history

Vienna was an Amazing Time

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Vienna waits for you – by Billy Joel – oh so true!!!

It is a whirlwind now to be back – but so glad I have my photo collections – and I only wish you could feel the air and smell the smells and see the sights first hand – a travelogue just for Vienna

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SO, Here are my many Vienna posts (with rhyme)

about Vienna – oh so fine – it was a GREAT time.

Mozart sold chocolate on every corner,

And a great hotel, even if my room could have been a little warmer,

I appreciated the convenience next to St Stephen’s Cathedral,

And the lights were still shining from Christmas decor as well.

My friend, fellow school alum, also stayed at the same hotel,

We have known each other for 35 years, hearing us joyfully banter you can tell!

And so before and after the excursion to middle Austria, and train riding,

We did just a small amount of Vienna sightseeing and dining.

Just enough for me to want to come back, (but maybe in spring),

Someday – someway – I will plan a new trip in fact,”Vienna waits for you” is a familiar ring…

And the train rides? through the forests and cities? DIVINE!

And I didn’t care that the train in snow was delaying me, up to an hour slowed time.

Yes, with life, I agreed that God blessedly slowed me down, 

Resting in counting blesses, I had no frown!

And the snow and castles and churches and life view was enjoyed, 

European trains a great method of travel employed.

I saw the beautiful fairy tale life as well as tough imagined sights,

and shared in envisioning old people’s probaby often painful plights.

So I knew I was BLESSED in the view. (splurged first class $75 too)

And mentally how thankful to God, yes my thankfulness grew…

Vienna – and travel and as Billy Joel sings – Vienna and yes LIFE waits for you…

I hope you enjoy appreciating travel life like I do…

Amen

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Daily posts to go with the photos:

Jan 07 morning

Quite the most BEAUTIFUL way to start the day, 8am arrival (2amEST) to Vienna Austria. YEAH, took the plane to the citytrain ($14euro) and walked right into St Stephen’s Cathedral… GORGEOUS… and the Wiseman are still at the creche, in awe like me… I also lit a candle for my friend , watching over us while holding Jesus’s Hand… AMEN…

Wed Jan 07 afternoon

Power nap, Patisserie places, Pal, Paintings Art Museum and Roman Ruins, Ponies Playing Polka, Plazas all lit up, Puffy mylar balloon sculptures, privies, and PALACES! Day 1 in Vienna was PRICELESS.

Thurs Jan 08 morning

A great day the traveling way! Went up to the top of St Stephen’s Cathedral tower, then connecting train rides (about 2 hours) to middle Austria which has the sweetest touch of snow decorations… so blessed… lots of great food lots of chocolate lots of Austrian desserts and lots of friends old and new!

— then back after the Friday excursion (oh so fabulous and I will write another time about that) with a train back to Vienna on Saturday lunchtime —–

Sat, Jan 10 evening

Treasures Treasures Treasures of the Imperial Jewels museum in Vienna, CROWNS and CROSSES. Biggest gems so unbelievably beautiful… and an amber altar, and Charlemagne’s Gospels copy guided GOLD from 800s… wow!!! And much from the Holy Roman Empire into the Hungarian Austrian Empire… WOW!!!

Saturday night – dinner back in Vienna at an authentic restaurant:

Well, still catching up on photos and this is amazing dinner in Vienna with authentic Austrian culinary traditional veal schnitzel and sweet music at our table… it is the Cellar of the 12 Apostles Restaurant, with actual ROMAN RUINS in the basement, location of a well, and a wine cellar, where they used to take shelter when the ottoman invasion occurred, as well as air raids… well, the amazing food that we have opportunities to enjoy when traveling, crazy, it’s so good to be reminded of our blessings, that we don’t live in an era of starvation or wars overhead… there’s so much to learn in Vienna and Europe…

Sunday morning Jan 11th on my way north on the best train ride – 5 hours….

Come take a train ride with me.

From Vienna to Prague, it’s so much to see.

The ride first class, well more like regular to amtrak, but a bottle of water was free.

Breakfast portable, I brought from my hotel, gifted by the hostess, a sweet lady.

5 hours riding much better than driving or flying, cheap too, $75, whee!

