...the white cliffs of Dover!
nightime marina in Zeebrugge
This past weekend was a great adventure... we received a call from
our friend Gediminas, the Lithuanian ambassador to Belgium, saying that
he had booked the
Tyfoon 37-foot yacht in Zeebrugge, and Frank the
skipper was available for a weekend sail to Dover, around 150
kilometers. We had been talking about going sailing for a long time,
and as our weekend was flexible we packed quickly and drove up to
Zeebrugge friday evening.
windmills along the belgian coast
Steuermaggie
His Excellency at the wheel
We met with Gediminas and Simonas, Frank, and
Thomas (also a Lithuanian diplomat) and his son Jonas. After sleeping
on the boat we got an early start with a 5am departure on the morning
tide, and were on our way to the first intermediate destination, the
coastal town of Nieuwpoort.
harbour at Nieuwpoort
the marina at Dover
We passed by Dunquerque, and then crossed over into
French waters later that afternoon, arriving at Calais in the evening,
but the port seemed closed, and from there we decided to continue night
sailing until reaching Dover at around 2:30 Saturday morning. At times
the sea was very rough and several of us got quite ill from the chop.
Those who had taken dimenhydrinate (dramamine / gravol) were better off, but things settled down a bit as the day went on.
breakfast on board
Twenty-one hours at sea was pretty tiring but we were all up again by 9h or so. Simonas
and Jonas had requested pancakes with maple syrup, so Maggie cooked up
some bacon and got the pancakes mixed. We all had a good breakfast and
then the four Lithuanians left to take a train to London for the day.
Frank stayed with the boat and relaxed, while we went out to
explore the town.
Maggie on Dover beach
I've sung the Samuel Barber setting of Matthew Arnold's poem "Dover
Beach" twice in performance, but it was my first time to "hear the
grating roar of the pebbles as the waves draw back..." and it was nice
to get my feet wet in the harbour. We found the whole place beautifully
maintained, clean, quiet.., the protected beach area was so clean and
the water warm enough that there was a swimming club training for a
race, passing from marker buoy to buoy. We wished we had thought to
bring swimsuits!
view of the harbour from Dover Castle
the castle from the moat
The moat goats
We explored the town a little; and then
started to climb up the hill to the castle.
The fortifications there have been significant for several thousand
years; the Romans built a lighthouse there during their occupation of
Britain, and the lower portion of that building still exists, and has
been built upon at later times. Dover Castle is the largest castle in
England and has been used as a military and strategic site by a variety
of different english kings since Henry the II, and it has survived
Elizabethan times, the English civil war, the Napoleonic wars, and was
used again during the Second World War, as a military command centre,
barracks, shelter and underground hospital. We seem to have visited
quite a few castles during our years in Europe, and were happy to add
another to our collection.
The grounds are very well maintained, and the earthworks around the
castle have many wild-looking plants growing in the coastal climate. So
vigourous are some of the ivy plants that
they have taken to grazing sheep there again to help keep the plants under control and to maintain
high biodiversity.
view from the barbican
courtly reënactments
helicopter landings by the air ambulance on the beach
Matthew on the beach
a pint at the Eight Bells
We met up again at the boat for dinner, then had a ceremonial pint or two at the Eight Bells pub while watching the Greece - Costa Rica match, which we enjoyed despite some rather rowdy drunken Kentish men, and then left on the night tide at around 1:00 to head back to Zeebrugge.
The trip back was much smoother because we were sailing with the wind direction and with a tidal current for the most part, so there was much less tacking required, less chop, and we made better time. The weather was also really beautiful, and I had a good long quiet time lying on the deck near the mast, enjoying the view. One thing you notice that is different about sea vs. lake sailing is the very clear green colour of the water; frequently our freshwater lakes in Canada look to have the same tone as the sky, but the sea water is amazingly different in colour. The grey-green of the water, and the big flemish masters-style clouds in a blue sky made a wonderful composition.
view from the mast
Now what? Maggie has been happy to be back at sewing projects again, and the upstairs desk, the dining room table and even our bed has been taken over and is covered with fabric and paper patterns. She was asked to make Joëlle's dress for their wedding that is coming up this weekend. That dress has been completed for a while, but she also has made a lovely blue silk dress for Karalyn, who will be a bridesmaid, and yesterday made two dresses for the daughters of Penni and Damien, our Canadian-Belgian friends. Most probably we will have to make a fabric store run today, and she is inspired to make something for herself too.
