In May, my daughter and I visited a few places in Austria and Italy, and while I wasn’t much of a shutterbug (I’m trying these days to leave my camera mostly unused), I’ll admit that I pulled it out whenever I saw something that I thought NLM readers might enjoy seeing. As usual, click on the images to enlarge.
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| The ceiling of the sacristy at Heiligenkreuz Abbey. Note how the tormentors of the three children in the fiery furnace are sporting turbans, a reminder that the Turks once ransacked this abbey. |
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| For a place that’s supposed to help priests become recollected for Mass, the interplay between this priest and his server is rather funny! |
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| The Pummerin of Stephansdom in Vienna, the third largest bell in Europe at 44,380 lbs or the weight of 15-20 cars; its metal is from 208 Turkish cannons melted down after the Siege of Vienna. |
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| Our guide took us up to the perimeter of the Stephansdom roof to give us a close look at the tiles. |
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| Here’s the huge room under the Stephansdom roof, above the vaulted nave of the church - it's almost the size of a church in itself. |
