Over the past two weeks, you have been reading about the ringers’ and travellers’ escapades. We have had a fantastic adventure! Being immersed in a new culture, guided and being graciously welcomed in a new land helped to melt the miles and unite a community from all over the world.

During this tour we combined our music, skills, 22 ringers and two directors to become the New York Ringers. The smiles, applause, and joy on the faces of the audiences we performed for are truly a special privilege that envelops and lifts us up.  

At the Symposium we joined with 600+ ringers and 10 conductors to craft music, develop new techniques, and paint our musical pictures.  Learning about the different cultures through their music and sharing rehearsals and performances has been the summit of our work and the reason we travel all over the world. 

We hope that you have enjoyed each day that was chronicled on our blog. Our final evening culminated in an elegant gala affording one more opportunity to sample Scottish cuisine and even wear traditional Scottish tartans.  At the end of the evening we sang “Auld Lang Syne”, a famous poem by Scotsman Robert Burns. The poem, traditionally sung on New Year’s Eve, translates to “days gone by” and celebrates old friendships, shared memories, and the continuation of bonds through time. We will treasure our memories from this Symposium and hope that you have enjoyed travelling along with us through our blog posts.

Should old acquaintance be forgot,

and never brought to mind?

Should old acquaintance be forgot,

and auld lang syne?

Chorus:

For auld lang syne, my dear,

for auld lang syne,

we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,

for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup!

and surely I’ll buy mine!

And we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,

for auld lang syne.

Today started off earlier than usual. We all had to be in the massed ringing hall by 8am to be ready to rehearse our solo piece that we’d be playing tonight at the final concert. While our rehearsal slot began at 8:20am, we had to make sure we had our spots ready so at exactly 8:20 we could begin to play. We also only had 10 minutes before the next group got to go, so we had to make the most of the little time provided to us. Using this time to the fullest is also important because this would be all the time we got to play before we had to do it for the solo concert in the evening.

After our early rehearsal we had a half an hour break before the rest of the day began. We started with Bound for South Australia, which most certainly wakes you up! We continued for a couple hours playing the pieces in reverse concert order until we jumped to The Prayer, which is what starts the concert, for our final song before lunch so that we could finish the day having rehearsed every piece in order.

After lunch we resumed our practice. We practiced a few songs and then an announcement was made. In this announcement we were told that the two pieces selected for sight reading were being added to the concert. The two songs are Sweet Caroline and a medley from Mary Poppins. This not only added two more songs to the 9 we had, but it made us realize that we had to actually try to figure out these pieces, in less than two days. After that announcement we continued with playing all the pieces in reverse concert order.

After we finished going in reverse order we played through Sweet Caroline and worked out issues. We went on our way to dinner which was Mince & Root Vegetable Casserole or Chicken Katsu, with fruit and apple crumble. Once we finished dinner we went back to the hotel to change into concert dress, and then went back over to perform at the solo concert. We were the 5th in an order of 10 groups. The concert went great and then we slowly made our way back to the hotel and got a lot of compliments for how great we played.

-Crawford and Sam

Today, we had a more leisurely morning at the Aloft hotel in Aberdeen. We had to be on the bus by 10 am, so several of us woke up closer to 9, while others woke up earlier to do laundry, as there is only 1 washer and dryer in our hotel. 

We had a driving tour of Aberdeen, where Ian (our tour guide) showed us around with Billy (our bus driver)’s help. They took us to a beautiful cathedral where someone was playing the organ, and after looking around a bit, we ran into some other handbell ringers, including one from Germany and a few from Japan.

The next stop involved attempting to find dolphins. We were not lucky enough to see them, but the water and shore were beautiful, so many pictures were taken, and several of us had fun climbing the rocks and hunting for sea glass. 

Billy then drove us back into the city, and we stopped at the maritime museum. Once we arrived, we had some time to see the museum and get lunch. Some people stayed longer at the museum and chose quicker food options, while others went out to fancier restaurants for seafood.

Next was the botanical gardens, where we got to walk around and see all of the plants, along with some freshwater turtles, which are apparently called Terrapins in the UK. Many of us also stopped to eat ice cream at a small store right outside before returning to the bus to head back to the hotel.

The bus ride back to the hotel was short but many people took a quick nap. When we returned to the hotel, we said a huge thank you and goodbye to our tour guide Ian, who has been such a great help and such a knowledgeable guide through so many cities and towns. We also said goodbye to Billy, our wonderful bus driver, who we will see again next weekend – he will be driving us to the airport when it’s time to return to New York! 

After we said goodbye, we all went to get our bell cases and headed over to the symposium hall, which is a very quick walk from the hotel. We set up our tables — we are close to the front of the rows of ringers, which is exciting! 

