Michael, Chris, Marshall, and I embarked on a bicycle journey up the Danube as per the recommendations of professor Stuart starting today. The first leg of the trip was to take the train to Krems an der Donau. From then, there were 33 km to Melk, upon my trusty new stead named Balu (written between the handlebars).
Immediately upon arrival I was struck by the beauty of the town, with its several churches and tight, irregularly constructed alleyways likely made in the middle ages. Vienna is wonderful but it certainly felt good to get out of the city for a moment.
Here's me being a goofball in said medieval alleyways
We checked out both churches, starting with the one that had a simpler plaster façade (Pfarrkirche St. Veit).
Inside was a rich display of baroque catholic iconography and architecture. What first struck me was the piece above the altar depicting a Christian concept of the trinity that I learned to recognize thanks to Stuart. I took a couple of minutes to stare up in wonder at this artwork and my mind came up with several things while doing so. Firstly, the golden rays of light emanating from the holy spirit reminded me of the Karlzkirche where we enjoyed the Vivaldi concert. It too had a great emphasis on these rays of light, but instead coming out of a triangle with the Hebrew word for God written on it (translated thanks to Maxim).
Secondly, the Pfarrkirche light rays made me think of video games, oddly enough. Because with video games the phrase “God rays” is thrown around a lot to refer to the ability to render rays of light that dance through trees and around corners in early morning light. It’s a measure of the games ability to portray reality as well as its beautiful imagery. I feel like the parallel
between the church goers of Krems through the centuries and people who play video games is an interesting one. Each having a sense of reverence upon seeing God rays.
What I didn’t know about the trinity as it is depicted in art yet was how the holy spirit was represented with a bird. I found it surprising initially when I started to realize how present this symbolism really is because I thought it was too complex of a theological idea for the everyday Austrian churchgoer.
But moving on, here you can see to the left of the alter that the Habsburgs really did have to put themselves everywhere. Finding Habsburg double headed eagles in Austria is like finding stray cats in Greece; you don't have to look very far.
When we moved on to the next church farther up the hill I got a bit excited. It looked to me from the outside to be a gothic church, which I’m beginning to realize is my favorite architectural style of church. The ceiling and columns did not disappoint but the altar was covered in gold and dramatic statues. All in all, another fascinating monument to people’s devotion of the supernatural in an idyllic river town
Enjoy this little video of the three boys Michael, Chris, and Marshall walking through Krems
And what do you know! Habsburg eagles on the manholes!
The rest of the day, us boys were on a mission to get to Melk. Now of course there were some significant sights along the way like, oh ya know, the castle where the Austrians kept Richard the Lionheart captive for several years when he was returning home from the Crusades.
This is Dürnstein castle by the way. Really just tickled all the right places when it comes to knights, kings, and all things middle ages.
And here is the stunning view once you climb all the way to the top
And so as per the nature of this bike trip and the Wachau valley we were traversing, it was time to ramble on to the next castle. Of course, through gorgeous wine country that is
Here is the view from our next castle, which is the the castle that is pictured in the beginning of this blog.
Now, what does any sensible person do after biking for miles in near 100 degree heat along a river?
From then on, it was smooth sailing to Melk.
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