Gottweig Abbey: More of the Ceiling

What was interesting to me was trying to guess the height of the dome.  It clearly was a dome.  But, with the perspective of the paintings, it was difficult to judge the actual height.

 

If you are curious, it is 18"  I was stunned.  

Gottweig Abbey: The Ceiling

Gottweig Abbey: Ancient Texts

One of the things I like most is to discover and view ancient texts. It is amazing to see the hand-written texts of Bibles.  They had to take years to write.  And they can be so incredibly ornate.

This last one was fascinating.  It was incredibly small writing.

The Gottweig Abbey in Krems

The Gottweig Abbey was founded in the 11th century.  It burned to the ground in 1580 and in 1718, the monastery burned.  

It sits on the top of Gottweig Mountain, on the eastern edge of the Wachau Valley and overlooks thousands of acres of farmland.  The view from the winery and monastery was amazing.  I was able to look down over a centuries old church and cemetery. 

Currently, about 40 monks live in the Abbey.  And, they help produce wine from the 26 hectares of vineyards.  Wine has been produced here since 1083.  

And the building were beautiful.  These weren't Gothic in design.  At least they weren't as ornate as many.  The grounds host over 30,000 engravings. 

The round building is from the original monastery in the 11th century.

But it was possible to see statues and painting everywhere.

The Rainbow Walkway in Passau

It was fun to wander about Passau.  It was a beautiful city on the banks of three rivers coming together.  It was a bit difficult to get lost if you just followed the Rainbow Walkway.

It wandered through the city although I am not certain how far it went.  It was certainly around the artists corner.  There were also a number of pieces of art hanging above the walkway.

I rather liked this.

St. Stephen's Cathedral in Passau: That's One Heck of a Pipe Organ

I was able to sit and hear about a 30 minute concert.

It is amazing to hear such sounds resonating through the cathedral.   There were over 17,700 pipes and more than 220 different registers.  It was...stunning.

In a less....artistic and still beautiful area of the Cathedral was the smaller alcove below.

St. Stephen's Cathedral in Passau

I thought this cathedral was amazing.  The ornate sculpture and round, domed paintings were stunningly beautiful.

Passau Germany

Welcome to Passau!

I loved the exterior paintings on the buildings.

 
And, this was a door carving just on the street.

A Fellow Tourist

Meet Bob!

I was able to travel with Bob and his wife for a large part of my trip.   Bob was hilarious.  And, that made the journey quite delightful.

It was fantastic meeting you Bob.  I hope we can cross paths again someday, eh?

Oskar Schindler's Home

Oscar Schindler lived here for about a year in 1945-1946.

He is estimated to have saved the lives of over 1200 Jewish people from Nazi extermination camps.

Regensburg: Walking Tour Continued

It was a little surprising to see David and Goliath painted on the side of a building.   This is pretty rare in my climate where temperature extremes would fade the paint and likely cause it to flack and chip off.

Regensburg: Walking Tour

I found the street scenes lovely with the flowers decorating homes.

Regensburg: Stolperstein

After visiting Nuremburg, we stopped at Regensburg.  Nuremburg was fascinating from the Nazi history.  But, Regensburg was less obvious.   There were subtle reminders of the anti-Semitic history in the area.  What was fascinating to me was that this history pre-dated the Nazi's by centuries.

Centuries ago, Jewish cemeteries had been looted and headstones were taken and used as building materials.  Note the headstone in the wall.

Remembrances of the Jewish residents from the 30's and 40's were much less prevalent.  But, occasionally I noticed a small plate in the walkway in front of a house or apartment. The Germans called these Stolperstein.....Stumbling Stones.  The Stolperstein project, initiated by the German artist Gunter Demnig in 1992, seeks to commemorate individuals at exactly the last place of residency or work by the person before he or she fell victim to Nazi terror, euthanasia, eugenics, or deportation to a camp.

