Opus on the Road!: 2014

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Performance in Notre Dame Basilica

View from the top of Mount Royal, looking towards Olympic Stadium

Montreal hosted the 1976 Summer Olympics...a bit surprising to many on the trip, given our cold and snowy theme!

Downtown Montreal

Monday Photos

Patiently waiting for the bus...

Our tour in Lower Quebec City

Performance at St. Anne's Basilica

150-year-old bread oven at Chez Marie

There were hundreds of pictures of tour guides and bus drivers on the wall at Chez Marie. If someone could find Linda's picture, she would get that person a free coffee. Of course, Emmett won.

Boys on an ice throne outside a shop in lower Quebec City

Welcome to the sugar shack!

Playing the wooden spoons!

Leaning the bridge portion of the contradance.

After pouring hot maple syrup on some snow, you let it chill, and then roll it onto a popsicle stick. Delicious!

Video from Performance at St. Anne's Basilica

A brief clip of the second movement of the Corelli Concerto Grosso...

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

We are ahead of schedule. We are going to try and make it back to Hartford without stopping a second time. As of right now, our gps has us getting in around 6:45. We will be parking in lot d. If we get held up I will let you know, otherwise see you at 6:45!

On the way!

We have made it back to the US! We crossed the border without a hitch, and we are nearing our first stop in Williston, VT. We are currently ahead of schedule, and are looking at an 8pm arrival home. I will have the kids call when we are about 90 minutes out, and I will also make one more post. We will be doing a photo and video post tonight, so check back to see some of what we did. Also, if any of the students want pictures that they took to be posted, just email them to me at Emmett.drake@gmail.com or Sam at slhiller19@gmail.com.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Day 4

Bon Soir! (See, my Rosetta Stone cram session paid off....) All is well here in Montreal...we are at our second hotel, relaxing after a very long day.

We had our last breakfast in Quebec City, loaded the bus, and started the 2.5 hour drive here. We arrived safely and ahead of schedule, which gave us a little more time to have some lunch before heading to the Notre Dame Basilica for our concert.

Once we were all set up, we played a forty minute concert, which was the best of the trip. The acoustics were incredible, we had a rather large and receptive audience, and the entire experience of performing in such a beautiful space is a memory that will last a lifetime.

After our performance at the Basilica, we experienced the Pointe-a-calliere musuem, which documents the rich history of a port town's transformation into a cultural mecca. We then headed through the city and made our way to our hotel, and once we were all changed and ready, we headed off to St. Paul's Pub for our last supper in Canada. Here, we sampled the famous French Canadian delicacy Poutine before a hearty meal of soup, salad, a choice of steak, pasta, fish, or chicken, and dessert.

Tomorrow, we start our day with a guided tour of Montreal, and then we will begin our journey back to the States! There is some great video of today's concert coming your way soon....

Monday, February 17, 2014

Day 3

Well, our last day in Quebec City was an adventure. It appears that our Connecticut bus was not built for the Canadian cold. Before we left this morning, we learned that our bus had some issues, so we took our tour of Quebec City on a bus from a local company. Our bus company has already sent us a new bus, so we are in good shape for the rest of the tour.

Once that was all settled, we picked up our hilarious tour guide, Linda, who briefly showed us around Lower Quebec City, including the site where the French scenes from the movie "Catch Me if you Can" were shot. (My favorite movie!)

Then, we headed off to St. Anne's Basilica, an enormous and beautiful church, just outside of the city. The acoustics in this space were spectacular, and the orchestra sounded great during our performance. Despite the fact that it was at 1:30 on a Monday afternoon, we had an appreciative audience, including another tour group from Rochester, New York, who we ran into at our next tour stop!

After our performance, we had a bus tour with Linda of Quebec City. On the way back into the city, we stopped at a 150-year-old bakery where we had some fantastic fresh bread with maple butter, as well as Montmorency Falls, a waterfall 100 feet taller than Niagra (but not as wide). Once back in the city, Linda took us through Upper QC, the Old City, and then dropped us back in the lower city where the students had some shopping time.

Tonight's dinner was great. We went to Chemin du Roy, a sugar shack about twenty minutes from our hotel. Upon arrival, we were given a demonstration on how they make maple products from the sap of their trees. We then moved into the restaurant area, and had a simple, but hearty, family style meal. The food was good, but the real highlight of the evening was the atmosphere. The fiddle player at restaurant kept us busy in between courses. First, he taught us how to play the wooden spoons, which culminated in a very loud, but entertaining jam session. Then, we learned the contradance. The kids were pretty impressive dancers, and there was a lot of laughing. After dessert number one, crepes and maple syrup, we headed outside for dessert number two. For this, we made our own maple taffy in the snow! It was very delicious, and very sweet.

Tomorrow, we head to Montreal to give our final performance of the tour, and now we're off to see if the sugar crash has set in yet. Here's hoping.....

We have a ton of pictures from today, as well as some video from our performance, so we will be posting more soon!