Amazing Organs

While we traveled around Europe and visited so many churches, I began to photograph the organs when possible. These musical instruments are so awesome with the music they can play. I was lucky enough to hear a few of them playing. I hope you enjoy these.

Our first trip was to the Berlin Cathedral. It had an organ with nice dark wood, finely carved holding the silver pipes for it's organ in a side naive where everyone could see it as they walked into the church.

Berlin Cathedral

Berlin Cathedral

Prague had a very lovely cathedral up by Prague Castle. It's organ was in two levels with the top level having wooden and golden tops on the pipes. The lower level was set up under three marble archways where there was a nicely decorated wooden rail in front with knight shields, swords, and jousts.

Prague Castle Cathedral

Porto several old churches with organs I photographed. The first church had two organs. This was quite a small church with a lot of gold painted items. Over bearing in my opinion. However, the organ pipes were painted green (and slightly rusty), with heaps of golden ornamenting.

Next was an organ in the back of a long church high above everything with a beautiful window behind it. The pipes were silver with an arrangement that took the large one outside and smaller ones in the middle to allow for the light to come in the window. Very nicely organised (pun intended).

This highly golden covered grey piped organ had some pipes pointing straight out like little horns. A cool design in the brown wood frame and massive gold decoratoin.

In Milan we went to the Duomo di Milano the was a small organ in a wooden box with small pipes. There were some paintings on the side of this organ with views of Christian acts of faith. Quite small for the size of the church, but elegant.

notice the photos opened on the sides.

We were in Northern Ireland and Ireland next. Got a photo of one of my favourite organs. The great window lights up the nice wooden frame holding the big light blue with some dark blue and gold highlighted pipes. Gorgeous!

A great window behind the wooden frame of blue pipes.

Two organs, both small

In Copenhagen we went into a cathedral which had a nice small organ in a wooden box with some red velvet holding the silver and gold pipes.

We also got a shot of the organ in the Marble Church from a distance. It has a wooden frame with lots of gold dusting surrounding it's pipes.

Marble Church

On our first morning in Sweden, Penny and I walked around Malmo, Sweden and visited a couple churches there. St. Petri (St. Peter's Church) had a window behind the organ, which made it a bit hard to see, but this organ was lined up along the two side walls instead of what is normally seen in having the pipes all in one line. I liked the different look, even with the blurry photo.  They also had an old box organ. It was a big square on top of the stand holding all of the pipes along all four sides. Small in size, but it still had some decent sized pipes.

The first place we saw an organ in Munich was Michaelskirche. It was a well lit church with a white interior, which made the organ very visible by some windows in the back. It had gold trim around the silver pipes up on the balcony. Really nice looking organ!

The next church we had a view of the organ was in a small town on our way up to Neuschwanstein Castle. It was a bit small, but in an amazing looking church with the pink colours around the silver pipes trimmed in gold and white statues. Sounded really nice while we were outside waiting to leave and the church service had just started.

Then we went to ___ church which is a UNESO Heritage site. This huge church had and organ with three sets of pipes. The middle ones were quite big with two smaller sets on the sides. All were in some white painted wood with gold trip in a well lit bright church. Looks small as we were quite far away, but it was large!

In Luneburg, Germany we went into a small church. There was a weird red light shining on the organ which was placed high in the wall above a sitting area. The dark wood and statues with gold trim
looked nice.

Spooky looking with the red "glow"

In Nice, France we came upon a church with an organ that had three large separate parts. Two sides had some large pipes with dark wooden frames and a middle made up of many small pipes in it's dark wood. some of the pipes were even hanging over the wall above the window. Interesting look!

One of my favourite organs was the futuristic looking one in Monaco Cathedral. The pipes were inside round clear tubes of various sizes hanging off a light coloured wooden platform with pink lighting. It was also playing some random music as we walked around taking in the different sites in the Cathedral.

Futuristic looking organ

Vienna had a couple organs I liked. The dark photo was an organ that just had the pipes standing on the wooden platform and nothing visible holding them at the top. Hard to tell, I know. Another one was in St. Peter's Church. This was quite far away, so not the best photo. You can see the highly ornate gold trim around the pipes.

A bit later on this trip we came across a quaint church with a bright white interior with and organ contained in a white painted wood with golden statues and trim.

Now I am just putting in some photo's from our Spain trip in 2013. I don't remember all the churches. There are some differences in these organs as many of them have some pipes sticking straight out making a nice design. I like this concept.

This organ had some very elaborate wood work surrounding the pipes. The detail was exquisite, but hard to see in this photo of the whole organ. Really cool design.

One cathedral had two organs with similar designs and some of the smaller pipes sticking straight out instead of standing like the rest. The wood work is similar, but the pipes have a different colour to them and a bit different design. How loud would a service be if both organs were playing at one time?

This final organ was in the Sagrada Familia by Gaudi in Barcelona. This is one of the less impressive designs in comparison to the cathedral itself. I like how the pipes are in a nice colour wood. The difference is it is behind the alter, where most of the others are in the back or on the sides of the church. However, the thought process behind how sounds works in this place makes this an awesome place to listen to an organ play.

