Melk Abbey

The Danube Cruise and the Melk Abbey library (Name of the Rose?) are highpoints. We cruised past where the willendorf venus was found.

The Melk abbey and library are too much baroque, but it is a working abbey and as such was special.

The Danube was fast, greenish and cold. I was beginning to talk myself into the importance of the counter-reformation, the Magisterium, the spectacle of Baroque/State/Church power. People love spectacle. we worship it, we consume it, we cannot imagine a life without it. It is the Cornerstone of the American Religion. If we tear down the old churches, build newer/better bigger/brighter, add ornament and elaboration do we really show power? Yes. Mutation, mutex, mixtape, mishmash architecture.

The highlight of Vienna was

Gerhard Strassgschwandtner He is a rocket man, and a delightful wit. His best quote, was when we past the observatory and he said that nobody wants to go to an observatory....

I want to reread everything Graham Greene wrote.

Watch his youtube movie  here  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcDoCnOtonM

. The Third Man Museum.

The movie, The Third Man