(From Rob) Tales from the Crypt

We headed to the very central point of Vienna for our evening activity today: St. Stephen's Cathedral. First, we did our traditional climb of the high Gothic tower.

The steps corkscrew steeply up a dark passage with lits of little peeping-nooks to look out onto the city. At one point, you can even see an impressive gargoyle rainspout.

Will and Maddie are veteran Tower-climbers, and pressed themselves to the side to let noisy tourists by. Maddie and Will were uncharacteristically quiet and focused upon their clim.

We made it up to the bell tower and finally to the spot where a man used to sit and watch for fires over the old city. We rested at the top, bought a few souveniers, and enjoyed the view.

St, Stephens was one of the hardest hit spots in Vienna during WWII, and we are glad that so much of the tower survived. The famous roof of Hungarian tiles, however, had to be re-built. As you can tell by the size of the

people down on the square--this is quite a climb!

Afterward, we toured the cathedral a bit and then took a guided tour of the crypt. Will was not sure he could handle it, but besides a few clingy moments and a whimper at the sight of a pile of skulls, he did great. There is everything you would want form a crypt: Caskets, flickering candles,

random barred-off holes in the walls with stacks of bones behind them, and even whole skeletons that grin aat you from their rotted-away caskets. One room is filled with

thousands of victims of the plague in the 1300's. We were glad to be back out in the sunshine, and Will asked if he could sleep in the extra bed in Maddie's room so that he could have somebody there if he dreamed about a skull. Bua--ha--ha--ha.