Austrian quick takes

Here is the chapel in Gaming, Austria with its 'new' ceiling; the photo below shows the original Gothic ceiling. One just has to climb 144 stairs to see it! They are standing on the Baroque ceiling. I was based here in gaming for four years, yet I had never seen this well-known secret. Sometimes it is nice to be tourists in a familiar place.

 the beautiful Byzantine Catholic chapel under construction at the International Theological Institute

 pretty awesome pool complex for a town of under 4,000 people- don't you agree?

 at the children's museum at Schonbrunn Palace

  

sorry Mozart! I know the US dollar is weak, but we didn't change enough money into Euros! 

Party of 5 at the oldest public zoo in the world- We enjoyed sharing some schnitzel and dobos cake in this beautiful folly at the old center of the zoo.

Pretty Happy Funny Real Austria

pretty- Every time you turn your head, you will see beautiful things in Austria- Romanesque, Gothic, Baroque

 

above- St Stephen's Cathedral (1160) in Vienna below- Schonbrunn Palace

happy-The girls got to visit the campus of the International Theological Institute, where they hope to study between high school and finishing their university degrees. God's will be done!

 

funny- The funny little ones are now 7 and 5, and I was proud of them during this summer of travel. They needed to adapt to lots of change- from the food and drink being different not to mention different languages and cultures.

real- There is a lot of history in the 'old world,' and much of it is sobering. Below is a photo of a 'plague column' in Vienna. This statue praises God that the black death is over; the plague occurred from 1346 to 53 and took around 100 million people, at least one third of Europe's population.

above-The Ringstrasse houses the government offices in Vienna and also was the site of Hitler's  triumphant display of power after he invaded the country and entered the city in March 1938. below-  at St Stephen's in Vienna- The original icon of Our Lady of Mariapoch (1696), taken from its original place- the Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic icon screen in Mariapoch, Hungary.

more at Like Mother Like Daughter