2024 European Tour

You are invited to travel with the Australian Chamber Choir for 16 days on their concert tour of Europe. The itinerary is below.

BELGIUM

Monday 1 July: PM Meet in Bruges. We stay at the Hotel Aragon (4****) in the heart of the old town.

Tuesday 2 July: PM Walking tour of Bruges. Evening Friendly Choir. Get together and enjoy a friendly sing with members of the Australian Chamber Choir. This is an option for folk who enjoy singing, or for an up-close listening experience.

Wednesday 3 July: 10AM Canal boat ride and lunch with the choir at Restaurant Maximilian van Ooserijk. PM Own arrangements.

GERMANY

Thursday 4 July: Travel, always in our luxury coach, to Bonn (4.5 hours). We stay at the Ameron Hotel (4****), right next to the Old Customs House on the banks of the Rhine. Optional visit to the Beethoven House Museum. 8PM Concert, Bonn Minster*.

Friday 5 July: Travel to Braunschweig (5 hours). Start the day cruising down the Rhine from Bonn to Königswinter, then continue by coach to Braunschweig. We stay at the Penta Hotel (4****). The ACC has a free concert at 7PM in St Andreas Church*. If you want to attend, it’s an easy 17-minute walk from the hotel.

Saturday 6 July: Travel to Berlin (4 hours). We stay at the Park Inn (by Radisson), Alexanderplatz (4****). 7PM Friends choir session at the Cathedral.

Sunday 7 July, 10:00 AM: The ACC is the guest choir for the Service at Berlin Cathedral*. Lunch with the choir at the historic Restaurant Zur Gerichtslaube.

Monday 8 July: Travel to Leipzig (3 hours). We stay at the H2 Hotel (4****). Visit JS Bach’s memorial statue and grave at St Thomas’ Church, where he was Cantor for the last 25 years of his life. Optional visit to the house where Mendelssohn lived and wrote the oratorio, Elijah, now a museum (open daily 10am to 6pm).

Tuesday 9 July: Travel to Nördlingen (4.5 hours travel time). We stay at the NH Klösterle Hotel (4****) in the middle of the old town. Nördlingen is a ‘Free City’ of the Middle Ages, surrounded by a 14^th century wall.  7PM Concert at St George’s Nördlingen*.

Wednesday 10 July: 9.30AM Friends Choir session in Georgskirche Church Hall. Visit to Harburg Castle. 7PM Concert at the Harpsichord Workshop of Heiner Hildebrand with Elizabeth Anderson. See and hear a harpsichord, spinet and virginals. Meet the master builder and learn something of the instruments and the music written for them, including music by a local composer, Johann Caspar Simon (1701–76), a student of JS Bach. Post concert drinks in the garden.

AUSTRIA

Thursday 11 July: 9AM Depart Nördlingen. Travelling to Salzburg, we stop in Munich, to enjoy lunch in a typical Munich-style beer garden. Back on the coach, we continue a city tour of Munich, before resuming our journey to Salzburg. Arriving in Salzburg at approximately 4:30PM, we stay at Hotel H+ (4****).

Friday 12 July: Morning free to enjoy Salzburg (One option is to visit Mozart’s House and birthplace, open from 9AM. This is an easy walk from our hotel. Our tour guide can assist.) 3PM Depart Salzburg. Travel to Villach (2 hours). In Villach we stay at the Hotel Voco, on the banks of the River Drau (4****). 8PM The ACC performs at Jakobskirche* (a nine minute walk from our hotel).

ITALY

Saturday 13 July: 8:30AM Travel to Venice (4 hours). On the way, we stop at the medieval town of Cividale del Friuli, on the Italian side of the border with Slovenia. Here we will be treated to lunch, along with a short introduction to the history of this UNESCO world-heritage-listed town. Arrive at Venice Airport by coach. From the airport, your private water taxi takes you to your hotel. We stay at the Hotel Al Codega (4****).

Sunday 14 July: Morning walking tour of Venice. 6:45PM The ACC is the guest choir for the Service at the Basilica of San Marco*.

Monday 15 July: Morning visit to the Peggy Guggenheim Museum. Dinner with the choir at Taverna San Trovaso. The restaurant serves traditional Venetian cuisine, developed through the assimilation of Italian techniques by foreign chefs hosted by noble Venetian families.

Tuesday 16 July: Morning visit to the Fortuny Museum at Palazzo Pesaro. 6:30PM Special Presentation – The ACC in partnership with Teatro San Cassiano and staff and students of the Venice Conservatorium – ‘Celebrating Agatha, unsung composer’*. Be in the audience, when Agatha’s Cantata (written by an orphan at Venice’s Ospedale della Pietà) is heard here for the first time after a silence of three hundred years. Celebrate with the choir over drinks afterwards.

Wednesday 17 July: Following our final breakfast at the hotel, the tour concludes.