Penny and I aren't really religious, but enjoyed seeing so many churches and the different designs. So much money spent on places to worship; including the art work, organs, pulpits, paintings, stain glass windows, and of course the time it took to build these historic buildings. Amazing!

Which one is your favourite? Do you have any photos of organs you would like to share?

Czech out our visit in Prague.

Prague, Czech Republic - Our second major weekend trip, and our second new country! It was also a celebration of Penny’s birthday. Prague is a bit further away (a whole 6 hrs! Required a train & plane combo), but we are still amazed and loving how easy it is to get to whole other countries! Overall, even though we were still relatively close geographically, it is very easy to see and feel the distinct differences these countries represent.  Prague felt distinctly eastern european. It looked different, the people were different, and the language was definitely different. That said, we loved it. Prague was beautiful, easy to navigate, and very interesting.  

Other thoughts about the weekend (from Penny):  Those that know me know that I LOVE celebrating my birthday. While it was great to be in a brand new country with amazing things to see on my birthday….it did not at all feel like my birthday.  Scott did his very best to make me feel special, but was just another day on holiday.  I really really missed my friends and family, and being able to celebrate with them.  Note to self - always make sure you are home for your birthday!!  

The detailed account of our weekend is below…..

Prague Castle view from hotel room

Charles Bridge

Our first night in Prague was spent walking around in Old Town a bit and then across Charles Bridge. This is a 14th century stone bridge with 75 statues on it that connects Lesser town to Old town. It wasn't too busy in the evening as we walked across, but we could instantly see the appeal. It is an amazing bridge with great views of the castle and the city and only open to pedestrians.

We walked through Old town on our way to the Prague Beer Museum, a pub with 30 Czech beers on tap. It wasn’t ideal with all the smoking inside, but we couldn’t pass it up with the choice of beers. Scott couldn't just have one, so had a five taster.

Scott's 5 taster and Penny's Wit

30 beers on tap!!

As we got back to our hotel we had a great view of Prague Castle lit up for the evening. It looks quite amazing.

Prague Castle at night.

Saturday (Happy Birthday Penny!!!) was started off with something called Mindmaze. We went into a room with a puzzle about finding the alchemist's stone. We had 60 minutes to successfully find our way out. There were clues and extra stuff in the room, which helped (or hindered) us figure out how to get out of the room. We had a walkie talkie to ask for clues if we got stuck. We had to ask for 3 clues to successfully complete the task. We had to use keys to open locks, which led to other keys or locks that opened drawers or cabinets. It was quite fun and we highly recommend it to anyone who goes to Prague.

From here we walked around Old town starting with the Powder Tower (Prasna Brana). It gets it name because it was the tower where all the gunpowder was stored in the 17th century. Next to this is the Municipal House.

Powder Tower

Municipal House

We then walked over to Old Town Square, which has the Old Town City Hall which has a viewing tower and the Astronomical Clock as part of it. We went up in the tower for the views. The last part of the climb up was a short spiral staircase and interestingly - it had a stop light, letting you know when you could safely go up or down without running into traffic from the other direction. What a great idea!

Stop Light for Spiral Stairs

Church of Tyn

Old Town Hall

Church of St. Nicholas

Astronomical Clock

There were a couple of churches in the square, a palace, and a monument. We happened to be there on the day they opened their carnival, so had some extra festivities going on as well with people wearing masks, playing music, dancing, and singing. Great atmosphere even without being able to understand the songs.

Old Town Square from above 

Band playing Czech folk music

We were told we needed to try the goulash and dumplings in Prague, so gave them a try in a Prague restaurant. Not exactly what I expected as I envisioned more of a soup for the goulash and noodles rather than bread for the dumplings. Still good!

Goulash and Dumplings

We walked around the Jewish Quarter, but didn’t go into any of the synagogues as they were all closed on Saturday. On the outside they don’t look to be spectacular buildings, but are supposed to be ornate inside.

Penny's Birthday Dinner

Sunday we went to Prague Castle. The Golden Lane actually reminded us of a castle. Basilica of St George was an old church which was not renovated, so you could see where the paintings had faded. The Old Royal Palace had a massive exhibition hall and rooms with the coat of arms for the various land and office holders of the region. St. Vitus Cathedral was quite nice and had several lovely stained glass windows.

Basilica of St. George

Window in St. Vitus Cathedral

Old Royal Palace

Gates to Prague Castle

We went to Petrin Park to go up in Petrin Tower, made in the likeness of the Eiffel Tower. Excellent views of Prague and the castle.

Petrin Park

Petrin Tower

Prague Castle view from Petrin Tower

Charles Bridge and Old Town view from Petrin Tower

Monday we took a 40 minute train ride to Karlstijn to see the awesome Castle there. It was closed, but read the inside wasn’t as nice as the outside. Penny thought we might be able to get in if she knocked on the door, but they couldn’t see her through the peep hole.

Karlstijn Castle

Penny knocks to get in!