Day 55, (June 27) Vilnius

It was sort of a hot night and the dawn came early (actually at close to the same time as the day before).  We went down via the elevator to the main floor restaurant where there was a buffet as large as a cruise ship and it featured local delicacies such as herring and mackerel.  After breakfast we loaded onto our bus for a 3 hour tour of the city.  The first stop was at a pavilion constructed just for singing.  The choir massed and sang a few numbers and it sounded heavenly from out in the field.  We then headed on through the city to St. Peter and St. Paul's church.  We left the church and drove to cathedral square where the choir formed a line facing north and south and  symbolic of the line formed by the Baltic people following independence.  In that case the line stretched from Vilnius to Tallin. Inside the choir sang a quick impromptu song that was heavily. We then walked  to what Angela and I thought was the prettiest exterior of all the churches: St. Anne's and Bernadette's churches.  They are constructed of a gorgeous red brick exteriormmched them some more until the practice concluded.  It's really interesting to experience the acoustics of performing in the large cathedral type church.

Just after we left the church a police car stopped the bus and accused the driver of hitting a vehicle during a turn.  So while he sorted that out, we unloaded from the bus and continued our tour walking.  I looked at the damage and it appeared to all be old damage.  I also was seated above the right rear corner and did not feel any contact.  I learned later that it was in fact a way of extorting money as the officer probably spotted the damaged area and used it to his advantage.

We walked to the church the choir would be performing in and then we had about an hour and a half for a lunch break.  While the practice occurred I found a hair dresser for a haircut.  After the practice we bussed back to the hotel for a buffet dinner.  We were then bussed back to St. Casimir's and we arrived there a scant 10 minutes before the scheduled 7pm performance time.  

When we walked in the church, it was packed!  What a thrill!  The concert was well received to a standing ovation.  After the concert part of he group stayed downtown while most of us went back to the hotel where we went up to the Skyview bar for a bit.

After an attempt to purchase some snacks for the upcoming trip, we returned to the room to do some last minute packing and soon it was dreamland.