Day 11 - It's Our Anniversary From Melk to Krems!

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Today we officially left Germany for the last time and crossed into Austria. We began our day with a walking tour of the Melk Abbey. The Melk Abbey was originally founded by the Benedictine monks in the 11^th century and has been in continuous operation up to the present day. There are currently 24 Benedictine monks living on the premises and it still operates a Catholic School in most of the building for several hundred students. It is considered a private school since the education is Catholic and it charges a tuition of 104 Euros per month. The building was expanded to its current size and baroque architecture in the 17^th and 18^thcenturies.

There was a fire in 1974 that damaged portions of the building that resulted in a major restoration in the 1990’s. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed inside the building, though I did sneak a picture of the altar in main church. The building is huge and has been meticulously restored on the outside, but the inside is an eclectic mix of the old and the new. Most of the original living quarters were damaged in the fire, and these rooms were restored in more of a modern museum design. The ceilings and the artifacts are old, but the lighting and display cases are distinctly modern, There are also 4 frescos in the main courtyard that had deteriorated beyond recognition, but they were intended to display the four virtues, and since no one knew what the originals looked like, they were replaced with some weird modern art version of the virtues that look like they came from the Marvel Universe.

We met our local tour guide Joy who did an excellent job of explaining the abbey and some of the ancient artifacts. She was very knowledgeable, but the tour seemed more like a museum tour than any of our previous tours. There were some early paintings from local artists of the day, but the more interesting ones were a series of biblical paintings depicting scenes from the bible intended for a mostly illiterate audience to understand the stories. Villains in the paintings were often depicted with either turbans or long beards so the illiterate public could identify the good guys and the bad guys.

There was also a wonderful library, packed floor to ceiling with centuries old books, mostly written in Latin, since the Benedictines are known for being scholars. According to Joy, some of the books are in the process of being digitized so that they can be downloaded and studied by modern scholars. The end of the tour left us at the entrance to the abbey church. The abbey church is probably the most ornate of the baroque churches we have seen so far on this trip. It is incredibly ornate and covered in gold throughout. It was very impressive!

After seeing the church, we moved back outdoors to visit the Gardens and the Garden Pavilion. The gardens were mostly green and well-manicured with paths to walk through. The paths included some stopping stations along the way, but all the writings were in German, so we had no idea what it was all about. Before long, our free time was over and it was time to head back to the bus for our return to the ship.

Luckily we returned to the ship for some quiet relaxation and a little lunch when it was time for a little scenic cruising through the Wachau Valley. It was a great couple of hours relaxing on the sundeck, taking a few pictures as we sailed down the Danube through the Wachau Valley. Though not as many castles as the Rhine Valley, the scenery was still beautiful.

Soon it was 4:00 and we reached Krems, our final docking of the day. Krems is a small town of just a few thousand, with some great shopping on the main street of the old medieval town. Just a few minutes by coach and we were at the Old Town Krems gate. The shops were really great, Jody managed to get a new sweater, and we did see a women’s top for sale that had sparkling writing of Bike Week Daytona Beach 1994, a little unexpected in a tiny town in the middle of Austria! Jody did manage to find a couple of jewelry items she liked, but it was 4:30 on a Saturday afternoon, and like most reputable shops in Austria, some had closed as early as 1:00, and all of the hops would be closed by 6:00 until Monday. So we were only able to window shop, and there were no souvenir shops to buy t-shirts or magnets. By 5:15, we found ourselves back on the coach, heading back to the ship for the day.

Tonight is our 18^th wedding anniversary, and we are looking forward to a nice anniversary dinner in the restaurant. After last nights craziness, we were looking forward to a nice quiet dinner. We decided to sit at an open table and hoped we would get someone we liked for dinner companions. Luckily we were joined by Phil and Claire. Phil and Claire are the nicest couple we have met on the ship. They’re both in their mid 70’s, and Phil is from Arkansas, still recovering from hip and knee replacement. Claire is his Filipino wife, and she is a force of nature. They both are very nice, were sweethearts since the 8^th grade, and have been married over 50 years and now live in Arizona. Claire’s mission in life is to make sure everyone is happy and already knows everyone of the staff in the dining room and most of the crew. She’s very nice and sweet, but she’s kind of cruise party planner. She’s the one that made sure that Jody got a birthday cake and that everyone sang her Happy Birthday back on September 2^nd. Having dinner with just Phil and Claire was just what we needed. They were charming and funny and we all had just a nice pleasant dinner. At the end, Claire had the staff bring over a Happy Anniversary cake for us and most of the dining room were singing Happy Anniversary to us. It was a little overwhelming, but we have met a lot of really nice people on this cruise, and we could tell that many of them were happy for us and wanted wish us well.

Tomorrow is our first day in Vienna. The included tour in the morning is called a Panoramic View of Vienna and consists of mostly a bus ride around the city with a short walk to St-Stephens Church. But there is an option to perform what they call a “close-up” version of the tour where we see most of the same sites, but we get there by walking. They typically offer a “leisurely” version of some of the walking tours for people with mobility issues. This “close-up” version is evidently for those who want more walking. So, of course we signed up for the one with more walking.

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