This appeared on the tour facebook page twelve hours ago:
Quick update from our second day in Munich…
This morning the weather was more summer-ish, which made for a pleasant 45m walk (for WSO) to our rehearsal venue at St Boniface Church, a simply but beautifully designed modern building near Königsplatz. This time the bands had the morning off while the orchestras enjoyed their first rehearsals of the tour. After lunch at the hostel, it was back on the bus into town, where everyone had about 90m to explore the city, do some shopping or return to some of the more interesting sights we glimpsed on our walking tour yesterday. Then it was about a 30m drive to Garching, a small town north of Munich, where we set up for our first full concert of the tour. Outside the concert hall was a public square with several small eateries so the students could spend their dinner money before the concert, which began with a short piece by the local Blasorchester Garching – in full Bavarian attire! Then, after a warm welcome from the mayor, each of the groups performed 3 pieces for the appreciative audience. This was followed by refreshments provided by the locals and some interesting discussions about life in Germany vs NZ, before we got back on the bus to return to the hostel and pack for our trip to Salzburg tomorrow.
The students seem to have settled into the new time zone, and the concert set-up, while not yet perfectly streamlined, is becoming more so. My guess is that the 3-4 students who forgot all or part of their uniform tonight will not do so again on tour! We are looking forward to each group developing as a unit as the tour progresses.