Colloquium Update #5

Colloquium Dos Equis is in the history books.

Our final Mass of the week featured a setting by Franz Schubert, sung by Dr Horst Buchholz' choir and accompanied by a small orchestra. I had the opportunity to sing under Dr Buchholz my first two Colloquia and can attest that he gets the best out of his singers through a fine sense of humor and initmate knowledge of the works he's preparing.

After a quick brunch and fond farewells to new friends and old, it was off to the airport to pick up my rental car for today and tomorrow, check into the last hotel of my trip, then dinner at the Church Brew Works, a brewpub set in an old Catholic church in east Pittsburgh. The diocese closed the parish in 1995 and deconsecrated the church, then sold it to its current owners. Good food and excellent beer (the brewing equipment is housed in what used to be the apse) in a unique setting, including the original flooring and stained glass windows; in fact, the owners did such a good job of restoring the furnishings to their original state that a local historical preservation society gave them an award for it.

After dinner, I swung by Station Square once again to ride the Monongahela Incline to the top of Mt Washington and took in the view of downtown, as well as looking around the neighborhood, which still has several old brick-paved streets. Once evening came, a few quick snaps of the lights of the Steel City and back down the incline for the hotel.

I don't know how much I'll be able to see tomorrow, since I have such an early start Tuesday and I need to drop the rental car off around 6 PM or so. Most of the interesting stuff seems to be closed on Mondays around here, including the Natural History Museum, the Andy Warhol Museum (Warhol is a Pittsburgh native), and the Mattress Factory. I think I'll try Point State Park, where the Allegheny and Monongahela merge into the Ohio, and the Carnegie Science Center.