After we set up and put our music in order, we headed back to the hotel for a short break before the Friendship Dinner and the start of the symposium! Throughout the friendship dinner, ringers from all over the world introduce themselves to each other and trade trinkets. We had apple pins that say New York on them, and traded them for pins and stickers from people of Korea, Australia, England, Scotland, Japan, and more! We all made many new friends and are SO excited for the start of massed ringing tomorrow morning! 

-Chloe and Aria

This morning at 9am we left our hotel in Edinburgh and set off for St Andrews, where we would see some of its storied history. We began our about hour long ride and made our first stop for a look at three bridges crossing the River Forth. These three bridges were all made in different centuries. The first one is a rail bridge finished in 1890; the second was finished in 1964, and is now out of use due to its condition; and the final bridge is the newest being finished in 2017, where it is now the main way to cross the river. 

After we left the bridges, we crossed the middle one of them to finish our trip to St Andrews. On the way our tour guide Ian taught us some facts about Scotland. We learned about its green energy and how it makes more than enough for itself, but they sends off their energy to the national UK grid for redistribution. We also learned about how it makes a lot of wheat which is mostly used to make liquor and porridge. 

When we arrived at St Andrews, we were allowed to roam about, but Ian also offered to bring us to the ruins of a church and a castle. Most of our group followed Ian to the church where we got to see all about its long construction and history. It was surrounded by a graveyard which we walked through on a path navigating around where the church once stood. We then went to a castle with one of the oldest surviving siege tunnels. At this point Ian was finished showing us the sights and we were left to our own devices.

Many of us journeyed down to the rocks to collect smooth rocks and cool shells, along with seeing the views and looking for animals in the tide pools. During this time, everyone also found lunch throughout the town, before we got back on the bus to head to Dundee.

On the bus, we learned more about the history of the land we passed through from Ian, our tour guide. At one point, we went around a roundabout 3 times in a row, to the great delight of everyone, then stopped at a wonderful fruit stand that sold the most delicious strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries, among other things.

Once we arrived in Dundee, the majority of our ringers and roadies voted to visit Tesco, which is the equivalent of a Walmart, as opposed to learning more of the history of the area and warships.

After our snack gathering extravaganza, we had about 2 hours to rest before dinner at the hotel. Once the desert was over, everyone left to do their own thing, with people playing cards, going to bed, or taking walks.

-Sam and Aria

Today we started very early in the day at our hotel in Stirling. We took all the bell cases and our suitcases downstairs to get put back on the bus and the van for transport to our next location we would be staying which is Edinburgh.

After moving all of the cases and equipment some of us checked out. Then it was time for breakfast. It was very similar to yesterday’s breakfast including eggs, traditional sausage, haggis, and much more. Then the rest of us checked out of the hotel.

Then we packed up a van that came to pick up the cases, which barely fit in the van. Then we put all of our luggage onto the bus after the van had left with the bells to head to the church we would be performing at later today. Then we all piled back into the bus bound for Glasgow.

Our bus driver drove around Glasgow while our tour guide showed us all the major sites we could see before it came time to go and practice for the concert ahead. We saw many iconic places, one famous one being the Glasgow green and we even saw buildings that were older than our country (the U.S.). We were very limited to what we could do because of construction and also the commonwealth games which were being held, blocking many roads.

We then made it to the destination of our concert for the day, which was at St. Andrew’s West Parish church. We practiced the music for the concert in concert order from 10:00-12:30. Then we ate lunch that the roadies had found while they had free time during our rehearsal.

Then we played the concert, it was a full house, there were no seats left, some were even standing. It was a small space but had amazing acoustics and made the bells sound amazing. We processed in to show something different. We finished out the concert and everyone thought that we did great.

After the concert, we piled back into the bus, and we drove to the St. Mungo’s cathedral. We walked around for about 30-40 mins, and saw all the amazing rooms (some pretty cool echoes too).

After the cathedral, we left Glasgow and went to check in to our new hotel in Edinburgh. We were surprised to find out that our hotel was directly next to the Edinburgh zoo, and we were told we may be woken up by the chatter of various animals. We then redid the painful process of bringing suitcases and bells up to our rooms and getting ourselves situated.

We then had about an hour before we had to get back on the bus to go to the spirit of Scotland show and dinner, located in the surgeons university. We were greeted at the door with a professional bagpiper who played us some tunes and we then made our way upstairs to the room where the event was held. We started dinner with some traditional Scottish foods like haggis and a smoked salmon dish. The man running the show then held a ceremony to “honor the haggis” in which he recited a sort of poem about the haggis while a video game played. We then ate our dinner which consisted of chicken, gnocchi, or a traditional Scottish fish pie. Following the main course, the show began. The show was an arrangement of traditional dancing, bagpipe and accordion playing and singing. Nearing the end of the performance, they played some American songs on bagpipes/voice including don’t stop believing by journey and wake me up by Avicii. The entire show was an amazingly fun experience and was appreciated by all.

Around 9:30 pm, we drove back to the hotel, where we then went to bed.

-Crawford and Dante