Vivid blue skies and sunshine greeted us when we pulled up our blinds this morning in Melk, Austria. Melk is only a small town but it has one stupendous claim to fame, the fabulous Melk Abbey. The first activity for the day was a short bus ride up the hill from the river for a tour of the site. Unfortunately, thanks to yesterday’s dodgy internet and looming lodgement dates Neil had to miss the tour and spend the morning working as he could be sure of reasonable internet while we were docked near the town.
So, I set off with the others and we all congratulated ourselves on the glorious weather. This was particularly important for Gae, Greg and Steve as they had signed up to do the 30 km bike ride along the river during the afternoon.
Melk Abbey has looked down from its hill above the town and been the home of Benedictine monks for over 900 years, but the original building had been badly damaged by Turkish troops so the current building was only finished in 1746. Its another magnificent Baroque building and is currently home to 30 monks, 900 students, an excellent museum, a gorgeous old library and a gob-smackingly stunning church. We walked through the first couple of courtyards before visiting the interiors. Its so frustrating that they don’t allow photography inside so I’ve borrowed a couple of images from my good friend , Google.
Abbey entrance
Abbey Courtyard
Thanks to Google!
We could take photos on the terrace between the two main towers, one of which had a good layer of scaffolding ( like almost any sight of significance in Europe! ). From here we could also see down to the town in the valley. The riverlet here is the Melk, an offshoot of the Danube.
Abbey towers
Melk, town and river
Back on the boat we farewelled the bike riders, who were a little worried about the black rainclouds that were rolling in.
Gae waving
Steve (waving), Gae and Greg – ready to ride!
We were having our lunch and the boat had been cruising for barely ten minutes when the rain came down. We found out later that the bikers had been drenched but fortunately they hit drier weather after 20 minutes and were able to enjoy the rest of the ride. Neil was still hard at work but took a quick break to set up his GoPro to video the passing castles, towns and vineyards.
GoPro ready to go!
Schonbuhel Castle
I spent most of the valley cruise up on the sun deck listening to the commentary by our cruise director.
It wasnt long before we sighted the derelict castle of Durnstein, which is reputed to have been the castle where Richard the Lionheart was imprisoned by Leopold V of Austria.
Durnstein is called the Pearl of the Wachau and the blue and white tower of its abbey is impossible to miss as you cruise past the town.
Beautiful blue abbey tower
We docked at around 2.30 , so I dragged Neil away from the laptop and we joined Therese and Bob for a walk up into the cute little town. Its Sunday today but several of the little shops and bars were open, catering to the significant number of tourists visiting the town. The Wachau Valley is famous not just for its wine but also for apricots. If we wanted we could have purchased apricot wine, apricot schnapps, apricot jam, apricot chutney, apricot soap and apricot chocolate!
Therese and I liked one particular shop near the abbey, selling colourful handcrafted jewellery.
At the abbey gate
Heading back to the river
Back at the boat we met up with the cyclists for dinner and the evenings entertainment, the Crew Variety Show. We’ve become quite friendly with a couple of the waiters, Baz and Antonio and it was fun to see them enjoying themselves. There was another disco night afterwards but the bikers were pooped and took themselves off to bed. Neil and I stayed to listen to a few of the songs before also calling it quits. On to Vienna tomorrow!
