WakeUpInEurope: Our First Trip

Okay, so I have some serious catching up to do if I want to get all of the trips I have already taken relatively posted before I go to Vienna this weekend. Time to start.

The first trip we took upon getting here was the school sponsored trip to Maria Taferl and the Monastery in Melk. For the purpose of conserving my time tonight, I am going to stick to Maria Taferl for now. I will post about Melk later.

To start off, Maria Taferl is a town on a mountain top. It has quite the history and is predominantly, if not completely Catholic. It used to be a place where pagan sacrifices (possibly human) apparently occurred frequently. Since then a baroque style church was built, with a special dedication to a miracle that happened there at one point. Basically a logger critically wounded himself, and started praying to Mary. The wounds, which should have killed him, were healed and he survived.

While we were there we were given the privilege of exploring the town and taking a lot of pictures. We were also treated, by the university, to one of the best lunches I have ever had. Just in case anyone reading this ever travels to Maria Taferl, I highly recommend the Hotel Rose, their food is incredible.

This was the view from the town's overlook out in front of the church. We were legitimately above the clouds.

Speaking of the church, here it is.

This is some of the ceiling art in the Church.

This is the church's pipe organ. It was rather large and quite old.

This was probably the only statue in the entire building that wasn't made of solid gold. I thought it was a nice change from the rest of the building.

Here is a painting of the Crucifixion up above what I believe is a tabernacle.

Here is another picture of the church that I took on the way out.

I am pretty sure that this was the pagan sacrificial alter.

I am also pretty sure that this was the cross that the early settlers put up to counter-act whatever evil may have still been in the area from the alter.