Mozart Dinner, Melk, and Arrival in Vienna

Last night the group from Mississippi (minus smart Wendy) went to a Mozart dinner. We had high hopes but alas it did not live up to expectations. We should have known it would be bad when Randy, Jamie, the tour director and I got into a fender bender in our taxi. We were all fine but Carla got so flustered she started speaking to Jamie and I in German. We just smiled and looked at each other.  The food at the dinner was fantastic but the music was quite sub par and it was a FOUR HOUR event.

Today we traveled to Vienna via Melk. There is a monastery there but to be honest we are all just a wee bit tired of castle/church/monastery/fortress tours. It happens on every Europe trip...maybe it is time to visit places that don't have those :-)

A few bullet points from Carla as I tried really hard to stay awake on the bus (I have a sinus event going on):

• Check out the movie "The Name of the Rose" starring Sean Connery
• The Melk Abbey was founded in 1189
• It is a Benedictine order
• She gave a bit of history about monasteries as she is Italian. Basically they all became corrupt until reformation was obtained with those such as St. Francis.
• A school was added to the abbey and still exists today with around 900 students.
• During the reign of Napoleon many monasteries were shut down but they were never able to shut down Melk. 
• In 1815 the Congress of Vienna occurred to determine how states would be run. Apparently it was a one month congress and an 11 month party.
• 15 monks live at Melk and 15 others live in parishes 
• The most troubling fact of them all -- the monastery caught on fire a long time ago in the winter. The water well was frozen so they used barrels of wine to extinguish it. Our group agreed we would have drank the wine and toasted marshmallows. This may be why we aren't in charge or really large, important pieces of property.

I'm going to take a personal note now -- crazy things have happened both home and abroad while we have traveled. Young teens were hurt/killed in an accident in our home county. The next day another fatal wreck occurred. There were bombings in Istanbul, Baghdad, and Bangladesh. Today there was a terrible attack in Dallas. It is clear our world needs healing. However I am encouraged by what I see with the vast majority of people in our world both on this trip and every other one I have been on. Bad things happen. People get cancer, accidents happen, and other such tragedies. It does not mean God is not there. It is simply life happening. If you truly study history this has been going on since the beginning of mankind. I think the 24/7 news cycle makes it seem like a crazier world than it was in the past. Watching CNN in Austria makes it seem like Dallas and the US are the most dangerous places to visit ever now. We know that isn't true just as those on this trip have learned the places we have visited are full of kind and wonderful people. PLEASE...I beg of all of you...spread love and not hate. Choose to be kind whenever and wherever you can. Rhetoric and hate (even in the name of Christianity) does nothing to solve the problem. 

God took the job of judgement upon himself. He called us to LOVE each other as He has LOVED us.