Got everything?
Well, I hope so!
I had a list of course, this one being rather different from the usual, as explained in my previous post.
Though our journey was generally trouble-free, a delay to our flight to Prague was announced whilst we were sitting at the gate waiting to board. The weather conditions had caused air traffic control to direct the crew of the incoming flight to Terminal 5, whilst we were sitting waiting at Terminal 3. It would take 45 minutes for them to switch terminals and in the meantime, sincere apologies were offered and our patience was requested. We weren't especially worried but we had an arrangement when we arrived in Prague.
When we finally boarded the plane about forty minutes later, my Hero was in WhatsApp converstation with the tenor soloist making the recording, who planned to meet us at the airport and travel with us to Mariánské Lázně. We didn't want him to panic over our late arrival. But there were no worries. During the flight, we made up some of the lost time and we arrived less than half an hour later than scheduled.
When I see an invitation like that, I hear Bettine's voice in my head, “No thank you, dear”.
Arriving at the closest gate to the terminal in Prague, followed by a swift transit through immigration and almost immediate baggage delivery meant that we were at the car rental office in no time. Whilst my Hero sorted all of that out, I looked around for Gustav. The third young, blonde haired gentleman 🤣 ! I spoke to ( Bitte entschuldigen Sie mich, aber sind Sie Gustav? Tenor? ) smiled and said yes, he was!! (Phew! The other two shrugged and probably thought I was one of those crazy women who hang around airports looking for young tenors!)
After our routine checks of the hire car - oooh yes, lots of damage to the nearside alloy wheels - we were on our way.
Fine weather, not too much traffic and a good motorway. It would take us a couple of hours to reach Mariánské Lázně, during which time we tried to stay quiet to allow Gustav to study his score, for he would be going straight into a piano rehearsal when we arrived.
Autumn has arrived here and I'm looking forward to spending time in the park around our home for the next few days. Fingers crossed for fine weather!
Gustav jumped out of the car when we arrived and headed straight next door to the rehearsal whilst we checked into the hotel first, joining everyone later to see how it was going. Five young singers were working with a very accomplished répétiteur and an enthusiastic conductor/director with everything under control. It was getting on for 8pm when we called it a day.
No guesses where we headed…
