In October of 2008 we realized a tour in the European continent, which started 1st of October and finished 20th of the same month, after two years of preparation, with a repertory of 20 songs. This repertory hold some songs of sacra oriental music, Capuchino Alberto Gonzalez anthem, particularly beautiful, some piece of work of our “Olimar”, specially Ruben Lena works, another oriental music and Latin America, plus another negro spiritual and some European songs in German and French.
We set off Treinta y Tres from our rehearsal place by bus to the Carrasco airport to board our plane to Madrid and then Barcelona.
When we arrived to the giant Barcelona’s airport, the people of the Corearte Barcelona festival, one of the events we were going to participate in our tour, were expecting us. On our hosts cars and some friends’ we start our way to a far place into the city, to find the 6 Renault Megane cars, which were going to be Coro Pro-Músicas’ transport for the next five thousand kilometers.
As a relief of all our tiredness and starvation we arrived to a restaurant in front of the beautiful L’Ermita de la Verge del Camí (which means “Virign of the way” in Catalan) in Cambrils, a beautiful town of Cataluña in the outskirts of the Mediterranean river –where we were going to have our first intervention like a chorus as guests of de La Verge del Camí-. Later that afternoon we arrived to a wonderful beach, with an amazing blue river, harbor, yacht, fishing boats and a fancy mal, where we decided to camp.
The first walk of a series of wonderful places the host chorus have prepared for us was the visit of Tarragona, capital of one of the Cataluña city, which has a roman fort of the I Century AC where we were guide by an expert leader, showing us the place and telling us its history. We saw the roman arena and the amphitheatre in ruins, well preserved and beautifully illuminated in the edge of the Mediterranean river. The next day we visited the Mayoralty of Cambrils, where we were welcome by the mayor with a retort of the two giant that protect Cambrils. Then we visited the city of Reus, with narrow streets without path, and slipping through the XV Century Cathedral where we improvised, almost in secret, our first song in Europe: the Jesu Dulcis Memoria del Hno. uruguayo Alberto González.
The last day in Cambrils we traveled by train round the city, the shore, the roman village Llosa, the Tres Eras mil and the Agricultural Market, and an old olive oil mill. Cataluñia is full of olive-groves and you can walk on olives in the streets.
In our final night we had a concert in th Cripta de L’Ermita de la Verge del Camí, charming the Catalonian people with our own version of “Tu nombre me sabe a hierba”.
The next day, we went up to the Pirineos in our way to Andorra, going in and out of long mountain tunnels. The Andorra principality, like a fairytale, with its houses with dark slate roofs, of two or more aguas, nailed in the hillside between steep hills; all decorated with flowers and plants hanging from the balconies. The afternoon we arrived, we had a concert at the old and beautiful church of Andorra with the Sunday mass. The day after was for walking and shopping for the principality and the capital. Tuesday morning we set off to France, Avignon, and we chose a panoramic way which didn’t have toll, a little too much expensive for our possibilities. We went down the Pirineos range, with an amazing landscape and curves. Our way was interrupted because the snow was in the streets so we were a lot of time going and coming in the french Provence. We arrived to Avignon –with Osvaldos’ lost- at night and the next day, with rain and cold we walk around the old city and the Palacio de los Papas, an incredible castle of the XIV Century. We went to Estrasburgo, in the north of France, from there, staying in Annes. We took pictures to the trunco Avignon Bridge. At night Carlos car lost and when we met, we decided to stay in Annecy because it was late. From that moment we created a imaginary town called “je lerré” because all of us went wrong in the way. In the moment we got up in Annecy we found a beautiful city that in despite of not visiting it, we loved it.
We set off directly to Frankfurt, Germany, arriving to the Alpes suizos that look like the Pirineos but it was littler and it has more gardens. Embroidery Lausanne and Geneva and we went through Lake Le mans, the whole environment very neat green lawns and vines on each other in the distance saw the landlord's house, castles and beautiful views to dazzle us each kilometer. The trip to Germany across Switzerland was fleeting beacuse we had to arrive to Frankfurt. We were welcome in Schwalbach at 11pm –even when they were expecting us at 7pm- by the mom and sisters of our partner Sigrid, who had made an splendid dinner for us. Relatives and neighbors lodged us and treated us wonderfully.
We had concerts in LA Iglesia Evangélica de la Paz in Frankfurt and Schwalbach. We visited the I Century AC roman fort in the outskirts of Frankfurt, which had an amazing museum of arms and tools of that time. We did a tour along the banks of the Rhine River, with an impressive display of autumn landscapes, castles and palaces crowning mostly fields of vineyards in steep slopes of the hills near the river.
When we finished our last concert in German territory we say goodbye of our hosts, and almost at 12pm we were again in the road in our way to the French Provence, a trip of one thousand and two hundred kilometers that took us almost twenty hours of driving until we arrived really tired to Saint Maximine for a restless night. At 6pm we had a concert in a beautiful tiny town, with a medieval past for sure, as all of the towns from here, and a wonderful and picturesque old city. Roquevaire has in its church of San Vicente a beautiful keyboard and the chorus, “Les Voix d’lsa”, with people of our age, all dressed in white. The next day we walk around Monaco y Cannes, where a group of lost people spend the afternoon taking pictures to the Casino Montecarlo while the rest visited the palace and the museum, in special Jackes Cousteau museum. That night we were late –because we were lost again- to the concert in Brignoles with the host chorus “Eclats de Voix”, where we didn’t have time to change our clothes and had to sign as we were. On Thursday 15th we set off to Barcelona to start the Corearte festival which goes on for five days, we went acroos the Pirineos again but this time we did it in the highway) to the south to meet with the organizers of the festival who were going to guide us to Santa Susana, a touristic town in the Mediterranean coast, fifty kilometers from Barcelona center.
The concert in the Abadía del Monasterio de Montserrat was the first activity of the festival, with a chorus from Aguaí, Brasil. We divide in groups to visit the basilica and its environment. In the afternoon we had a rehearsal in the University with the others chorus that participate in the festival.
The next days were all about having a concert in the Aula Magna of the University, visiting the Catedral de la Sagrada Familia, Montjuic, Parc Güell, where we sang in the Sala de las Cien Columnas. We visited the city of Girona, walk by the (judearía) of the old city and cross by the famous bridge on Ebro River. At night the final concert was made in the auditorium AXA.
The next morning they took us for others cars and for the experience gain by going one behind the other we didn’t get lost in Zaragoza. When we arrived, we were amazed by the wonderful basilica of La Virgen del Pilar and its beautiful parade of statues, with the statue of Goya relating to the city. The next day groups of nice ladys from the Caragoza chorus took us to meet the Palacio morisco de la Aljafería, built during the Arabic invasion and ised later by the queen Isabel and king Fernando. We went near the roman ruins in the city.
We had lunch in the square in front of the basilica, and later be went walking to the Cultural Center CAI, where the concert was hold and where we met with the Zaragoza chorus. After the performance we met in the host-based choir, coming to make a very entertaining meeting. It was the date when our chorus birthed 20 years since its first public presentation and they made a birthday cake! The walk way back to the hotel, in the early morning for the old city was very interesting, with our guide Paquita, one of our nice hosts.
The next morning we set off to Barcelona to give back the cars and wait our flight back to our lovely Treinta y Tres.