Something interesting about blogging is that the Blogger site changes languages wherever we go, so I’m never entirely sure what words I need to click to sign in.
Anyway…
It’s been a whole city since I last wrote!
Vienna. Vienna was good: it specializes in CAKE, COFFEE, and BAROQUE ARCHETECTURE, what’s not to like?
Highlights:
The Kunsthistoriches Museum (kunst=art, historiches=history…that took me forever to figure out) but it was INCREDIBLE. You walk inside and you are overwhelmed with marble and frescos and gold and ornate decorations and huge columns and smooth white statues. We spent an entire day inside the museum looking at four different pieces and discussing them in groups and all together. We also had cake. My highlight from the museum was seeing Rembrandt’s painting of the Prophetess Anna praying. Rembrandt specialized in making the subject not only look realistic but come alive, he could show their inner thoughts, character, and emotion. The way the light falls, it highlights her faraway, anxious face and her loosely clasped hands. You can almost hear her prayers to the Father she knows so well, praying that she might see the Messiah before she dies. I stared at this painting for almost ten minutes. I loved it.
I also went to eat at a place called Café Central (“centrahl”), twice. It’s high ceiling supported by columns has sheltered writers, politicians, philosophers, and artists since the 1800’s! They had incredible desserts, incredible soup, and a very fun atmosphere. Three of us shared a “pancake”, but really was a pile of dough baked for 20 minutes with plum preserves poured over the top.
The third highlight was going to see the Crown Jewels of the Habsburgs, perhaps them most powerful royal family in all of European history, the last one dying this last year in June. We saw intricate, priceless crowns, a wide bowl of stone that may be the holy grail (in certain light you can see “Christ” in the veins of color in the smoothed stone, almost a thousand years old. We also saw a unicorn’s horn (or a narwal tusk?) that was taller than me!
Ah but now we’re in Mittersill, Austria! In a castle. I know. Don’t get too excited—I mean it’s awesome but don’t picture Beauty-and-the-Beast-enchanted-castle, picture castle-turned-alpine-cabin. It’s the coziest thing in the world! There’s little rooms off the sides of little hallways off of little winding staircases with views of the little town of Mittersill nestled at the foot of HUGE, craggy mountains dusted with snow! All the California kids who have been bemoaning the lack of Mexican food in Europe are now completely enchanted watching the snow fall, and to be honest, I’m giddy right along with them! This morning I got ready and read my Bible and journaled while looking out the window at the mountain sleeping right outside. It feels so good to be in the mountains again, to know that if I stepped outside I could run an touch grass, flowers, trees, and dirt instead of a spreading mass of concrete. I’m glad we’re all trapped in here together, a 20 minute’s walk from town, to do work and get well (I got a bad cold and, surprise? Pink eye. Thankfully Ricola is all over the place and Laura had pink eye medicine!)
I’m wearing my new scarf, my new legwarmers, and I’m happy J
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