Spring Break in Austria and Italy

Katrina, Amanda and I fled the ICE conference and went to WorldVenture’s retreat at the Grundlsee in Austria.

Grundlsee in the Salzkammergut lake district of Austria

We had prayer times, sharing about our various ministries, messages from John 17 (Jim Allen spoke), and free time for games and hiking.

On the left is Jim Allen, the speaker.

After the retreat, Amanda, Katrina and I hiked over to Toplitzsee (about a half hour hike from our retreat location). The Nazis dumped a bunch of fake money into the lake, along with things like this mine.

Katrina and Amanda hesitantly touch the Nazi mine

Then we traveled to a place near Katrina’s home town, Spittal (pronounced Shpi-tall). We stayed Good Friday through Easter with her friends, the Borcherts.

The Borcherts' home

That Saturday, Amanda and I made a quick day trip into Salzburg. We saw sights from the Sound of Music, Mozart’s birth house and residence, and the Hohensalzburg fortress.

Sound of Music fountain with fortress in the distance on a hill

For Easter, we celebrated at Katrina’s home church in Spittal. She had been with that church ever since it was started, so it was fun to see all her friends coming up to her and catching up on her life!

Then we started our homeward journey, although in a very roundabout direction. We went through Italy – my first time! Italian culture is really different than German & Austrian cultures. Whereas Germans do not allow noise after 10, Italians are much more social and enjoy making lots of noise at any time of the day. Besides, 10 at night is not late at all for Italy! Most Italians do not even eat dinner till 8 or 9pm. There was a much more relaxed, laid-back feel to everything.

Our first stop in Italy was Venice, only a couple hours away by car.

Gondolas and canals - typical Venice!

Then we went to Verona. We saw some Roman ruins, a Roman garden with statues, and Romeo and Juliet’s balcony.

Juliet's home, including the balcony that was actually added later

Next, we went to Lake Garda. We arrived at sunset. Beautiful!

Olive trees by Lake Garda at sunset

We spent the next day soaking up the Italian sun, playing with sticks, and throwing rocks into the incredibly clear water. I got my first sunburn of the year, but it wasn’t too bad. It actually felt nice to have sunshine in my skin after the months of gray skies in Kandern.

That day, we drove to Milan but had a quick detour to Cremona. I was pretty excited – this was the city of Stradivarius, the most famous violin maker, and Andrea Amati, Guarneri del Gesu, and lots of other guys.

Though Stradivari's actual grave was destroyed when the cathedral was demolished, he has a memorial gravestone in a park.

As I walked down the streets of Cremona, I realized Stradivarius had probably walked down the streets on a similar day 300 years ago looking for wood to make his amazing violins, or walking to mass, or eating in a restaurant. The mark of the master violin makers is still on this city; on every corner I saw signs pointing to violin makers’ shops!

After the brief visit to Cremona, we went on to Milan. It had a more crowded, cosmopolitan city feel to it than the previous Italian cities. Everything was big and rich, including its cathedral. We went down a particularly expensive street and saw some pieces of jewelery for sale for 7000 Euros. That’s way out of my price range! I don’t even wear most jewelery. It was fun to window shop for half an hour, though I’m much more at home in Kandern or at a lake or on a mountain.

Milan Duomo (Cathedral)

We saw lots of cathedrals in our travels. It’s fascinating to see all the Bible stories in the sculptures, paintings, frescoes, and stained glass windows. I wish I had an expert there who could explain even half the symbolism. The Milan cathedral was quite different than many of the others we saw; it was built during the Catholic counter-reformation after the Council of Trent. The goal of the designer was to keep the focus on the Eucharist. There was a little informational poster that declared that the Eucharist is far more than “just a symbol” as protestants say. They advocated transubstantiation very strongly! It was fascinating to see things from the Catholic perspective in this cathedral. Most of the cathedrals in Germany are older – built before the Reformation. Quite a difference in focus! In every cathedral, though, I just stood in wonder at the amount of time, effort, and money it must have taken to build the thing. Was its construction glorifying to God? Or was it glorifying to man? Were the resources used wisely? Couldn’t that money have been used better elsewhere? Mary (Martha’s sister) poured out expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet. It seemed like a waste, but it was actually a beautiful preparation for Jesus’ burial. I don’t know; maybe the cathedrals are a beautiful outpouring to Jesus. Or maybe they are more like the tax collectors who steal money from the poor and use it to make themselves rich. Either way, I pray that God would bring glory to His name through those buildings (even though lots of them seem to be crowning Mary with more honor than Jesus…).

Now I’m back in Kandern preparing for the home stretch of the school year, my first year of teaching, my first year of living in Germany. Pray for sanity as things move into high gear, tumbling toward the end of the year with student attention spans out the window (literally)!