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?

Saas Fee

Next stop - the lofty heights of Switzerland. Our Belgian friends had rented a chalet in Saas Fee, so we thought we would join them. We have previously been to Switzerland and loved it, so the opportunity to visit with friends and go back somewhere we love seemed to be a win-win situation!

On our train ride from Lausanne to Visp I remembered the last time we were in Switzerland. We traveled through Montreux, a small town by Lake Geneva, with some vineyards. Penny and I were walking through the vineyards when we came upon a split in the path. While trying to decide which way to go, a nice couple came up to us to ask if we needed help. We ended up walking with them and chatted away towards our hotel, when they said, "This is our house, why don't you come in for a drink and lunch."

The gentleman had worked for Nestle and asked if we wanted to go for a tour of the factory. We thought he meant at the place in Montreux, but turns out he meant in Broc which is 40km away. It was amazing to see the extensively long mirror top long tables full of so much chocolate. They also took us to the Gruyere cheese factory. I should mention they sat in the coffee shop while we toured the factory.

They dropped us off at our hotel and apologised for not being able to go to dinner with us, even though they changed their afternoon plans to take us out.

This has got to be the best show of generosity and selflessness I have ever encountered. They spent most of a day with us, complete strangers, to show us parts of a country they are proud to live in and we couldn't get to easily by train. I remember that day so well and try to give help to others when they are looking at a map confused in Sydney.

Now, back to our current holiday. The last part of our journey to Saas Fee was on a bus up the side of the mountain. This trip included sheer drop offs on the cliff edges, beautiful scenery (waterfalls, mountain side houses), little towns with cute little wooden houses with colourful flowers under shutter covered windows, a fearless bus driver who has driven the route often, and snow!

It was a late arrival, and after a quick catch up it was time to watch the Netherlands/Argentina World Cup game. The outcome was not great for a new Dutch supporter.

Thursday started out a bit overcast, so we couldn't see all the 4000m+ mountains. After a leisurely breakfast, we went for a 2 hour hike with Jan and Leo (Jan's Dad) around to Saas Grund. A little damp and cloudy but still a gorgeous hike.

A lazy lunch gave way to another short walk around town and a ride up in a gondola to check out the upper mountain with Jan, Hilde, Marie, and Anna. Luckily some of the clouds had lifted a bit so we did have some pretty good views.

Saas Fee is a tourist skiing town, but it is also working town year around as well. No cars are allowed in the town, only little electric vehicles. This allows for easily walking around looking at shops and restaurants. There are these buildings built on short stilts with a large round flat rock under another shorter stilt. These buildings were used for storing grains and the rock was to keep the rats from being able to get into the storage. A very different looking building, but great solution to a big problem.

On a somewhat overcast afternoon, what are you going to do? Penny played games with Marie, Hilda, and Jan's mother, while I kept entertained helping Anna with loom banding and watching some TV. A nice relaxing afternoon, hoping the clouds clear a bit to see these mountains.

Leo and Scott talking oil.

Marmot

View from our chalet

Friday was another easy start to the day as we said good-bye to Jan's parents. There were overcast skies, but the forecast was for clearing clouds in the early afternoon. When the sun came out, we decided to hike on the sunny side of the valley. We took the lift up and walked down. A completely different experience hiking with 6 and 8 year old girls than we are used to doing. A bit slower walking, but way more entertaining, starting with the play ground and goats. At the top, before we even started down the hill we ended up going down an enclosed slide heaps with the girls. Penny and I took turns with going down with the girls, and it was reported that the whole slide shook when the adults were in it! The girls were also completely fascinated with feeding grass to the local goats.

We stopped part way down at another park and small pond for some playing on the teeter totter and looking at the tad poles. We also found a set of rings along the path and the girls did some gymnastics then I showed them a strict muscle up, so there was more playing on the rings.

Scott and Jan start down the mountain

Marie, Hilde, and Anna

Marie with her long walking pole, taller than her!

No rat problem with these stilts and rocks.

The afternoon was looking good, so we decided to continue up the other side of the valley. It took two lifts, but we got to the top, Hohsaas, which was at 3200m and had PLENTY of snow. Needless to say we weren't really dressed for that weather, so after a quick snowball fight and snow angel, it was back down to the middle of the mountain (Kreuzboden @ 2400m).  There was a good playground and great views, so we hung out here for a little bit. The clouds even lifted just a bit so we could finally see the top of the big mountain, the Dom!

Since this was Jan, Hilde and the girls last night of holiday (lucky people had two weeks in Saas Fee!), the girls decided we should all dress up for dinner.  After dinner, the girls had the most amazing fashion show. It was hilarious, and Penny got to play fashion designer for part of it.

Nice scarf Scott!

Saturday meant saying good-bye to the family, but then we traveled on to Spiez. It is a little lakeside town on Lago Thun. Not quite the dramatic peaks of Saas Fee, but very beautiful none the less.  We arrived around lunch so we still had time for a nice walk. We opted for the 14km circular route from Spiez. I think we may have missed a bit of it at the end, but was still plenty of walking. It started along the lakeside to Faulensee, and then ventured inland and upward (though not sooo high) and around back to Spiez.

We didn't leave until later on Sunday so we also opted for a morning hike that day too. Since the tourist office was closed the whole time we were there, we had to find them on our own, so we opted for the "37" route.  This was a diverse route that took us through wilderness, fields, along a river and eventually up an amazing valley.  Got a little hard to find the route markers towards the end, so we were happy when we found the train station for a quick ride back into Spiez.

After an amazing seafood lunch by the lake, our final stop was Spiez castle. It is not so spectacular, but still pretty nice. There were some great views from the top of the tower as well!

Now, we had a 2.5 hr train ride back to Geneva for our flight. Everyone knows the Swiss rail system is amazing and works like clockwork, right?  Well, surprisingly enough, they also have issues. We took the first train to Bern, all good. However in Bern we saw that our train to the airport was cancelled.  Much to our surprise there was absolutely NO information person there to help. Bern is a big train station! Couldn't believe there was no one there.  Regardless, we got someone to translate a sign for us. We had to travel to Biel (the opposite direction to the airport) and then transfer (with at least a 30min transfer time).  Needless to say, Penny was a little worried, but turns out the second train was faster so we did make it in time. Although instead of 1.5 hrs of time at the airport we had 30min! Good thing I checked in online beforehand.  

This was an amazing trip in an amazing country. We think we just might need to come back for a longer proper hiking holiday sometime soon.....anyone want to join us??