Munich

Greetings from Germany! The Chendowan crew is back on this side of the pond, and we're currently on the train to Munich. After flying to Frankfurt yesterday we spent the night in our apartment, had dinner with friends, repacked, and headed out the door late this morning. It was fun to see Rowan rediscover the apartment as well as the toys he hasn't played with since June. He's changed a lot since then. Fortunately, he continues to be great at adapting to different places. After tonight we will have slept in six different places over the past eight days (Door County, Minneapolis, Ankeny, the plane, Frankfurt, and Munich), but we'll be in Munich for a month so we can enjoy some continuity there.

Rowan wanted to go for a walk after I finished the previous paragraph, so now it's the next day and I'm sitting in the kitchen in our airbnb apartment while Rowan naps and Brenda is at work. She's singing Strauss this time around, and I imagine the rehearsal is going smoothly. She already knows the music and staging very well because she performed this opera (Strauss's Die Schweigsame Frau) previously in Munich during the 2014/15 season. The conductor and much of the cast have changed, however, and since it's been a few years, and since Strauss can be very difficult musically (not to mention vocally), it's good she's getting a couple weeks of rehearsal. Since we're on the topic of Brenda's career, I thought I should mention that she is a nominee for International Artist of the Year in the Australian classical music magazine Limelight. (Apparently we all missed a good concert in Melbourne earlier this month.) If you'd care to see who the other nominees are, you can do so here.

There are some holidays in Germany coming up next week so Brenda is going to have a few days off. We're looking forward to settling in to our temporary abode and visiting some of our favorite places in Munich.

I hope you all have a great week, and we'll talk to you again soon!