Exploring Vienna

The Kapuzincloster where we started off our day with Mass. The main parts of the bodies of many of the royal Hapsburgs were buried in the crypt under this church. The bodies of those Hapsburgs who married beneath their rank were not afforded this honor. Several other churches in Vienna have other parts of the Hapsburgs in them, such as their hearts or their internal organs.

Heather, looking contemplative. You can see Kathryn, Lindsay's old roommate in the background.

My history professor and Bus 1's tour guide, Fr. Seraphim. Just follow the broken umbrella!

There were a lot of these carriages around the city for hire!

Peter and Grant.

Julie, who lives on the same wing as me and sat next to me in the bus.

St. Peter's, my favorite church of the day.

Can you spot the dead saint?

Closer view of St. Peter's altar.

Looking up at the choir loft.

An interesting statue... on one side there was an old woman who represented the plague being killed by an angel.

St. Stephen's Cathedral, an architectural marvel! Can you tell that the roof is covered with millions of tiles?

A secret symbol showing that St. Stephen's was a meeting place for the underground resistance.

St. Stephen's on the inside.

A side altar in an Augustinian church where the Hapsburg's hearts are.

An organ for Elizabeth... can't remember which church it's from!

Augustinian church again.

The Augustinian organ.

Very special Spanish horses. We just missed the show and were passing by and they were being led across the cobblestone street into their resting place.

Roman ruins plop in the middle of Vienna!

Both Hitler and JPII made speeches from this balcony!

Sr. Joan Paule laughing amidst the roses.

A beautiful rose ;-)

Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do, Beer edition. These two basically provided a soundtrack for our trip to Vienna... it was a very musical day!

The most enormous greenhouse ever!!!!!!! We were too cheap to pay for entrance, and unfortunately we couldn't really follow the squirrels through the windows, but it looked really cool inside!

The Laurens.

Lauren, Andrew, Peter, Bill, Joan, Lauren, Me ;-)

The sign said "Don't walk on the grass"...

Peter makes a royal entrance on the steps of the Summer Palace.

Going down the steps of the Palace.

After some debate we decided not to crash this wedding at the palace...

In the palace gardens.

In memory of those nightgowns ;-)

A suit of arms on the ceiling.

Sunset over Vienna.

Melk: Part 2

This is me with my roommate Lara (on the left) and friend/neighbor Cara. We were on the bus to Melk together.

Just one of the beautiful courtyards in the Melk Abbey.

A fountain at Melk.

A closed-off corridor in the royal quarters of the Melk Abbey. When royalty used to visit Melk this is where they stayed with all their attendants. Maria Theresa stayed here often.

Can you believe how much work they must have spent just putting flooring in??? This beautiful wooden floor was one of my favorites at Melk!

One of the plainer tabernacles on display.

Me in the mirror room.

Amazingly intricate vestments for the Abbot, still worn for Easter. It is super heavy! It comes with matching shoes and gloves, but those aren't used anymore because they don't fit anyone but the one Abbot they were originally made for. Nowadays they also still use the matching bishop's hat (I forget the proper name)

A Day of Adventuring

Today we all piled on the buses again and headed off for Melk abbey and the town of Durnstein, which houses some really cool castle ruins. The abbey is amazing and full of interesting historical facts, half of which escape me at the moment. It did contain things more than a thousand years old, which was really neat! The library was breathtaking... books from floor to ceiling, complete with a ladder and a spiral staircase! It also had six doors concealed in the shelves... pretty nifty!

After that we got in the buses again and drove over to Durnstein for a hike up a small mountain to some castle ruins. There were many excellent views and several points where I didn't think I could walk any further. It was very hot, and the Danube looked awfully inviting for a swim. Peter and I discovered a dungeon among the ruins and wished we had some bows and arrows to practice shooting out of the archer slits in the walls. We also wished we had some water, which we had forgotten to bring. Additionally we wished we had exchanged some American money for Euros already so we could buy some water at the bottom of the hike. Fortunately Catherine was kind enough to lend us 2 Euros to get a bottle of water! Thank goodness! Unfortunately my camera died before we got to the top of the ruins and I had given my extra batteries to another girl, so my pictures are lacking from that adventure. It was very fun though, and we made it back to the buses just in time!