As of 29 March 2018, over 67,000 Stolpersteine have been laid in 22 countries,^[1] making the Stolpersteine project the world's largest decentralized memorialThese are being placed by a charitable organization as funds come in.  They are markers to show who lived here and when they were killed.

The Weltenburg Abbey

The Weltenberg Abbey was reachable by small boat after an hour cruise up the Danube.  The church was beautiful.

It was first established about 620 AD.   It took the rules of the Benedictine Order in the first half of the 8th century.  The brewery is estimated to be the oldest monastic brewery in the world.  It started about 1080.  

The abbey church was first consecrated in 1191 with a single nave building with a crypt.  In the early 1700's it was renovated into the more Baroque building style that is so prevalent across Europe.

Services were going on when I stopped.  But, after the services, we were permitted to walk in and take photographs. 

That's quite an altar.

Heading down the Danube

I was able to see a bit of the Danube that cruise boats can't navigate.  The river narrows and there are some sharp bends that would limit boat traffic.

Meet Jerry from a small town in Louisiana.  He had the southern "good ol-boy"
personality and humor.  It was a delight having him with.  But, I think he was a bit tired at this point!

The Congress Hall in Nuremberg

This building was never completed.  The outside is a rather austere concrete façade.   Inside, this had the potential to be beautiful.  But Hitler had commanded that the entire thing be covered with a glass roof.  With no supporting beams or structure.  Unheard of and impossible even today.

Someone should have shot him then for being completely insane.

Courtroom #6: Nuremberg

Courtroom #6 was a rather non-descript courtroom.  But, it was the place of the worlds first war crimes trial.  It has been slightly remodeled from the later 40's.  The Nazi symbols are gone and it looks like it did before the Nazi's took over.

But the placards show where people sat during the trial. Here (upper image) is where the defendants sat.  In the back corner were the translators.  There were 21 defendants over a series of trials lasting 2-3 yrs.   Judges were from the Allied forces.

The judges sat in the front.

The defendants testified to the right in the corner.

The attorney's sat on the right side.

For more on the major defendants, click here.  I was surprised there were a few acquitals and a few people served prison terms and were released.

I'll not post the post mortem images of those who were hanged.   I felt no grief or sorrow for their murderous souls.

Concentration Camps

There was a sobering museum in Nuremberg on the site of the old Kongresshalle (Congress Hall).

There were hundreds of small concentration camps around Germany and Czechoslovakia, Poland, Lithuania, Austria and many others.  This was a small section of the map showing about 30 of the larger camps.

There were dozens of photographs of the camps and of Nazi party leaders.  But, this simple exhibit caused me to pause.

It consisted of two neon light tubes lying across black boxes.  They are designed to look like railroad tracks.

Between the ties are cards with names on them.  Names of those who traveled by rail to a camp...and ultimately, to their deaths.

I sat longer here than at any of the other exhibits.

Nuremberg: Zeppelin Field

Zeppelin Field became known as the Nazi Party rally grounds.  It was here that thousands of Nazi's would gather for marches and speeches.

This is what you may remember as Allied forces blew up the giant Swastika at the top of the main building.

I hardly recognized this area.  It has largely been abandoned.  As you can see, the weeds have grown up.

Almost no one on the tour walked up the steps.  I was told it wasn't exactly secure.  But, lets be serious, it's a concrete building and steps.  I didn't think it would fall down.

The center railing, near the right side of the image, is where Hitler, and other party officials, would stand for their speeches.

I had to go there.

It felt strange that over 80 years ago, this was crowded with Nazi's.  Oblivious to the horror they would unleash on the world.  While no one knows how many people died during WWII, most believe 50-70 million people died.  That was roughly 3% of the worlds population in 1940.  Military deaths were in the 21-25 million range.  The rest of those who died were civilians.  Many of those died by famine and starvation.

I stood on this platform.  I held the railing.  And I grieved for the innocent who suffered horribly for this madness.