Trip Map

PSO Musicians arriving at Royal Albert Hall

PSO at the BBC Proms, London

Instrument Trunks, ready for the next concert

Boat house on Lake Luzern

Classic half-timbered building

At a Famous Schnitzel Restaurant

Covered Bridge, Lake Luzern

Paintings under the roof of the covred bridge

Jesuit Church, Luzern

Along Lake Luzern

PSO at the Luzern Concert Hall

Classic Swiss scenery

In Old Town Luzern

PSO in Concert, Bucharest

Street scene, Bucharest

St. Anthony Princely Old Court Church, 1559

Red Dot = Not Safe in Earthquake

Our lunch stop

Street Art, Bucharest

Broken Man Memorial, Revolution Square

Stavropoleos Orthodox Monastery Church

Back in beautiful Kraków

Wawel Castle at night

Chapel in Wieliczka Salt Mine

Image carved in salt, Wieliczka Salt Mine

Kraków

Empty Chair Memorial, Ghetto Heroes Square

Museum: Kraków under Nazi Occupation 1939-1945

Our hotel in Toulouse

Toulouse City Hall

Albi and the River Tarn

Cathedral-Basilica of Saint Cecilia (1282), Albi

Touring Medieval Albi

Touring in the rain

Tarn

Cordes-sur-Ciel, established in 1222

Cordes-sur-Ciel

Castres, France

Towers and walls of Carcassonne

City gate, Carcassonne

Carcassonne at night

Canal du Midi, Carcassonne

Narbonne Cathedral begun in 1272

Canal de la Robine, Narbonne

Covered Market, Narbonne

Remains of a Roman Road, Narbonne

Narbonne

Lastours, Remains of four Cathar Castles

Minerve, a fortified Medieval village

Minerve

PSO Patron Tour, Kraków, Languedoc

September 2017

A three and a half week trip that took us from England to Switzerland to Romania, and then to Poland and France. We began with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Patron Tour with concerts at the BBC Proms in London, Luzern, and Bucharest. Because it was our first visit to Bucharest, we stayed for several days, hired a private guide and toured the city. It seems to be slowly recovering from decades of Communist dictatorship.

Kraków is a beautiful city, especially appealing because Jim has cousins there who we met during a 2014 visit, met again on this trip along with still more cousins! With a private guide, we toured some lesser known corners of Old Town Kraków, the Wieliczka Salt Mine, and the former Schindler Factory, now a Museum dedicated to the suffering of the Polish people under Nazi Occupation 1939-1945.

We then flew to Toulouse, France for a Notre Dame alumni trip to the Languedoc–Roussillon region to explore Medieval towns and villages. The rich history of this region includes Gauls, Romans, Visigoths, Saracens and Crusaders. We visited abbeys, wineries, churches, fortresses and saw spectacular scenery in Albi, Carcassonne, Cordes-sur-Ciel, Narbonne, and Minerve.