“They’re not waving back at me!” Rachel exclaimed after waving at a group of kind travelers.
“Rachel,” I remarked, “they’re blind.”
This past summer I had the amazing opportunity to travel to Europe with my choir group of 108 singers and my family. We traveled to Italy, Switzerland, and Germany to perform at various concert halls. It was the best trip in my entire life, just to say the least.
First I started out my trip in Germany. In Germany I stayed in this beautiful town called Rothenburg ob der Tauber, translating to “red castle above the Tauber” because it was initially built within red castle walls. If you ever want to visit a town that has as much Christmas spirit as the North Pole, this is the place for you. Within the walls of Rothenburg, my chaperone group of 7 singers and I explored the town. We walked the wall surrounding the town, visited one of the town’s many world-famous Christmas shops, and walked almost every side street we could find. We also enjoyed German delights such as schnitzel, bratwurst, and even gelato.
Like I said previously, I did travel to Europe with my choir group. If you’ve never been with a group of choir kids, I don’t recommend traveling to Europe with them. I don’t think I ever had a moment of peace once I stepped off the plane in Frankfurt which extended well into the bus trip across Europe. On one of the days in Germany, we took a bus to Heidelberg to view the ruins of Heidelberg Castle. The view from the castle’s overlook was amazing but doesn’t even amount to some of the views that I saw in Switzerland, which is where we traveled next.
The bus ride to Switzerland was uneventful, except for when our tour guide, Sue, decided to teach us metric system conversions and how it is inherently better than the US measuring system. Sue also explained to the whole bus what every European street sign means and how Europe has signs with pictures instead of words so everyone from any country can understand what the sign means. Fun fact, in some places in Europe there are road signs with a frog on them to signify a frog crossing.
Before I knew it, we were in Switzerland. My jaw dropped at the sight of where we were staying: a ski town in the mountains. If you ever need a bucket list item, I would add seeing the sunrise over the Swiss Alps because it is one of a kind. Even though we stayed in the ski town we spent most of our time in the city of Lucerne where we ate, shopped, and sight sawed.
The day that was the most amazing in Switzerland though was our third day in Switzerland. On that Monday morning, everyone loaded onto the buses and headed for the Lake Lucerne port. We took a boat across to the other side of the lake to then load onto a cable car that took us all the way up Mount Rigi–5,897 ft up to be precise. On top of the mountain, my choir performed some of our music, and to our surprise a group of blind travelers that had been at our concert the night previously were there. One of the most amazing moments on the trip was when my friend Rachel and I were able to speak to one of the blind travelers and her sister. The woman told us that hearing our group sing was one of the greatest experiences she’s ever had and that it was a performance she could fully enjoy knowing that all she had to worry about was listening. Afterwards, her sister stopped us and thanked us profusely explaining just how amazing of an experience it was for her to witness her sister experience so much joy and wonder with no concern for her lack of vision. We parted ways and began to hike up what was left to climb the mountain.
When we reached an overlook point, I froze. It was here that it felt like I was on top of the world. Scratch what I said earlier about adding seeing the sunrise over the Swiss Alps to your bucket list because experiencing this view is something you should add instead. Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay forever and had to get back on the cable car.
While sitting on the cable car waiting for everyone to load, Rachel saw the group of blind travelers outside of the cable car. She got so excited and began aggressively waving at them through the window until she finally gave up. Annoyed, she turns to me and says, “They didn’t wave back!”
I had to stifle my laugh and turned back to Rachel and said, “Rachel, they’re blind. They can’t see you waving.”
A look of embarrassment coats Rachel’s face and all she can get out is a faint, “Oh my God.”
My choir ended our trip in Stresa, Italy. By the time we made it to Stresa, we had already performed 3 concerts along with numerous impromptu concerts. But it’s in Stresa where we performed the most memorable one. Here, we were able to fill the rather large Church of Saints Ambrogio and Theodulo. I will always remember looking out into the full crowd, my choir singing in Italian, watching people crying and singing along. My time in Italy with my choir was short, but filled with gelato and memories.
My parents picked my sister and me up from our choir, and we began to travel together. As a family, we visited Milan and Venice. While in Milan we went sightseeing with my mom’s childhood best friend. It was on this portion of the trip that I ate the best food I think I will ever have. In Venice, I had every type of gelator probably known to man. I highly recommend trying real Italian gelato when you have the chance. In fact, I would recommend the whole experience to anyone looking to travel somewhere new.
Those views were absolutely breathtaking. I’ve had Germany on my bucket list for a while now, but I think I definitely need to add Switzerland. My mom, my sister, and I visited Italy over the summer. Incredibly crowded, but definitely worth it. I agree, the food there is to die for and so much better than anything I’ve ever had here. I loved the gelato, but I was much bigger on the tiramisu, personally. It’s so cool that you were able to experience such an amazing trip this early in your life. I hope to visit these places some day as well!
Kayley, this sounds like such an extraordinary experience! I really enjoyed your pictures throughout the blog, the Swiss Alps in particular look breathtaking. Being able to travel is such a valuable experience, it helps open you up to different perspectives and develop a more well rounded view of the world as a whole. Your experience with the blind travelers seems to encapsulate that. Being able to use your voice to spread kindness and joy is such a valuable gift. Over the summer, I was able to fly to Germany, and while I spent the bulk of my time at the AGQ (a German high school), I was also able to take a lot away from my time overseas. Your post has definitely influenced me to go back to Europe (despite the 9+ hour plane ride), and I most definitely plan on adding Italy to my must-see list, and try some authentic Italian gelato .
Kayley, I loved reading your post! This opportunity sounds like it was an incredible experience. Getting to go on trips with friends are definitely one of the best ways to travel, but getting to tour Europe with your friends sounds like the ultimate trip of a lifetime! While you may not have had any moments of peace, the memories you made and bonds you created I feel are definitely ones that made the hecticness of the trip worth it. I’ve traveled to Italy and Switzerland and absolutely adored both places, but Germany is a country that is definitely high up on my list to visit. What I especially love about your post is how with your use of dialogue and storytelling, you wrote it in a way that makes me feel like I’m on the trip with you, which I loved I hope you get to take many more adventures and make so many more memories with your friends soon!
What a wonderful experience to Europe: Germany, Switzerland, Italy. I could not image the management of 108 singers. Sounds like a wonderful time and an experience you will remember for a lifetime. Glad you were able to share this experience with your family. Thanks for sharing.