Melk Abbey

Hi all,
Yep you guessed it another church!!. This one is at Melk on the Danube. It was a brisk -2 C most of the time.

The gates of Heaven

This Abbey has been in existence for some 900 year as an Abbey and longer as a palace for the Bamburgs. It has been an important strategic place for over 2000 years. It was used originally as a fortress to fight off the impending Ottoman Turks. Austria was used as a sort of buffer between the Ottomans and the German empire. Once the threat was over the palace was turned over to the Franciscan Monks who have operated it since. It sits high atop the hill. Great location to view the surrounding valley.

Views 

The monks after all the conflicts etc wanted somewhere to represent heaven on Earth. Well they sure accomplished close to that. While hard to describe it was magnificent inside. No photos allowed inside but here are a couple of postcards we have taken a photo of to show you something of the place.

The Crown of Righteousness

The organ

The dining hall was for the Queen of Austria, Maria Theresa (Sissi for short, she is well loved here in Austria and Hungary) It has an optical illusion on the ceiling to make it look larger than it is. You can't tell straight away only at some angles.

The palace dining hall

The monetarist is an active place. Used as a high school, church, monastery and of course tourism. The monks all have duties regarding the running of the Abbey.

Maria Theresa says "I would regret it if I had not been here"

After a look around with a guide we ventured down into the small town down the hill to see if we could get any more souvenirs etc. Not much was open though. Too early!!

Beautiful door

We had to hurry the ship through a narrow and low part of the river so we caught the bus back to Grein then cruised the rest of the day.

While cruising we saw lots of mistletoe in the trees. It is protected here. We also passed by some locks. These are a wonder of engineering to get a ship this size raised by some 10-20 above the entry level and on to the next section  of river.
You ask, why do you need locks? Well, the river shallows out in places, so they build weirs across the river to block it off to keep the river navigable. We need to go through multiple locks during this cruise.

During the tour we have these QuietVox device that you use to listen to the guide who broadcasts of one of 6 channels. Very good invention as only you can hear it.

Look at the spelling :)

Crumpus - Punishes naughty kids (opposite of St Nick)

Bee box

Tonight you leave a shoe out and St Nick brings you a gift!