early start at sewing
pattern making for her own dress
for Karalyn
for Lucie
for Amelie
So what's happening musically? Yesterday I had an audition for a conductor who will present two performances of the Brahms
Requiem this December in Brussels, and it looks as if I will get another chance to sing something with my friend Rita Matos Alves, with whom I perfomed in Nozze di Figaro several times in Belgium a couple of seasons ago. These will be my 10th and 11th performances of this fantastic work, so I am looking forward to it very much, and there is a chance that the programme might be filled out with some Arvo Pärt, and some other pieces yet to be decided. It will slot in nicely between the two November performances of Carmina Burana and the two December ones. September and most of October is empty for me so far, so I hope to use that time for preparation and also for aggressively auditioning, but after middle October things get pretty hairy:
- Haydn Creation - Brussels Conservatoire October 24, 26
- Mozart Requiem - Bornem November 6, Grimbergen November 7
- Carmina Burana - Binkom November 22, 23
- Brahms Requiem - Brussels - Eglise de Ste. Anne November 5, 6
- Carmina Burana - Sint-Niklaas November 13, 14
Then I will leave for the China trip, with 12 performances over 20 days, ending on Epiphany. After that the spring is still a bit open; Julius Stenzel and I are talking about some Bach cantatas in January, but for the most part I am free until the mid-March; then it will be:
- Johannes-Passion - Mechelen Cathedral March 21 (Christus)
- Johannes-Passion - Sint-Paulus Antwerp March 28 (Christus)
- Matthäus-Passion - Lier March 29 (arias)
- Matthäus-Passion - Cathedral St. Michael / St. Gudule Brussels April 1 (arias)
... and then there is another break until the end of June, where I have pencilled in another Bach cantata at Minimes. I am really super excited about the Johannes-Passion, because unlike almost everything else on this list above, it involves something new for me: I have been asked to sing the part of Jesus in these performances instead of the arias, so that means a new project to work on with Peter. He has been packing up his apartment and will be continuing to do so until the 11th of July, so I might get in a coaching with him before he leaves to take the helm of the Comic Opera Studio in Berlin... It seems more likely though that we will have to meet there... As I will be in Berlin both before and after the China trip, it seems reasonable to try and stay on a day or two, and polish up the Jesus recitatives in the second week of January, so that they are ready to go for the end of March.
One reason for the auditioning is that there is no opera on the agenda so far. But that should be changing: next summer will involve the auditions for the 2016 summer performances of
Nozze di Figaro, and there is discussion and planning going on now for Donizetti's
L'elisir d'amore sometime in 2015/2016, so I will have some things to learn and explore anew. La Monnaie is planning to shut the opera house in June 2015 for at least eight months of renovations, and this will mean that they will present productions in other venues, which might be a good thing for emerging singers who don't mind performing in smaller or non-traditional theatres. I hope to audition for Peter de Caluwe again this year if I can arrange it. As well there are Liége and Antwerp to think about...
As for the rest of our summer plans, we don't want to be too extravagant with holiday spending, and we are kind of liking the peace, quiet, and nice weather here in Brussels. We have heard from the boys that they are enjoying the pool time at my parents' house, but now have left for several days of Algonquin Park camping. Our friends Deborah and Craig have offered us free accomodation in their flat in London over the summer, and I think that we might spend a few days around our anniversary weekend there, visiting the Victoria and Albert Museum and seeing some other London sights. As well, we have museum cards and a swimming pool membership up in Amsterdam that are still valid from last fall, so I think we'll be planning some summer bicycling time there. We also have a free place to stay in Zeebrugge, so there should be some inexpensive cycling tours of the Belgian coast. Next weekend we are going with Bryan and Kiana to a camping weekend with some other friends, and while Bryan and his fellow runners do several races over the weekend we'll have some relaxing country time together. The weekend after that we spend a night or two in Paris, at the luxurious Westin Paris – Vendôme, with a special rate that we were very lucky to get. So without planning any extensive trips abroad we will I am sure have plenty of diversions this summer, and lots to write about in the blog.
Now it's off to check on things in the garden. I have been enjoying watching things grow, and it would seem that there are no more large slugs to be found; the wooden frames topped with copper tape seems to be keeping most of them out, and all I am catching in my beer traps now are small slugs, maybe a centimetre or two long. There are still lots of little critters that enjoy hollowing out my strawberries though, so it means a daily visit to pick ripe fruit is best.
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