And the snow? Oh looked so heavenly. 

There were pond skaters, freestyle and hockey. 

Skiers, downhill and cross-country. 

In villages, castles and churches, yet cities and countryside often looked lonely. 

But the forests? Ancient and snowy. PICTURESQUE so excitedly.

Movies and photos don’t give it justice, next time just COME WITH ME…

I’ll ride another train like this SO HAPPILY.

BLESSED

In Plains Sight, JC Bless JC, Remembering Jimmy Carter

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I’ve been to Plains Georgia, home of Jimmy Carter, to the peanut farms, in the mid or late 1970s early 1980s, yes, amid the many years that my family embraced quite the traveling bug. Oh that was such a blessing. We went everywhere up and down the east coast twice a year. And once in Plains Georgia, I remember just a little being so young, my dad driving through and I remember the amazement that someone could rise to greatness as a president out of a tiny town. We got something from a gift shop somewhere, raw peanuts, a strange experience as I never had them, they grow from underground, marvelous wow… And I remember that trip my Georgia-residing uncle was thrilled to show us all the sights including that experience, in Plains sight. 

I never met Jimmy Carter, but my uncle did! My uncle was in the administration of the state of Georgia’s prison system and he once sat at a private dinner with the then Governor and Mrs Carter, I can see professional black and white 1960s photo, 8 x 10, crisp in my mind. My uncle so proud. Peanuts to some, but not to us, it was AWESOME to understand this connection of the little guy to the big, to feel the down to earthness too, right there in Plains sight.

I appreciated the funeral services for President Carter both DC and in Plains, I watched the video replay in binge speed, tearing up many times during the speeches listening on my commute home. Oh the beautiful sharing of Jesus’s name and mission, and the goodness of the faith Jimmy Carter had, JC in JC. The smaller funeral in Plains was touching like it was for Rosslyn. This time the cameras showed the graveside too, from a distance. Loved the preacher was very personal, the message about the fruits of the Spirit was so perfect, and the family being so held together with the community. It was love in Plains sight…

I pray them peace. Amy Carter was young entering the White House, when I was young too. Her brothers older are now older too, like all of us. And 100 years for JC – wow – JC trusting in JC.

I pray we too will have full lives lived, and like JC and JC, rise from a small town into a big scene. Not to be president but to humbly cast our crowns in Heaven to the greatness of the Lord. That’s a day when Jesus will be in our Plains Sight.

Amen 

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A couple of the DC speeches; and the whole event in Plains and DC:

Fast forward to Plains at the 3 hrs mark:

The DC portion:

The flyover Missing Man formation 

Jeremiah and Baruch Still Alive in Chapter Forty Five

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If you need a short word FROM the LORD, this is the perfect one: “I GOT YOU.“.

OH BARUCH, hired writer scribe for Jeremiah, was swept away in the turmoil of the day. The news writer and cameraman with a PRESS vest, the canary in the coal mine, and BARUCH. All God-gifted reporters.

Baruch was scared, cried out, and God specifically called him back, called to him through the prophet. God said: ‘I will give your life to you as a prize in all places, wherever you go.’ WOW!

God did give the best advice, which He tells us all the time: “Don’t seek great things for yourself!” Don’t get swept away with material flesh-serving lifestyles. Yes. God wants to bestow the goodness on us. And if God is doing correction to a situation (as He was to Israelites sneaking off to think they would prosper in Egypt rather than be captive to Babylon), then yes, let God protect you before He has to correct you. 

Let God protect you before He has to correct you.

Let God bless you and keep you.

Let God be the Glory.

Let God write YOUR (and HIS)STORY. 

AMEN

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Assurance to Baruch -Jeremiah 45

The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch the son of Neriah, when he had written these words in a book at the instruction of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to you, O Baruch:  ‘You said, “Woe is me now! For the Lord has added grief to my sorrow. I fainted in my sighing, and I find no rest.” ’

“Thus you shall say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Behold, what I have built I will break down, and what I have planted I will pluck up, that is, this whole land. And do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them; for behold, I will bring adversity on all flesh,” says the Lord. “But I will give your life to you as a prize in all places, wherever you go.” ’ ”