Quick Salzburg/Munich update

I did make it back from Salzburg and Munich and they were wonderful!! I'm sorry I don't have a real post yet. I have them written up in my travel journal, but it takes a bit of time to type it all out-- especially with 3 days worth of travel adventures, including losing my roommates, seeing the Sound of Music church, Claire hurting her ankle and limping around Salzburg and Munich, the golden chicken that changes your life forever (according to Fr. Brad), almost running into what I thought was a bronze statue but was really a street performer, and eating in the oldest restaurant. This week is really busy with school work and preparing for our trip to London on our own-- our first big trip!! So hopefully, I'll get the actual posts typed up soon and posted as well as pictures from this trip, and more from Vienna. Thanks for your patience!

The Hills are alive with the Sound of Music

We're leaving in about a 1/2 hour for Salzburg!! We will spend the night, and on Saturday spend the day in Munich, Germany-- our second European country! Then we will again spend the night in Salzburg, and drive back on Sunday.

Thanks for your prayers!

Oh, and no, I'm not done posting pictures of Vienna. Sometime I'll finish that... soon...

Pictures Jan. 22

I finally have a spare moment to upload pictures from Vienna! I absolutely loved this city and it would be really neat if I could go back again (especially to St. Stephens!).

Kapuzinerkirche, where we had Mass in Vienna.

The outside of Kapuzinerkirche.

Roaming the Streets of Vienna

Julie by the Pinocchio store!

The Vienna National Library where some of the original
documents from the Kartause are housed.

The Hapsburg royal family's place of worship.

A trip to Wien (aka Vienna)

Today we went to downtown Vienna, which is a wonderful, old city filled with history and beauty. We left the Kartause at 7:30 am after the usual breakfast of granola/cereal in yogurt and a buttered zimmel with water. Then after stopping at a rest stop we went to the Kapuzinerkirche for Mass (we celebrated the Mass for Peace and Justice as the March for Life in the US is on Monday.) It was beautiful Franciscan church where the hearts of the Hapsburg family are contained in urns in the crypt.

We then continued to go on a walking tour of Vienna. Our first stop was the Hapsburg Winter Palace grounds where we saw the balcony where Hitler made his speech announcing the unification of Austria and Germany, Pope John Paul II read the Gospel during his visit, and FUS students led praise and worship during a World Youth Day. We also saw the church of the royal family and the church of the royal servants, who had to worship in another place. From there we walked to St. Peter’s Church—another gorgeous church in the baroque style. Julie and I got a picture by the image of the Immaculate Heart. We continued on to what is my favorite church right now: St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Built in the gothic style (which is meant to lead you up to Heaven, as opposed to the baroque which brings the heavenly to you), we just walked in and out, but some of us came back later.

Then we went to eat lunch which was a deliciously filling meal of soup, chicken, potatoes, and a strudel for dessert.

Afterwards, we had free time, so Julie, Claire, Markita, Tim and I adventured out to the city of Wien.

Our first stop: The Imperial Treasury, which could deserve a blog post of its own, but I’ll just include it in this one anyway. If you ever go there, (which I highly recommend) get the Audio Book!! It’s only 4€ and you can share it! There we saw Napoleon’s son’s crib throne (not actually used—it was just a piece of furniture) and many royal robes, crowns, and swords. They also had a unicorn’s horn on display (which was very large). Finally they had a display of religious items (side note: Austria is a CATHOLIC country which is very prevalent in their history, so it is not unusual for them to have a large collection of religious items), which included a relic of the true cross, Veronica’s veil which had the image of Christ’s face, the nail from Jesus’ right hand, two thorns from His Crown of Thorns, and relics from the 12 Apostles, other early saints, St. Francis, and St. Teresa of Avila. This was my favorite part of the excursion. It was worth paying the 3€ more than I would have if I had brought my student ID. (Contrary to what they tell you, you do need your student ID—not for school functions, but to get a student discount.)

Afterwards, we went back to St. Stephen’s Cathedral to spend some quiet time in prayer. Plus, we found the side adoration chapel, which was beautiful (but, no pictures were allowed to be taken). Another side note: They had an image of St. Thérèse of Lisieux in all of the churches we went to today.

Then we had to find a café since I guess Vienna is known for its coffee. But first, Claire decided to go up to a mime-statue person street performer and say hi to him, so he reached out to shake her hand, and she took it. And he pulled her into his act! It was harmless and she just stood there for a minute and we were on our way down a side street to a café. On our way, we saw a sad sight of a crowd of people purposely blocking the road so that the police (who were on their way to stop them I think) couldn’t get through, and they were speaking German, so I wasn’t positive, but it seemed like they were mocking the police—something we don’t have in the States. Well, we finally found a café to go into and shared a coffee and a hot chocolate. And it’s nothing like fast-food at all. Europeans like to take their time—especially for food. But we finally finished, paid and walked back to the bus area to find food, but didn’t find too much (as far as something quick), so I got some potato wedges at a “walk-through” (and the tax is already included in the price!). Then we got on the bus and headed back!

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to go in the opera house, but the treasury definitely made up for it, and if I get back to Vienna, I will definitely want to go to St. Stephen’s again.

And rumor has it that brunch includes juice, eggs, and ham!! Yay! Warm breakfast!

Pictures to follow soon!

Jan. 19 Pictures

Here are some pictures of the town of Gaming:

Some of the houses

The Spar (Shpar) is the local grocery store, where we
were fortunate enough to find laundry detergent!

The stream, which I've heard, is very cold!

Julie by the electronics store that doesn't have batteries.

The other bank.

The flower store

Book Mountain: If you reach the top, there is
a book you can sign the book. There is a lookout
halfway up.

A mountain and the neighborhood.
The tallest building is the parish Church.

The inside of the parish church.

The choir loft of the Church.

Let the academics begin!

Classes start today! It's so nice to actually have something academic to do after more than a month off! My classes for the semester:

Metaphysics with Visiting Lecturer of Philosophy from Columbia Dr. Javier Carreño

Philosophy of the Human Person with Professor Maria Wolter

Christian Marriage with Dr. Donald Asci

Sacraments with Dr. William Newton from England (He's actually teaching a class on C.S. Lewis and G.K.    Chesterton at the International Theological Institute in Vienna--I wish he taught it for Franciscan!!)

Theology of the Church with Professor Robert Cassidy from Scotland

It is so neat having professors from other countries! Plus, their accents are really neat…

It’s going to be a challenging semester academic-wise!

Our Lady of Good studies, pray for us!

St. Thomas Aquinas, pray for us!

Pictures Jan. 18

Around the Kartause-- and on top of it!

Walking across the top of the visible ceiling.
The original ceiling is, well, above us!

Katie, Regina, and me on top the ceiling!

The body of the church as seen from in the dome.

Katie carefully walking around the dome.

In the rafters above both roofs!

Prof. Wolter in the Byzantine Chapel.