the second half of that tour

Sometimes traveling puts me in a talky mood. A result of the thinking you do when you're away from home. Or, you stop thinking so much, and just keep moving forward, which is a little closer to what happened to me the last two weeks. New, new. Brain can't keep up. Or, can, but isn't compelled to.

After that day in Basel, I caught the 7:06 (AM) train to Zurich, and from there the plane to Vienna. I'd never been there before, which seems crazy, but there you have it; Willkommen in Österreich! We only had a few hours before the rehearsal and concert, and left early the next morning, so I had to be serious about my sightseeing.

I walked from our very nice hotel past this building, on my way to find something to eat. I ended up, somehow, at a place called the Imperial Hotel, where I had a huge plate of gnocchi and winter vegetables; then I set off to find the music instrument museum, where I'd heard the oldest bass in Austria was located.

Here it is. 1672. ("Earliest surviving Austrian Bass. Note the special detailing on the F-holes.")

This is the building in which the music instrument museum was located. Right behind me as I took this picture was a "dude" in armor on a "horse" wearing those fancy horse-clothes. You know what I mean.

This is the hall in which we played, the Konzerthaus. Certainly one of the great halls of the world.

 

This concert was really a pleasure to play. The orchestra had a little more room, so I didn't have the percussion right behind me, and could play the whole concert without earplugs. The sound was great, the backstage fantastic, the hall beautiful. Really nice. After the show a bunch of us went to a good schnitzel restaurant that one of the bass players knew about (those bass players! we ate a lot of good food together) and I had some cheesy noodles. JB would be proud, when we were on tour together in Germany she always looked forward to the restaurants with cheesy noodles. Also there was a lot of beer, and some apricot spirits.

The next day was a travel day, and after 8 hours of bus, plane, and more bus, we ended up in Amiens, France. It's in the Somme region, north and on its way west. Not so far from the coast, and close to some of the major battlefields of WWII. A lot of the town had to be rebuilt after the war, so much of it had a consistent brick-and-mortar look, but a few parts of the town were original, including the incredible Gothic church. 2.5 of the Paris Notre Dames could fit inside the Amiens version:

 Can you tell how big this is?

The church is quite close to these little canals, flanked by houses and stone walls. Super charming.

I made sure to take advantage of my time in France by visiting one of the little markets you can find around town with local food items. I got a beautiful little round of goat cheese, some basil-olive tapenade, and incredibly sweet strawberries, and then went across the street for my hot baguette. Yes, France, your food is better. (Have I written this before somewhere? I think so.) The best thing I ate on tour, though, by far, was this pastry I got in the next town we went to, Dijon. I didn't take any pictures but let me tell you about this pastry. It was called Millefeuille praliné, and it looked a little like this:

and I simply cannot express how much I enjoyed the flaky pastry, filled with squishy-yet-firm nut cream. Mein Gott. I make it sound so commonplace. That photo is from the website of the actual boulangerie/patisserie. Put it on your to-do in Dijon list. Or even your to-do in Europe list. Dijon is only 3 hours from Basel. 100% worth the trip.

So. Just another week or so, and I'm off on a second tour with this group. I feel fortunate to be playing with the orchestra, and look forward to the next set, which is on gut strings, and includes a concert in Istanbul.

I keep looking at the picture of that pastry. It's completely irresistible. Maybe I've never enjoyed any pastry as much as I enjoyed that one. Hell, maybe I've never enjoyed any other food on the whole planet as much as that pastry. Hmm. I don't want to sound melodramatic but look at it. Try to tear your eyes away. I know. You can't. Neither can I.