Saturday, March 6, 2010

Ice Music and a trip to Meran

Below Brunnenburg and Dirf Tirol is Meran/Merano. This small bustling city has many stores with a larger variety of items then the stores in Dirf Tirol. It also has a train and bus station that allows people to travel out of the area. Jane and I took the students down on Friday morning to check out the market that happens every Friday. The market has everything from food to rugs to shoes and goes for about five blocks. This market provides for the residents of the area and also the tourist that come to Meran. The food comes form local vendors but many of the other products came form various places. The market is a great opportunity to become submerged into the culture of the area and to even practice your German.

The students walking down to Meran
Jane buying dried fruit
Fresh fish
Good old Wurth

Waiting for the bus to Schnalstal, a ski resort on a glacier. The students were told they were going to see a concert, but did not know what sort of music there would be. I knew that the concert was going take place in an ice dome but I had no idea what kind of music we would be treated to.

Schnalstal
The students bundled up for the concert
The gondela cables going up to 3,000 meters/11,000 ft
The hike down to the ice dome, -24 Celsius/-4 Fahrenheit
Entering the domicile
As I entered the ice dome I was astonished to see what was on the stage, instruments made from ice. They were crafted from the glacier itself. Below is an ice harp. The strings were normal but the frame was made of ice.
Then there was an array of instruments, bass, xylophone, chimes and horns all made from ice
The next few pictures are from the performance
The stage right before the show
I also took some videos of the concert
Here are two links, one is to the ice festival site and the other is a news article about the main performer.

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