GMC in Europe 2008

Well, I must tell you that connections are everything!  As it so happens my partner’s college-age daughter spent considerable time in Prague last summer and was kind enough to pass on her impressions.  Her report was most enthusiastic.  The following are some verbatim excerpts:

Language:  “Most people speak english, though knowing some czech is nice”.  Some suggested key terms spelled phonetically: 

“Dob-ry-den” means “good day, pardon, excuse me”.

“De-koo-yoo” is “thank you”.

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We heard some great advice about packing from Ann at Sunday’s rehearsal (thank you!), but I need to see it as well as hear it.

Here are links to relevant packing information from our airlines.

Lufthansa

Checked Luggage (note that 23 kg is approximately 50 lb)

Carry-on Luggage (note that 8 kg is approx. 17 lb; 55 cm ≈ 21.5 in; 40 cm ≈ 15.5 in; 20 cm ≈ 7.8 in)

Northwest/KLM

Checked Luggage

Carry-on Luggage

Transportation Security Administration (TSA)

Complete information about items accepted and prohibited at airport security checkpoints

Hope this helps!

We’re counting down the days, and soon the hours. On Thursday, most of us will start our journey to Vienna.

A word is in order about what to expect from the GMC in Europe 2008 blog while we are traveling. My past experience is that people expect too much—and sometimes too little—from this form of communication. An advance word might help with that.

• Our overall goal as members of the Greater Middletown Chorale is to experience and enjoy the tour. This blog in some ways goes along with that goal, but it’s not the reason we’re going. No one is getting paid to write it, and it’s strictly a volunteer activity.
• Updates will happen when and where they can. We expect to have good Internet connections at our hotels, or alternatively at Internet cafes, but sometimes those connections (or our schedules) just don’t work out.
• This blog is not a place to relay messages to travelers. Most of the GMC and friends won’t even see it while we’re in Europe. I’d suggest, as one alternative, looking at the itinerary and sending messages to the hotels.

Did I leave something out? Add a comment to this post!

A Fourth of July Oration in the German Tongue, Delivered at a Banquet of the Anglo-American Club of Students by the Author of This Book (Mark Twain)

Gentlemen: Since I arrived, a month ago, in this old wonderland, this vast garden of Germany, my English tongue has so often proved a useless piece of baggage to me, and so troublesome to carry around, in a country where they haven’t the checking system for luggage, that I finally set to work, and learned the German language. Also! Es freut mich dass dies so ist, denn es muss, in ein hauptsächlich degree, höflich sein, dass man auf ein occasion like this, sein Rede in die Sprache des Landes worin he boards, aussprechen soll. Dafür habe ich, aus reinische Verlegenheit — no, Vergangenheit — no, I mean Höflichkeit — aus reinische Höflichkeit habe ich resolved to tackle this business in the German language, um Gottes willen! Also! Sie müssen so freundlich sein, und verzeih mich die interlarding von ein oder zwei Englischer Worte, hie und da, denn ich finde dass die deutsche is not a very copious language, and so when you’ve really got anything to say, you’ve got to draw on a language that can stand the strain.

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