This year’s adventure with the Yorkshire Male Voice Choir, (consisting of members from Barnburgh and Castleford male voice choirs together with The Shiremen), took us to Munich.

The trip began with the trundling of cases to meeting points and a smooth transfer to Manchester for our flight. We already knew there was a short delay, but this was extended once we boarded the plane. One engine needed another engine to start it so that it could start the other engine, but the starter engine they brought wouldn’t start! Anyway, things went on so long we were given free cups of water! We were not downhearted; this was the beginning of our trip and excitement kept us going.

Travelling by coach, we were transported from the Munich cityscape along unbelievably smooth roads to the more traditional landscape of Bavaria. All the elements were there. Balconied houses decorated with troughs of flowers, woodlands separating fields of cows, distant alps, lakes and winding tracks leading up into the hills.

After stopping for ‘Kaffee und Kuchen’ in Schliersee we made our way to the city of Rosenheim where we were greeted with song in the coach park by some members of the RosenKavaliere and their musical director Anja, playing the accordion. Helmut, their choir spokesperson, then gave us a short tour of the old town where we ate lunch followed by a walk back to All Saints church for the evening concert. We certainly kept up our step count on this trip.

The evening was a resounding success, due in no small part to our very talented musical director Andris, our accompanist Janina and our multilingual master of ceremonies, Geoff, being ‘Das i-Tüpfelchen’. The concert ended with the sizeable audience giving a standing ovation for our men after their brilliant rendition of ‘Nessun Dorma’. The bonhomie continued well into the evening with more singing, and food and drinks provided by our generous hosts.

Monday was our day to return home, but an evening flight meant there was time for a walking tour of Munich, which included listening to and watching the clock chimes at the Munich New Town Hall . More information on the Wikipedia website.

One group were treated to a visit to Freddie Mercury’s favourite bar, the Deutsche Eiche, where, I am told, an a Capella version of Bohemian Rhapsody was well received.

The magic part of these trips is the skillful organisation of Andris our ‘tour manager’, ably assisted by Janina, and a shared determination to enjoy ourselves. Although we come in all shapes and sizes and from a variety of places and backgrounds, our common feature is a love of music. Coming back together is like putting on a pair of old slippers and we look forward to our next adventure.

Words – many thanks to Maralyn Deakin