I've just got back from tour, with West Sussex County Youth Orchestra. Overnight travel, 27 hours on the coach overall, for some reason passing through Austria, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and France. As far as I know that's not the most efficient way to to do it, but our coach drivers were not exactly the cream of the crop. We managed to get lost and do a half hour detour going back towards the town we stayed in, Villach, when trying to get to Slovenia for an evening concert.
This tour was great in one way, because I made more new friends than I might have done in a smaller group - we are about 85, I think, which means there's always someone new to talk to - but on the other hand it also cemented my views about a certain percussionist, (who spent 3 hours yelling from the back of the coach, at least 75% of all his sentences containing c*nt, a***hole and other miscellaneous obscenities that weren't even amusingly deployed, and then shouted at my friends and I for talking quietly because he wanted to sleep) and also showed me how glad I am that I won't really be seeing a couple of people who have now left because they are too old. Unfortunately one of the leavers is actually lovely and I've only ever talked to him on this tour. It's a pity I won't get to know him or a couple of others any better. I did also make friends with a couple of people who are the same age as me, for once, and so won't leave before me. I tend to make that mistake quite frequently.
We did go to some nice places, though our lake swimming was cancelled because the water was apparently dangerously cold. The best visit we made was to a big network of caves, and because I'm amazingly clever I can't remember where they were, but they were just beautiful. Huge stalagtites and stalagmites, and interesting passages that you're not allowed to go down, and vast open spaces that look a bit like Gothic cathedrals with ornate carving, except it's all natural, and an underground rivery lakey thing. After the 30 degrees outside the 8-2 degree temperatures were quite welcome.
My only complaint about the hotel - the charming and traditionally Austrian Holiday Inn, *cough* - was that the bathroom was made of glass. Fair enough, you might think. But not when it's only tinted glass, not frosted, and the lights in there are the brightest in the room so it's like a spotlight on whoever's showering. Needless to say I showered in the dark. I did have a slight panic when our friend Sam came in and I was changing in there with the lights on, but we cunningly distracted him by saying "Hey, look at our view."
Another highlight had to be our conductor - a generally reserved man - dancing on the bar in a club and flashing his chest at us. YouTube, methinks. Oh the blackmail opportunities. 
