Just one day in Austria

If today was any indication of what my time here is going to be like, then I don't know if I can take it. It is way too Beautiful to live like this for a whole four months and see the kind of places I have seen today. It blows my mind. And all right here in my own little valley - we didn't have to go far.
All 157 students loaded on the buses this morning at 8 am. I was up already in the choir loft practicing. With a little twisting of my arm by sister Monica, and God practically forcing me into it, I was drafted to sing at the Mass for the Archbishop today in St. Polten at the Cathedral along with Andrea, Jackie, Liz C, Willie and Paul. Vineyards of Reisling grapes
A street.
A courtyard outside St. Polten.
Outside St. Polten. Unfortunately, I took no pictures inside St. Polten.

These nuns are so photogenic.
Gottsweig Abbey as we approached it.
We headed to Gottweig Abbey. The university "treated" us (yeah, right, we paid for it, all right...what do you think that 800 dollar activity fee is for?) to a nice lunch in a nice restaurant, and we felt all grown up sipping our wine glasses and trying to order in German. It was in a restaraunt just below the abbey, which overlooks the Danube, or Danau as it is said here, valley. Terraced vineyards and Red tile roofs as far as the eye can see, occasionaly percolated (that is the wrong word, I know but I cant think of the right one, so I am leaving it) by church spires.

Another breathtaking view
Abbey chapel
The window that isn't.

A fitting dwelling place for Him.
Elizabeth, I wondered if you played this one?
A Good cathedral raises your eyes to heaven.
After a delicious chocolate apricot cake for dessert, we went up to the Abbey chapel, where Fr. Euctace, a young enthusiastic very tall Austrian monk greeted us and took us on a tour of the monastery. He was great and before long he was joking and laughing with us college kids. He spoke the best english I have heard yet, and most people speak it, but it puzzled the poor man why everyone would chuckle whenever he pronounced a word containing a v. I guess because in German, W's are pronounced as V's, he assumed the opposite was true, so words with v's sent us giggling. You try keeping a straight face when someone jubilantly wishes you a nice wisit, and invites you to wespers, and talks about dewelopment of the monastery!
A frescoed ceiling depicts the marriage at cana. But I realized you can't do justice to frescoed ceilings in a camera lens. The monastery doubled as sort of a summer home for the Austrian Royalty during vacations, so it was full of elaborately decorated rooms. And I took a ton of pictures, as you see.

I took this picture just for you, Jake. Muskets from the Musketeer days.

Craning their necks to see the frescoes that Fr. Euctace is telling about. (that is father Eustace looking at me)
Old meets new, America meets Austria.

A view from Gottweig.
Next, we traveled down into the Danube river valley and stopped for the afternoon in Durnstein (means durn=dry stein=rock). But there was nothing dry about the place. It was very cool. A castle ruin overlooked the town. Pirates overtook the castle not long after it was built and preyed on ships making their way upriver.
Castle ruins to the left up on the top there. But no pirates live there now. Now it is a pleasant, tidy, albeit touristy town on the hillside. The region is known for its chocolate, white wine, and apricots. So guess what I did all afternoon? yep, sampled chocolate and apricot liqeurs and wines.
Oops, I guess I got in the way of Jackie trying to take a picture of that very cool door.

Yes, that fine chocolate is labeled Rabbit Shit in that nice script.

A car that prays!
Amanda and Jackie and the Danube

Cemetery. I love cemeteries here. You can see why.

This got a laugh out of me. Yeah, that is a car parked in someone's kitchen. Or perhaps the kitchen is the the garage. I am not sure. But only in Austria, where cars are like family pets.
Jackie, Amanda and Mindy on the cobbled streets of Durnstein.

Sister praying in the parish church of Durnstein

The Danube making its way past Durnstein
Taking a break on the roadside.
This was a little less beautiful part of the cemetery, however. I thought it was a chapel in the midst of the cemetery, and so I guess it was. But I was shocked to find it packed with neatly stacked human bones. Thousands of people, I am guessing. But, alas, we couldn't read the sign and I have yet to learn the fate of those people.

....Okay, so a P.S. about the bone thing. I asked Sr. Faustina, and she said that families are responsible for the upkeep of these beautiful graves. If no one takes care of yours, you are ousted out and your bones are stacked in the shed with all the other people who aren't fortunate enough to have family to care for their grave.