Day 8: Frolicking, singing, picnicking, and park play
The hotel group woke up bright and early to eat breakfast at the restaurant next door. Singers were pleasantly surprised with pancakes, although cold, that were offered at the meal! Since we all woke up early to eat breakfast, we were able to have free/rest time until it was time to catch the bus.
Well rested, well fed, and excited to conquer the rare but opportune free dress day, singers loaded onto a double-decker city bus (yay public transportation!!!). We headed to one of Europe’s largest urban parks and the former home to King Henry VIII’s hunting grounds. At the park, we ate a bountiful charcuterie-esque picnic filled with cucumbers, grapes, tomatoes, salami, hummus, cheese, crisps (chips for you folks back at home), pita bread, and cookies. As we indulged in the picnic, families and singers from Sutton Coldfield Community Choir shuffled in with their picnic blankets and food. All together, the students from both choirs sang some joint pieces under both Eric Tuan’s and Richard Jeffries's conducting. It was so sweet to hear a preview of the performance to come!
After our picnic, our tour mother (Heather) gave us 2.5 hours of free time to roam around the park! Some singers continued to partake in cultural exchanges with singers from the other choir, while others frolicked in the fields, played rugby, went on peddle boats, pet some dogs, or ate lots of ice cream from the park shops. We ended the park day with more singing - It was a glorious afternoon!
Ready for dinner, we said goodbye to the homestay families and walked into the town center to grab some food. Some singers grabbed the ever-famous Nando’s chicken, while others opted for a sense of home McDonald’s and Taco Bell while others returned to our local favorite chain - Pizza Express.
Traveling always comes with major and minor delays, today’s minor delay including missing our bus back to the hotel ... Instead of waiting an extra 50 minutes, we decided to bite the bullet and walk the 30 minutes back to the hotel. Singers were rewarded with a stop at the Tesco express for late night snacks and gifts :)
With the park day completed, the singers are looking forward to actually singing and will be treated to a full day of rehearsals and a performance. To quote a singer at the park “I’d rather be at rehearsal”, now we’ll never know if that's because they love rehearsal or if it’s because they were not used to the huge amount of free time compared to most other tour days.