On the way home we passed a statue of a little Austrian girl with an American soldier and a Russian soldier. Apparently it has been a matter of many years of dispute whether she is drawing them together after the Cold War or being torn apart by them. At Peter's inspiration we decided that she was actually pushing them away from each other in an attempt to get them to resist the urge to fight. Brilliant!

Without further ado, here are some pictures. The internet is being ridiculous (emphasis on the re) so I couldn't upload them all. I shall attempt again tomorrow! Gruss Gott!

Gregorian Chant for Elizabeth.

Sr. Joan Paule and Cara

Do you see the door?

An almost 1200-year-old book written by the Venerable Bede. This photo is dedicated to Lindsay ;-)

Me in the library, photo courtesy of Sr. Joan Paule

Part of one wall of the Melk library. AMAZING!!! Can I have one just like it?

An awesome staircase in Melk.

The Melk Abbey church... so beautiful! That is our very nice tour guide walking down the aisle.

The organ in the Melk Stiftskirche... this is for you, Elizabeth!

The ruins we climbed a small mountain for

The Danube River valley

The guys climbing the mountain to the ruined castle in Durnstein. According to Peter, a very manly activity ;-D

Wilkommen!

The Mensa from across the courtyard. This is a little glimpse of the Austrian Caf. On the menu tonight: Heart-Attack Hot Dogs (at least that's what one guy called the hot dogs wrapped in bacon!) and a lot of yummy but unidentifiable foods.

A corridor of the Kartause right across the courtyard from the beautiful church. Doesn't it look like something out of a fairytale? Or something waiting to be raced down? ;-)

This bonfire crackled merrily away in the courtyard while everyone partook of free drinks and the opportunity to chat with old friends or approach some new ones.

The view from my room... it's almost like a really well-furnished palace attic!

My bed and desk (multiply this times 3 and you'll get my room)

My Stairs

After three long flights I have made it to Austria! All my flights got in early (one even made it in 45 minutes less than the projected flight time!), which was good when I discovered that they had switched departure gates without any sort of notification. Unfortunately I was not able to take any pictures while I was on the plane, so you will have to imagine the glowing red sunset, the twinkling lights of Limerick, and the vast network of glowing orange lights in Brussels that I saw from 37000 feet. In Frankfurt I met up with three other FUS students for our flight to Osterreich. Once we got there we spent some time looking for the bags of two of my fellow students... fortunately mine made it through without a hitch. Then it was off through customs and into the waiting group of students and faculty waiting for us and the next bus. The two-hour drive to Gaming was picturesque, informational, and not very conducive to sleep. Then we drove into the stone driveway of the majestic and ancient Kartause Marienthron... a building older than our country! Little boys wearing lederhosen tore around the bus on their trikes while the older kids rushed to greet us with a friendly "Gruss Gott!" and a yellow rose. Then a mad rush of getting in lines, signing papers, getting passkeys, lugging bags up flights of steep stone steps to the very top floor ensued.

I am on the "Sixth Floor", which is really only at 3rd floor level, but it's in a different wing of the building, so they call it the 6th. Coincidentally the two other girls who were on my flight from Frankfurt to Vienna are also on the same floor as me! I am in a 3-person room, but the last person hasn't shown up yet... we think she might be an international student. My roommate is named Lara and is from Long Beach, CA... what a coincidence! The showers are really confusing, so be forewarned, Austria group of Spring 2010! Figure it out before you get in! I fell asleep while unpacking and missed a not-so-important meeting and woke up very disoriented. Tomorrow we are all off to the famous abbey of Melk, just up the road. Keep tuned, Gruss Gott, and Gute Nacht!