sad to say good bye to beautiful Amiens. However, we all looked forward to tour and sing at Vimy Ridge and visit the Caribou Monument at Monchy-le-Preux.

Once we had arrived we were fortunate enough to sing The Ode to Newfoundland under the Caribou statue in Monchy-le-Preux. As a group we felt proud as Newfoundlanders and Canadians knowing that our past efforts are still recognized throughout the world today. Next, we traveled to Vimy Ridge. Within the tour, we relived the life of a Canadian soldier during the battle at Vimy by walking through trenches and underground tunnels. We also saw the Canadian Memorial for World War I where we sang Ave Maria and O Canada. Our experiences over the last number of days have increased our overall pride of being Canadian and we are so thankful to have the rights and freedoms that we have today. 

We then crossed the Belgian border and arrived in Bruges where we settled into the hotel for the evening. 

Jamie & Mary Niamh 

Wednesday, March 23

For our first full day in Amiens, we visited the famous Beaumont Hamel. It was a very emotional time for every chorister for different reasons. We spent the day following the paths of our ancestors by walking in trenches and observing holes in the craters; as each chorister scanned the headstones for soldiers they might recognize. CBC was filming us as we premiered our commission Beaumont Hamel. Emotions were running high as we sang this beautiful and exciting new piece. After that song, we all headed up to sing In Remembrance around the caribou. When we were walking up to the monument, someone behind me whispered “it smells like home”, and that is when I realized how proud I am to be a Newfoundlander.

After the unforgettable day at Beaumont Hamel, we returned to Amiens where we visited the Amiens Cathedral where we sang Biebl’s Ave Maria to a newly engaged couple, who we watched get engaged on the cathedral steps. We ended the day by shopping in a little market area and enjoying a delicious supper at the hotel.

Kellie always says when words fail, music speaks, we truly believe that is what happened today.

Lauren P., Anna T. & Declan

Tuesday, March 22

Once again our choir had a lovely day. We left Paris and drove  to Amiens where we went to the Maison Pour Tous Cultural Centre for a workshop/concert with the children of the school. All of us loved to see their shining faces. They had so much fun joining in on our actions and music. It made us so proud that we did that for them. After the workshop we had a reception with the children and gave them our Canadian pins and post cards and shared our snacks.

We then had an opportunity to practice our commissioned piece Beaumont Hamel that we will be perfoming the world premiere of tomorrow. We love working with Jason Noble and having him on tour with us. It really is an experience we will never forget. Mr. O`Rourke gave a wonderful speech about the war and I think it touched all of our hearts. We cannot wait for tomorrow morning to go to  Beaumont Hamel.

We are having some internet issues tonight so we will post pictures later or tomorrow.

Jeremy

Monday, March 21

After a long day yesterday, there was an early rise for some of us who just couldn’t wait to see the Cathedral of Notre Dame. After a delicious breakfast, or petit dejeuner as the French would say, we headed straight to the Eiffel Tower. Once we got there, we got our tickets and while most of us headed for the elevator a few brave choristers challenged the stairs (including us!).

After a few quick pictures at the top, we headed back down for some lunch. Some of us enjoyed crepes while others headed to an excellent little bistro downtown. After lunch, some of us took our second trip into the cathedral and then we performed at another church. Our concert was a huge success and then we went to another restaurant and had another great meal.

Once we left the restaurant we had full intentions of going back to the hotel, but when we saw the Eiffel Tower sparkling in the moonlight, we just had to have a picture. In less than five minutes we were out of the bus and back on again after getting a beautiful group picture. So that ends our last night in Paris and it was certainly one we won’t forget. We’re having lots of fun and everyone is doing great! See you all when we get home :)

Lots of love.

Lauren L. & Andrew

March 20, 2011

The two flights were fairly long and uneventful, in fact it seemed that Toronto took no time at all. We barely had enough time in the airport to get food before we were off on the flight to Paris. The flight went by fairly fast. Many of us slept through all or part of it, while some of us stayed up and watched movies.

The weather in Paris is lovely; barely any clouds and beautiful sunshine and just the right temperature for Shallaway hoodies. We collected our luggage and walked a few feet to our double decker bus!

We journey into downtown Paris and have lunch in the cafe beneath the Louvre Museum. We then take a guided bus tour with a local guide. During the bus tour we see some wonderful sights including beautiful gardens, courtyards, palaces and cathedrals. The most exciting part of the day was getting pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower. Our guide is able to provide us with interesting information about everything.

After checking into our hotel, we head out to explore the surrounding area of Montmartre.We tried French pastries, hot chocolate and some of us even scaled the huge hill here.

We had a lovely supper this evening in our hotel and since we are all so tired from travelling we are heading to bed early. We want to be well rested tomorrow to continue our amazing tour of France!

Susan & Sarah

Preparing to Depart

Tour is just a few days away now, and we've been preparing like crazy for our trip to FRANCE, BELGIUM AND THE NETHERLANDS!!! Everyone is getting really excited and most of us have already begun packing our bags and counting down the days until we leave.

Although most of our focus has been on what we'll see and do in Europe, we have also realized how significant this trip will be for us and also for our province. WWI has affected everyone in Newfoundland in some way or another, and being able to pay tribute to those who sacrificed their lives for us is an incredible opportunity. We will be visiting and performing at many of the Canadian and Newfoundland Memorial sites in France, and  through our research into the Royal Newfoundland Regiment we will have a greater understanding of what they went through. We have each researched a soldier in the Regiment, and will hopefully be able to see some of their gravesites. This is especially important because for many of these soldiers, we may be the very first people from home to visit their graves.

But in the meantime, we'll continue packing, preparing and rehearsing  for our trip. The hardest part now will be waiting for Saturday to arrive!

Megan H. & Patrick