Woke this morning at Melk, Austria. We are the inboard cruise ship of two at dock. There are two more behind us and three on the river. We will be departing the ship at 8:15 am. We decided to do the "power" walk which, we were warned would include 98 steps to be climbed. It is a bit cooler again today. High is supposed to be 70F and there is a hint of seeing your breath.
After breakfast, we joined the walk to the Stift Melk (monastery Melk). It was about a mile's hike. Not bad.
This is a Benedictine monastery. It consists of a monastery, church, brewery (of course) and school for the peasantry. From the river, it is very foreboding.
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| Stift Melk |
In the courtyard of the monastery is a wooden statue of Saint Coloman. He was an Irish pilgrim en route to the Holy Land and was mistaken for a spy because of his strange appearance. He was tortured and hanged at Stockerau, near Vienna, Austria, on 16 July 1012. Subsequent miracles prompted his remains to be exhumed and reburied at the Abbey of Melk on 13 October 1014.
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| Saint Coloman |
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| "persistence and bravery" |
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| View of Melk from the monastery |
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| Monastery entrance |
We were not allowed to take photos inside the monastery or the church. David and I agreed the church was the most opulent we have yet encountered.
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| Monastery garden |
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| Small village on the other side of the Danube |
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| 250 year old Linden trees in the monastery garden |
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| Old fat man with Melk in the background |
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| Where I bought my Austrian whisky |
The Wachauer Pure G is a barley based whisky while the Pure H is oat based.
Once we departed Melk, we had a light lunch on the poop deck and then enjoyed the sights as we passed through the Danube's picturesque valley of Wachau. Known for its rolling hills, vineyards and fortresses. Richard the Lionheart was imprisoned in the castle above the town of Dürnstein.
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| View astern as we had lunch |
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| Castle above the village of Spitz..."putting on the dog" |
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| Lots of vineyards |
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| Castle above Dürnstein where Richard was held captive |
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| Add caption |
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| Dürnstein |
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| Monastery at end of Wachau Valley |
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| "Wine" tasting in the lounge...hey, someone has to do it! |
We passed through the last lock of our river trip at the Altenwörth power plant. It was a 48 foot drop in the level of the river.
There was about six inches of clearance between the sides of the lock and the ship. As we descended, I plucked a small pebble from the side of the lock.
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| My piece of the Altenwörth Lock |
After docking in Talln, we motor coached to Vienna for a dinner at the Palais Pallavinci. It was a awesome experience.
We were treated to opera and ballet snippets.
Upon returning to the ship, we were informed we would be staying on-board ship tonight, do Vienna tomorrow, stay on-board tomorrow night. Then we will stay Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at the Intercontinental in Budapest.
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