Kloster Weltenburg

Kloster Weltenburg: The Weltenburg Abbey Cathedral
You cannot tell from the outside, but this is the most interesting Baroque Church I have ever seen, and not in a good way. It's very eclectic. It has a "folksy" style/version of Baroque art inside. It's wonderfully terrible!

I hope you all are waiting with bated breath.

Another St. Stephen's Cathedral

St. Stephen's Cathedral, Passau, Germany.

This is another Baroque church in Germany, which was built after the Gothic cathedral on this spot burned down. This one is well known for its organ. My whole tour group got to see an organ concert here, which was fun. At all the other cathedrals they talked about the organ, but we did not get to hear any of the other ones. It is a tourist attraction though, because it is the largest organ in Europe, and I think they said it is the third biggest organ in the world. (The two biggest are in the U.S., which is a fact I did not know.)

More Baroque Lions

This lion is so cute with his human ears and teeth, and cartoon-shaped mouth and nose. I love that these sculptors had never seen a lion in person. The lack of naturalism makes them more interesting to me.



This is on the way up the steps to the museum half of the Melk Abby.

The Melk Abby Cathedral

Baroque architecture is not my favorite, but the grandiose nature of it does say something about the values of the time period. There will be many more Baroque details to come...

This first picture is one of my favorite pictures in terms of design composition! It would make an interesting abstract painting. I may have to work on that.

The Melk Abby Library

Haven't y'all always wanted a library like this? It would be lovely to be so surrounded by books.




It would be fun to have an illuminated manuscript too! I guess I will have to make my own, but it won't be as beautiful.

The Interior of Melk Abby

The first three are pictures of ceilings in the museum area of the abby.







There are three sections in the Melk Abby. The side that is a museum, which is shown by the photos here; the place of worship and the library, which I will include tomorrow and the next day; and the other side, which is still used as an abby, but not open to visitors.

T & A in Architecture

I hope the title is not too gratuitous for my readers/viewers.




These pictures were both taken the same day at the Belvedere Palace. When I took the picture of the Lion's butt, I just thought it was funny looking lion's butt. Now when I look at it it looks like the sculptor was looking at a human behind, which makes it funny in a different way.

Belvedere Palace

These are elements from the outside of Belevedere Palace in Vienna. This is just one of the bazillion palaces that are in Vienna. It also serves as an art museum, which is fun. Our tour guide gave me a new appreciation for Gustav Klimt in the gallery space.


The French-style gardens above.



OUCH! Look at that sharp spear on the roof.