Wednesday, August 29th
Melk, Austria
We arrived in Melk early this morning. I’m puzzled why they call it the “Blue Danube” because it is a yuky muddy brown. The main reason for this stop is to visit the “Stift Melk” or Melk Abbey. It used to be a castle and residence of the Austrian ruling Babenberg family until 1089AD when it became a Benedictine monastery. Monks have lived and worked here for more than 900 years and today there are still 30 monks here. The monastery has been destroyed and rebuilt several times over the years. Currently, 750 students go to school here. As you will see in photos later, it is a massive but absolutely beautiful place. We left the boat at 9am, were bused a short ride up to the abbey, and then met our guide for an 1 ½ hour tour of it. There is a hall in the abbey that is 600 feet long. Also impressive was the 12 libraries with over 100,000 books, most dating back centuries ago. We were only allowed in two connecting libraries and no photos at all were allowed there. Non flash photos were allowed every place else. We eventually ended in the cathedral which was incredible. Viking had arranged an organ concert for us but we elected to leave and walk back through the village. We stopped at a café and sat outside as I wanted an Austrian beer. Definitely not as good as German beers but Austria is best known for their wines not beer. After that we continued a 15 minute walk back to our boat arriving just before lunch time. Outside at Aquavit Terrace the chef had prepared typical Austrian foods. I got some fried chicken, a brat, and some dessert. I carried it down to the dining room as Rebecca wanted a big salad. We sat with two couples from Sacramento.
It is now 2pm and we are leaving Melk. Next stop will be somewhere prior to Vienna to drop off passengers who will be going to an optional Mozart & Strauss Concert in Vienna. They will be bused there and boat will continue and arrive in Vienna later tonight. The concert folks can then join boat as we will be spending the night and tomorrow in Vienna. Another sunny day but warmer today. Back in the mid 80’s.
We are cruising past some more castles this afternoon through the Wachau Gorge which is a UNESCO protected historical area. It’s a valley lined with vineyards and is VERY beautiful. Our cruise director pointed out the sights and gave us some historical background over the PA system. Since we will be very busy with excursions tomorrow and Friday they will be giving us a disembarkation briefing this evening. We packed one of our 3 bags this afternoon as will be busy all day tomorrow seeing Vienna and will arrive in Budapest Friday morning and want to see it all that day. Our cruise ends and we depart boat Saturday morning but we will be spending another day in Budapest staying at a Hilton. Fly home Sunday.
At 9am tomorrow we will be meeting our friends, Susie & Fred. They were in the suite next to us on our South America cruise this January-March. They live here in Vienna and have volunteered to give us a tour of their city. At 5pm we have to meet ship’s shuttle bus to Bratslava as ship will move there while people are touring in Vienna.
PHOTOS
**You have to "Cut & Paste" the link below onto a browser "New Tab". A photo album will appear. Click **Thanks to Google deactivating Picasa Photos, I now have to use Google Photos. So you will now on first photo which will make it much larger. In upper right corner under "Info" you will see caption for that photo. Putting your cursor on right side of photo (under 3 dots at top) will produce an arrow for you to page through the rest of the photos.
https://goo.gl/photos/swaUKodwg5o8CPDc8
No comments:
Post a Comment