The Chattanooga Girls Choir

Day 4
Monday, June 9, 2003

After our buffet breakfast, we took the bus to see more local sights, this time with a tour guide named Edith. Our first stop was at a beautiful and fragrant rose garden containing a fountain area with a marble statue of Elizabeth, one of Austria's more colorful rulers, known for both her great beauty and her unhappy life. Our guide made a comment that our Jackie bore a resemblance to Elizabeth -- tall and beautiful. Jackie responded, 'Oh, I should be a statue!'

We next went to the Hofburg (the Imperial Palace), where the rulers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire lived until after World War I. Edith told fascinating stories about the young daughters of the ruling Hapsburg family who were forced to marry men they had never met for purely politial reasons. For the girls, history became a lot more real when told from the perspective of someone their own age.

Adjoining the Imperial Palace are large ornate buildings that are the Spanish Riding School and Imperial Stables for the famous white Lippizzaner stallions. We weren't able to see the horses (though we did watch a video), but of course there was the inevitable gift shop for the girls to enjoy!

For lunch today we separated into several groups and ate whever we wished in the St. Stephen's Platz area. Several groups found themselves at a home away from home -- the Chattanooga Snack Bar and Restaurant! It serves both Southern foods like chicken fingers and iced tea (nearly impossible to get elsewhere) as well as traditional German foods. The restaurant itself is designed like the inside of a dining car, and the girls (and chaperones!) seemed to really enjoy the experience.

After lunch, we boarded the bus for a trip south to the province of Burgenland ('land of castles'), an area of vineyards, grain fields, and of course castles. We traveled to the province's capital, Eisenstadt, the town where composer Josef Haydn spent most of his life. Our first stop was at the Bergkirche ('city church'), an ornate Baroque building. The tour choir sang a song inside the church, and we met the organist for the church, a warm, friendly, and quite talented man. We were then able to see the marble tomb of Haydn himself, built for him by his master Prince Esterházy. We also went through a unique display within the church: along a cave-like path, all of the Stations of the Cross are depicted in a series of life-size statues, carved by Franciscan monks over 250 years ago. (One person-who-shall-remain-nameless dubbed the display 'Rock City with Jesus'!) The path wound its way all the way to the top of the church, where the girls were treated to a beautiful view of the surrounding countryside.

The girls next went to Haydn Room, a performance hall where Haydn directed his own music. This hall is world-famous for its incredible acoustics that are partially attributed to its rough wooden floor. The young tour guide who told us this also told us that this was her first time to be able to give her presentation in English, and she did such a good job that the girls gave her a round of applause. She then invited them to sing in the middle of the hall, and the sound was just incredible.

We piled on the buses to go to our dinner spot, making a stop along the way for the girls to get their feet wet in Lake Neusiedl, one of the largest lakes in Europe. (For some of the girls, that was definitely their favorite part of the day! Poor hot tired feet...) We arrive at the restaurant Ulte Schmiede in the resort town of Rust and were treated to a wonderful dinner accompanied by a cymbal player and a double bass! The cymbal is a Hungarian gypsy instrument that looks like a harpsichord with no lid, and the strings are struck with a slender stick with padded ends, producing a sound with some similarity to a hammered dulcimer. The musicians even played "Happy Birthday" for one of our chaperones!

After dinner, we strolled through the picturesque town of Rust, admiring its pastel-colored homes and stork nests (including mama storks!) on top of many roofs.

We got back to our hotel fairly late, so the girls had to go straight to their rooms and begin packing. We leave for Linz in the morning!

Behind the choir is a statue of Empress Elizabeth.

Our new guide Edith points out an architectural feature at the Imperial palace.

Part of the choir posed in front of the Chattanooga Snack Bar and Restaurant in downtown Vienna!

Diane, Morgan, Penny, and Cari seem to enjoy relaxing in the Chattanooga Snack Bar.

The tour choir traveled to Burgenland and sang a song in the famous Bergkirche.

The choir had another chance to sing when they were in beautiful Haydn Room.

While waiting for other girls to finish shopping, these girls made friends with some ants!

Finally a chance to take off their shoes and soak their tired feet!

Dinner was in a rustic restaurant in Rust near Lake Neusiedl.

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