Tue. Sept. 25th.
Austria doesn’t like us!! We were rained on last time around when we drove through the Alps.
Do you remember the old Art Linkletter stunt that he pulled on the road into Delaware? He posted a signed that said “Delaware is closed today” and he got a bunch of shots for his Candid Camera show of confused touristas and people turning around. Well, today was like that for us in Vienna, all but one of the museums that I picked out to visit was closed. And, as it turned out later, the old adage that there’s an opera playing every day of the year at the Vienna Opera House, is mistaken. Today was one of the very few days of the year they did not have a show.
We went to St. Stephan’s Dom (Cathedral), the Dom of Vienna, only to find the place packed with a very religious event about to begin, which was being broadcast all over the world. Hard to take photos around a cathedral filled to the brim with worshippers. Although being there in the space at that time was pretty amazing in its own way. It gave a sense of scale to the huge building since it was packed with perhaps a thousand (or more) peeps. It also resembled the original modus operandi for a cathedral. It was a marketplace of sorts, with religious people showcasing their causes on poster boards and pushing into your hands the pamphlets for their missions.
Like all the rest of the old churches we visited this one was also under renovation.
There were many fine old medieval sculpture and some extra fancy Braque ones too.
We then went on to St. Peter’s Basilica.
The bells were tolling to call the people to service just as we arrived. We went in anyway and found a small viewing area in the back of the pews. The church was dated as from the 1702 and it was truly amazing on the inside. It was the quintessential Baroque style. It was really special in that it was not Baroque pasted on to an older church, which in my opinion ruins the older churches. This all fitted together perfectly. The church event was hard to decipher. It was a lot of repetitive back-and-forth between the chief mumbler (who we couldn’t see) and the church goers who responded in an equally subdued and monotone fashion.
Ok. So I finally figured out how to leave a comment. And here it is: you’re having a much-deserved great time, these updates are engaging, and these photos are amazing, though looking at today’s first one, I think that Paul looks a bit parched. Buy him a big beer! Or maybe two. Thanks for keeping us posted.