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They whiffed by in a fume of indignant high-mightyness like they were forever disappointed that they had to share a road with the likes of me. And it didn't matter where you were, in the most obscure out of the way places with nobody but locals, here comes Germans in a Mercedes, always speeding, always in a hurry, and always and always saying to each other, "Did you see something there ?"
I spent some time in Munich before heading to Austria, but always wanting to think and say Australia, because it rolled off alliterab-lip better and came to mind easier. Austria an out of the way country, a step-child to World War II Germany. Austro-Hungarian Empire, who ever heard of it ? The last thing Americans are ever taught is real history. They have no history but themselves, and a thin-gruel that. But enough of kings and queens, there was some bomb-damage still. I think I looked at churches. There are churches everywhere, open to the public, and available for free. It's a free-church and mostly Catholic overall. I always took them for granted.
These churches in Europe were great stone affairs, recognizable just by their architecture. They had promontory steps, pillars, great carved bronze-charactered doors, open in the day time. And you stepped into the inter sanctum. You could walk around, look at the stained-glass, the art work. You could sit in a world-wide wood-bench pew and watch the theater of the ceremony, where usually something was ongoing, sometimes moving smoke and flame around in the big churches, where more actors were available. Or almost no one there except the always old-lady in black, lighting candles, sitting head-lowered in a pew, and in Europe always tourists. There are no tourist churches in America, or but few. In Europe, every church was a tourist attraction, even-if last on the list.
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