The day began with a walking tour of the old city of Salzburg. Out tour guide explained that there is nothing normal about the weather right now in the city. Where it is usually warm and reasonably dry, it has been raining most days for quite some time and the temperatures have dropped into the 40s and 50s. Today we get a little rain in the morning and sporadically throughout the day, but mostly it is dry enough to enjoy our tour. We discover a city that is old (V-E-R-Y old) and quite ornate. An hour and a half later we all split up to eat lunch and explore on our own. Many folks decide to explore the American Express office to change Deutsche Marks into Austrian Shillings and cash travelers checks. After lunch we meet back at the hotel for the 75-minute bus ride to the little village of Hallstatt where we play our first concert of the trip at 8 pm this evening.

Marisa Marraccini in front of the cathedral on Mozart square	The Cathedral of Salzburg	Ellen Kovacs: "I can't buy this. I make it a policy to never eat anything bigger than my head."
This fortress overlooks the old city of Salzburg. It is now used as a school to train youth in the arts	Lucie Vogel listens attentively to the tour guide	Anna Plunkett, about to enter Mozart's birthplace
The American Express office is a popular destination	Mary Maher gets immediate attention from her two daughters: "I just left the American Express office. I think they can smell money."	Clara Shirley-Appel on Mozart Square

Hallstatt

The trip to Hallstatt gets off to a nerve-wracking start as we hear that bows for the basses have arrived, but not enough of them. Calls are made, but we set off about a half hour late still not knowing if we will have enough bows for everyone to perform. (Borrowed bows did arrive just in the nick of time). Hallstatt is a town of about 1,200, many of whom are Germans on vacation. We hear that vacation for a German is a MINIMUM of 5 weeks and Hallstatt is a favorite place to go. As we pull in we can see why. It is squeezed picturesquely between almost sheer rock faces and a large lake, and it is so tiny that they had to put the railroad on the other side of the lake with a ferry running over to the town. We enjoy the best dinner of the trip so far, and then straggle into the nearby concert hall.

The hall poses some challenges for set-up. The stage area is two-tiered, forcing a somewhat unnatural split in the group, and the room is small, making the acoustics almost too lively. We decide to move the seating back a little because as it is originally placed the front row experience is just too intense. We have time for a brief rehearsal and then open the doors at 7:45. The hall fills up nicely, and Jack Higgins greets the audience in German. The orchestra gives a beautiful performance and the audience seems truly appreciative. After the concert a local official tells the members of the orchestra in English: "thank you for sharing this beautiful music with us. It is wonderful. Keep sharing this wonderful music wherever you go."

Zach Lucy at lakeside in Hallstatt

The Congress Center, where we perform, is "modern" according to our tour guide, but still looks very Austrian

The performance went very well

Since Hallstatt is so small the busses had to park outside the town. We walk back in the moonlight along the lakefront. It is quite peaceful. Everyone seems tired, but content to have had such a successful first concert in Austria.

Check out some notes from Natalie Siler in "From the Performers"

Patty Vandever's Journal Entry for July 10, 1998.