Oh happy day!

Our European adventure began on Sunday with an easy series of flights to Leipzig. When we arrived in the city on Monday, we checked into the Say Cheese Leipzig hostel and settled in, and then set out to find dinner. We ate in a nice Italian restaurant down the street, and the wiener schnitzel was delicious. After dinner we explored Leipzig, and we wandered into a beautiful building that turned out to be the town hall. We weren't really sure what it was at first, so we wandered up the stairs and found a big hall with a gigantic ceiling. It definitely wasn't your average town hall, and we saw people leaving work as we wandered the halls. When we decided to leave, however, we encountered a slight problem. The doors we had entered through were locked! Luckily there was a sign pointing to the ausgang... but that door was also locked! We finally made it out after trying a series of doors and wandering through what might have been the basement of the town hall. 

This morning I woke up feeling refreshed and excited to explore Leipzig in daylight! Highlights of the day included getting breakfast at the market in the square near our hostel, exploring the Schumann house and the Bach museum, seeing the church where J. S. Bach was kapellmeister, and last but not least, seeing the Harlem Gospel Singers in the Gewandhaus! 

Walking into the concert with the Gospel Singers, I didn't know what to expect other than a lot of energetic Gospel singing. I didn't expect the audience to be just as entertaining as the music. In the beginning of the concert, I was speculating about what could have brought the audience to this kind of a concert. I couldn't really see anyone in the audience who struck me as a serious Gospel fan. When the singers came onstage and started singing, the audience sat completely still, even though it was the kind of music that just makes you want to move. However, the Singers really knew how to work the crowd and by the end of the concert there were two standing ovations and the crowd was almost singing along to the encore. Queen Esther Marrow, the leader of the group, even went out into the crowd and got a German man to sing "oh happy day!" into the microphone! It was a very enjoyable, high-energy concert and it was a great way to start out our series of concerts! Overall I think Leipzig is a very cool city and I can't wait to head to Berlin tomorrow!!!