Madrid/Granada

On the Morning of Friday July 6th, we arrived in Mardird by train. This was the largest city we would visti in spain. We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast of Salmon and cheese, and then toured El Prado for hours upon hours. Seeing every painting in the place. Then we ventured over to the botanical gardens where we spent the rest of our day finding all kinds of plants from around the world including New Mexico. In fact, it seems that the only plants they have from the US are from NM.
That night we jumped on our train to Granada. We it was a great ride as we were in First Class drinking wine and eating all the way. Mel and I witnessed a heated argument between two passengers about luggage that soon turned intto a philisophical discusion about luggage etiquette. The latins are so funny. When we arrived in Granada, Joaquin was of course over a half an hour late. We stayed with him the first night we were there, in a great apartment looking up at the Alhambra. I can see why he loves it so much there. Hippies and gypsies everywhere. The next day we toured the Alhambra, seeing the ancient gardens that I have heard so much about. I could see Carl and Joaquin playing in the Gardens and sneeking around at night finding old hidden secrets. That night I hung with Joaquin in the gypsy caves, meeting some of his flamenco friends and playing a little bit. The next day I took mel back there and she impressed them all with her oboe skills! Joaquin is doing great there, getting ready for a flamenco competition and living the life. I would love to return there some day.

Santander/Austurias

We arrived this morning in Santander, Spain (7/4) after a great ride on RyanAir, europes cheapest airline (more like a cattle shipping buisness). When the plane landed everyone applauded in amazement that the plane actually made it. Santander is a beautiful city on the coast of Northern Spain. We took a boat ride and enjoyed our day walking around the small metropolitan area waiting for our train to Gijon. It was an overnight ride and we got our first taste of sleeping on the train. Both being jetlagged, sleeping was no problem for the most part. We arrived in Gijon in the morning and ate breakfast and walked on the beach before getting on another train to Aviles, just a 1/2 hour ride inland. The mountains here are amazing and the town of Aviles is very old. We met the Bass Professor (Andrey Feygin) of the Univeristy of Oviedo here and I had a 2 hour lesson with him. I played Koussavisky's Concerto for him and seeing as though he is Russian he had some interesting things to say. He is a good player, though doesn't quite stand up to the amazing teachers I am used to. I learned that Austurias would be a great place for a begining professional, but not the best for study. After a good lunch we parted for Oviedo and spent some hours exploring. We both liked the town very much. Tonight we are sleeping on the train to Madrid.

A Day in Rome

Hi all, we have arrived in Roma. My bass made it fine through the trans-atlantic flight and melissa has been introduced to the latin passion for Argument, as just about every journey we have enbarked on thus far we have witnessed a heated disscusion between the locals. We arrived in the airport and scared off 5 taxi's before one would dare to put my bass in. We then drove into Roma and dropped my bass off at the Hotel, where the festival will pick it up and take it to Viterbo while we are in Spain. We leave tomorrow for Spain (7/4/07) and tonight we toured a little of Roma, eating by the Fontana di Trevi and spending some time walking around the Vatican. We got lost in the streets and passed through some midnight street markets and movie filming before passing by the Castello di Saint Angelo.

Albuquerque, for 11 hours.

We have arrived in albuquerque where we will stay for 11 hours. My bass has caused minimal problems on this leg, not fitting on the first flight from Powell River-Vancouver and arriving in Vancouver three hours later than us. We arrived in Albuquerque to find our bags are comming in an hour later. As we sit here and watch the rest of our movie, I thought it would be a good time to give some transition thoughts.

The last concert went great, we played Mahler 4th (which Mel played the final English Horn solo for closing the entire symphony beatifully!) and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring (Hard Rock!!!!!) SOAP was a challenging experience for both of us and I feel like I have learned so much and it was good to study with Mark Morton again. He is a great player, teacher, and a whole lot of fun.

We now start the hot part of our summer. The director of SOAP told me he heard that it is so hot in Rome that they had to turn off all of the fountains. Joaquin has warned me that spain is hot too. We will fly tomorrow to Rome, meet Marcio at the airport, go in a taxi to the Hotel Dehon (right behind the Vatican) and spend the day there. On tuesday we fly to Santander, Spain, where we take a train to Gijon. I will meet Andrey Feygin there and take an audition. He is the Bass professor at the conservatory there. Then we will take a train to Madrid, hang there for a day. Then to Granada for a few days with Joaquin, and finally to Valencia where mel will meet Juan Ferriol, the oboe professor. All of our nights, except for Granada, will be spent on the trains. So we may smell a little. but no hostels needed! Then we fly back to Rome to meet the group and start our second festival of the summer.

A note on DAD: he is doing fine. Josh and Lana have both visited for a week each and Mom is on her way for a week as well. He has been able to work a few hours at a time and is in high spirits! As for my dog, he is out of jail and loves his monkey.

Mel Sums up Canada

Robin and I just completed our adventure in Powell River. Our final concert yesterday was spectacuar! It is such a thrill to make music with such a good orchestra. Since the last blog entry, we checked into a haunted hotel. I thought that my bug adventure just wasn't scary enough, so we packed up and moved to a hotel where there are dead bodies in the basement, and mafia history haunting the closed off corridors of the third floor. (actually we left our happy campsite because I got sick, but now I'm better.) Powell River is a beautiful place, and it is fun to be outside at 11:30 pm and see the sun still setting!

Melissa