The trip began very interestingly as we sang in the headquarters of the European Union in Brussels and were invited to join a guided tour in the massive parliament building. The Finnish members of the European Parliament Ms Heidi Hautala and Ms Outi Ojala acted as our hostesses and we also had a chance to meet other Finnish representatives. In fact, almost all the 16 Finnish members of the Parliament were present when we performed at the main entrance of the Belliard building before the beginning of the dayıs plenary session. Finland joined the European Union not more than two years ago and therefore everything that happens in Brussels and Strasbourg is here a subject of general interest. I found it very useful and fascinating to get to see personally whatıs going on in Brussels. In the same evening we also entertained guests at the Christmas party arranged by the Finnish national carrier Finnair. The party took place in a Finnish hotel Arctia in the heart of Brussels.

Our second stop was Antwerp where our group of 55 persons stayed at the Finnish Seamenıs Church just like two years ago when we visited the city for the last time. All in all, this was the fourth time Cantores Minores visited Belgium - the visit to Germany was already the 18th since the founding of the choir in 1953. In Antwerp we sang in a beautiful church called St. Carolus Borromeus, but were unhappy with the small attendance: there were more singers than audience! Besides, there was so cold in the church that we had to sing fewer songs than we had thought not to catch a cold! The weather was pretty cold all the time during the trip. When we first arrived in Brussels the fog prevented us from seeing anything. Later on the sky became brighter and it was nice to spend some hours walking around in the beautifully illuminated old center of Brussels. We had lots of free time in Antwerp, too, and in spite of the cold it was interesting to see familiar streets and squares.

We traveled from Antwerp to Germany via Holland, but didnıt have much time to look around due to the busy schedule. The rain turned into a snow flurry as we crossed the German border. We were hardly able to make it to Wetter, but we eventually did it and were warmly welcomed. However, our concert on that day, Nov. 29, was due to take place in another small town called Plettenberg, which was situated about a hundred kilometers east of Wetter! All the freeways were covered with snow causing BIG problems. The traffic was totally paralyzed and it took four hours to get to Plettenberg. We were late, of course, but fortunately our audience seemed to be OK with the delay of some 40 minutes. Surprisingly, we sang quite well and gave a good concert.

However, the best concert of the trip took place in Wetter the next day. The people had paid 30 DM to be able to hear our music and I believe we gave them what they had expected. The Lutherkirche was almost full of knowledgeable people who really enjoyed our singing. There were also some guests from the nearby Finnish embassy present - one of them said she had been working in Washington, D.C. when we visited the U.S.A. in October 1993 and had been to our concert there!

The idea of making this trip was born after we got an invitation from Wetter whose cultural board wanted us to come and sing in their Advent concert series arranged yearly. Before us many famous boysı choirs such as Wiener Sängerknaben (Austria), Kreuzchor Dresden and Thomanerchor Leipzig (both German) had visited Wetter and sung in front of the local audience. This fact really made us do our best and showed clearly how much the organizers in Wetter respected us. In other words, the expectations were also high and we couldnıt afford to let the local people down. The concerts we held in Germany were also financially the most important ones.

Our last concert place was a bit unusual - a shopping mall. It was the biggest and probably also the most luxorious center for shopping in the whole city of Düsseldorf. It was Sunday so the shops were actually closed, but the restaurants, cafés and bars were open and helped us to tempt people to come to our special concert. Ultimately there was much crowd taking pleasure in our Christmas music and we could be satisfied with the last concert. We had some time to walk around in the big city before flying back to Helsinki. This short but most enjoyable concert trip was over.

Dec. 2, 1996 Pasi Mustonen