Notes - this is a second draft of the web page, using photographs from Ken Burke, Bea Shaftman and myself. Suggestions stories, comments are requested and accepted.
Technical notes - photographs are approximately 40k jpegs. Church pages will have thumbnail pictures of a minimum dimension of 1 inch. Clicking on the thumbnails will get the 40k jpegs. (18-Aug-1999 CDJ)
The Naperville Chorus toured Warsaw, Krakow, Prague and Vienna from June 15-26, 1999. In this trip, the chorus found great want, so to help satisfy the wants, umbrellas and toilet bags were left with the populace. Others felt that passports and travelers checks were unnecessary. On further consideration, a sightseeing trip to the airport in Krakow was arranged.
While it is difficult for choristers to get performance pictures, it is possible for others, who are not singing, to obtain pictures. (I think John Warfel, our organist, was trying to connect the shutter
to the organ pedals, but to my knowledge nothing came of it.) The photograph to the left was taken by Ken in St. Nicolas in Prague, Czech Republic during our peformance there. Other pictures from Ken can be found here. There are pictures of two of the three soloists in performance. Lynda did all her performances from the choir loft and so there are no good pictures of her.
In Warsaw, we visited the Chopin monument and some visited the Chopin museum. The power of Chopin was so strong that one chorus member left an offering of music before Chopin's heart (which is in a pillar in the Holy Cross Church in Warsaw). We arrived in Poland just as the Pope was leaving. The city was bedecked with the yellow and white Vatican flag as well as the red and white Polish flag and pictures of the Pope. An example is shown here.Our Polish guide, Peter, told us that it was appropriate timing, since no liquor had been sold while the Pope was visitng.
Our tourguide for most of the tour was Elisabeth and the driver of our "ALBUS" was Klaus. Traveling with them was like traveling with family -- we got lost and Klaus would not ask directions. Also from the back of the bus were constant questions of "Are we there yet", and "I'm Hungry". Klaus showed great ability to get the bus into and out of the smallest places. Whether he was a frustrated Grand Prix driver was a subject of much discussion.
The zloty is the national currency of Poland, and the zloty has an importance that the dollar will never achieve in the U.S. All public toilets required the payment of a zloty, leading to the realization that they were zloty potties and of course the zloty that was used would be the potty zloty.
There were several miracles on the trip, including the way one chorus member saved a stranger from serious injury, the miraculous finding of lost items and finally and most importantly, the vision of piano's in the Church in Rechnitz. Several chorus members saw the pianos, however neither Jim Schopp or John Warfel could see them. (Was the miracle the vision or the clouding of John and Jim's vision?).
Much of the free time was occupied sight-seeing, heading to internet cafes and shopping. Shopping could be either tony as the proud shopper displays her new hat (without drei ecken) or tacky! as these happy shoppers display their find (editorial enthusiasm - the shirt was bought for Barb and Tex and not the two shoppers, the two shoppers hasten to state).
Both Pete and John were very important to the trip (note the conservative tie and shoes). John, our accompanist spent 2 hours playing organ or electric keyboard and the rest of the time taking pictures.
The Fries' found a lovely glass statue of a conductor (with hair) in Prague and the group presented it to Pete on the last evening.
One of the joys of the trip was getting to know the people in the chorus better(and their other halves in many cases - note, I do not say better halves, that would imply a judgement that I am not foolish enough to make). Also we got to become acquainted much more with Pete and his family, because his sister Mimi, her husband John and son Ryan were along. As you can tell Pete and Mimi are clearly related. John and Mimi here are posed in front of the fish and finally, the whole group, Ryan, Mimi, John and Pete in the underbrush.
On returning from the trip, the group had to get together again to view each others photographs and reminisce. A cake was produced, showing Klaus turning in front of the Krakow dragon and a song was written. (note, I have not corrected the spelling of Elisabeth's name nor the spelling of zloty).
