We had a lovely lunch with a gorgeous view today

We took the cable car to the Panorama restaurant for the view, the breeze, and lunch! Well worth the trip! An added history lesson was the museum of their war for the Homeland in 1992. Pictures is the beauty and the suffering are at our smug mug account

https://susandemaggio.smugmug.com/Dubrovnik-from-above

During the war for the Homeland in 1991 the forces of Bosnia and Montenegro had to capture the Fort on top of Mt Srd, at the location of the top of the cable car today. After capturing that position, they bombarded Dubrovnik and sieged it for 9 months. The museum here was very interesting, but sad. Below is the siege line

The best parts of staying a week in places like Dubrovnik are the chances to have a bit of a routine, to not have to rush to see all the sights in a day, and to do small side trips! Today we visited Cavtat, a small Coastal village 20 our so miles worth of Dubrovnik, by boat an hour away. It was cooler on the water and in the what town. Enjoy some of our photos. https://susandemaggio.smugmug.com/Caveat-day-trip

Yesterday we took the boat to Lokrum Island, the park directly across the bay from our lodgings. It was a pretty hot day for such a hike, but Emmett made it to the top…. I cheered him on from the shade halfway up!

Part 2 is our summer travels has begun! See our photos at https://susandemaggio.smugmug.com/Dubrovnik-Croatia

Our tour has arrived in Vienna, the city where we perform 3 times! Today we sang 5 beautiful songs in St Stephen’s cathedral and our full repertoire in St Peter’s, a lovely small Baroque church, just a couple hundred meters away. Both concerts were appreciated by those attending and the thrill of singing in a cathedral was reward enough for us! I’ve posted photos of both venues but pictures and video of us singing will have to wait for other folks photos. We do have several people, spouse and friends, our cheering section, who are traveling with us, who are taking photos. Our days are full! And our feet are tired, but we are blessed beyond belief by the Beautiful venues, the heavenly music, and this memorable experience!

Our group traveled to Vienna today with a stop on the way at Melk Abbey on the Danube. Photos today of the Abbey are available at our smug mug. https://susandemaggio.smugmug.com/Melk-Abbey

Today our group did a 2-3 hr walking tour of Salzburg with tour of Mozart’s birthplace, and we ended it with the wonderful noon organ concert at the cathedral! I’ve included just a minute of the grand organ, the largest of the 5 in the church. The organist demonstrated 3 of the 5. It was wonderful to hear the differences in their sound! It was a fabulous morning!

In the afternoon we returned to Mirabelle gardens to perform our first concert, joined by our travel friends from Oklahoma, Missouri, and Texas for the Salzburger Festspiele where we are listed as the American Festival Choir! We are about 50-55 voices, singing to 1 electronic keyboard. We had a great gathering of listeners and I believe they enjoyed our music, all praising God!

More photos of the day are posted at our smugmug account. When we have some video of our performance I will post for you. Tomorrow we sing again!

Today we left Bavaria to travel through Tirol to Salzburg. Our guide lives in this lovely region of Austria, so knew a lovely scenic route! We strapped at the smallest town in Austria, Rattenburg, population 420, a center for glass art and wonderful smoked ham!

For more photos of our travel day, the Tyrolean countryside, and Rattenburg, go to our smugmug https://susandemaggio.smugmug.com/Rattenburg-Austria

This village is lovely and our trip was focused on the passion play they perform here every 10 years. It is the tradition of presenting the story of the last 5 days of Christ’s life on earth, begin in 1634 after a vow by the city leaders to do so every 10 years, if God would spare the lives of their city from the black plague. I believe only 3 times it has been missed, WWI, WWII and Covid. Our trip was planned in 2019, so we are grateful we were finally able to make this performance. Unfortunately it is prohibited to take photos inside during the play so there are none here. However photos of the village and the play auditorium etc are at our smugmug account

Our group gathered today from California and Oklahoma and we visited Munich by bus and walking tour. New photos of Munich are posted at smugmug

https://susandemaggio.smugmug.com/Dachau-and-Munich-.

Tomorrow is our long awaited trip to Oberammergau for the passion play, the depiction of the last week of Christ’s life put on by the people of this Beautiful little Bavarian village every 10 years since 1640! Ironically, this is a tribute to God for keeping the village free from the black plague in the 17th century, was postponed in 2020 due to the Wuhan Flu! Our trip has been planned since 2019 and we are delighted to finally be able to attend! It is a life long bucket list event for many of us!

Tonight we are staying near the Munich airport and meeting our group tonight and tomorrow. On the way north we visited Dachau Concentration camp, the first of the many, built in 1933 as Hitler and the National Socialist NAZI party began its cleansing of dissidents. It’s a sobering place of terror medical experimentation on humans, cruelty and death.

Photos are at https://susandemaggio.smugmug.com/Dachau-and-Munich-