Fiona has been in Europe studying baroque violin with Lucy VanDael. The pics and comments are from Fiona.
” I have had a wonderful time in Holland and Germany. It is very good as an American to slow down and reflect, as Europeans seem to do naturally. For instance, Instead of rushing through this 13th century church of St Sebaldus in Nuremberg, snapping 100s of photos and ultimately remembering nothing, today I tried a more contemplative route. First, I ate at an outdoor cafe with my friend nearby where we sat for 1.5 hours, with a mostly subconscious sense of the church towers rising above us. Then we walked inside the Romanesque/Gothic structure (breathtaking!) and spent another hour becoming acquainted first with its overall architectural structure and gradually its smaller detail. We left for an hour to get iced cream and coffee and discuss the theological and cultural meaning of what we had seen. Then we returned a last time and found the evening light illuminating different areas and windows than before–like a different church entirely! I was moved by the knowledge that when the Medieval city was 90% destroyed in 1945, it appears that the church was one of the first buildings rebuilt. Perhaps because of the great thickness of the Romanesque columns, the west side sustained less damage from Allied bombs, and became a shelter for those working to rebuild the soaring Gothic east side.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Sebaldus_Church,_Nuremberg#section_1″
