SATURDAY EVENING UPDATE

It is Saturday evening now.  Apologies for the infrequent postings - it has not been possible to do them from my phone as hoped.

On Friday we went into Barcelona and started with a few hours in Parc Guell.  After that we went to Las Ramblas for a bit of souvenir shopping (and an ice cream of course).  Whilst there we busked in a square full of cafe's -  people really enjoyed listening to the choir.  Afterwards we had a tour of the Sagrada Familia and there we sang Amazing Grace.  The impressive surroundings seemed to raise the level of the choir and the acoustics were amazing -- they sounded so fantastic and lots of people came up afterwards to say they enjoyed it.  I was very proud of them -- I hope they are proud of themselves too. One elderly Spanish gentleman came up with a tear in his eye saying how moved he had been. 

In the evening we gave a concert in a small town square.  There was a real community feel and people were so friendly, welcoming and appreciative.  They laid on food and drinks for us and all the choir were given a cap as a present.  It was good to see the choir mixing with the local children and trying out their Spanish.

Today we went to Montserrat.  We took the funicular up the mountain then walked further up.  The children that had never been up a mountain before were clearly thrilled with the experience.  A few lucky ones also got to see two hummingbird hawkmoths feeding happily two feet away from us -- something none of us had seem before.  After that we took a look in the basilica at the monastery. Unfortunately the famous boys choir were on holiday, so we didn´t get to hear them perform.  We sang outside the basilica and attracted a big and appreciative crowd. An hour in the hotel pool to cool off was much appreciated. 

This evening we sang in another town and I was proud of the choir.  Despite the small and miserable audience (so differernt from last night) the choir did really well. 

Tomorrow (Sunday) we´re off to spend the day at Isla Fantasia -- this should be fun.

The children have been amazing - behaviour has been excellent and everyone seems to be happy (but with the odd worry and homesick moment). They have been a real joy to be with and the staff are having a great time too.