Janie and Toni's Viking River Cruise

Posting # 11 on October 17, 2014 ..... Back to the welcome page and listings for other links

MELK AUSTRIA 10-15 Wed.

Sailed last night from Vienna to Melk Austria. We sailed on the Danube today through one of the supposedly prettiest areas so far---the Wachau Valley. Lush green hillsides with vineyards and castles, abbeys/forts tucked here and there. The Danube is a very wide river so you have to be vigilant and look out for all of the sights beyond the shores that are close. The fall colors are wonderful everywhere we’ve been and today was no exception. The vineyards remind us of No Calif. Wine country only hillier in this part. The wine they produce in this area we are having for dinner again tonight (wine is included in the trip) and is very good. The red is tasty but not very hearty like Italian wine. The white is also tasty and is very dry which surprised me because I thought it would be sweet like Riesling. The town of Melk has medieval beginnings from 831 then the site of the big Abbey here (and thus the town) was given to the Benedictine monks in 1089 but didn’t become a municipality until 1898. We toured the Abbey up on the hill (everything of importance seems to be up on hills since that was the safest place to be during those times.) The library at the Abbey holds over 80,000 medieval manuscripts. No pics allowed in there unfortunately so we tried to take a picture of the postcard to show you how magnificent it was.

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inside the Abbey hall

welcome to Melk Austria

courtyard of the Abbey

Abbey corridor

Baroque pink stsurcase

Toni checking out her pics

small prayer book the monks took with them into the country (this thing is 3 inches square!!)

metal box with 29 locks to keep monks valuable stuff safe from raiders

Abbey grand hall--metal square on floor is a heater

this is the heater vent (the monks built fire & kept coals active to heat the big grand hall