Tuesday, 23 September. A van from the tour company picked us up at our hotel at 8:45 and took us
to the Opera, where we transferred to a bus. That bus took us to Vienna's Westbanhof where finally, at
10:15, we transferred to the bus that would take us to the Wachau Valley. We drove west about
40 miles
to Krems, a charming old wine merchants' town on the Danube. This is the start of the Wachau Valley,
which extends as far as Melk. Contrary to our expectations, though, we didn't transfer to a boat at
Krems but continued by bus along the river. The picturesque old town of Stein was immediately adjacent
to Krems. We could see the Benedictine Abbey at Gottweig on a hill just across the river.
We rode through Durnstein shortly after. This is the site of Kuenringer castle where King Richard
Lionheart was held for ransom in 1193. The castle is in ruins, but the town still has some old walls,
gates, and towers. We continued on through Weissenkirchen (a wine village with a 16th century fortified
church on a hill) and St. Michael (also with a 16th century fortified church) and came to Spitz. Here we
all got off the bus and waited for the boat that would take us to Melk. It was now 11:15.
The river boat Prinz Eugen came about 30 minutes later and our tour group joined the passengers who were already on board. The Wachau is an especially beautiful stretch of the Danube, with vine-covered hills, picturesque villages, and a sprinkling of interesting old buildings. Some, like the hilltop castle ruins of Aggstein and the palace (schloss) at Shoenbuhel, are relatively well known, while others we never did learn the names of.
The Prinz Eugen docked at Melk about 1:25. The same bus was waiting and took us up the hill to the
Abbey. We had more than an hour until our guided tour was to start at 2:45, so we had a leisurely lunch
at an outside table of the Abbey restaurant. That still left time for me to do some exploring on my own
while Jane relaxed.
The Melk Abbey as an institution dates from 1089 when the Babenburg family (rulers of Austria before
the Habsburgs) donated their castle on this site to the Benedictines, and they in turn converted it into a
fortified abbey. (The Babenburg castle had been built nearly a century earlier on the ruins of a Roman
stronghold.) However, that abbey was destroyed by fire in 1287 and again by the Turks in their 1683
invasion. The present baroque buildings were constructed 1702-1736, then rebuilt after another major
fire two years later.
The tour was excellent and, even disregarding the splendid trip through the Wachau, the Abbey was well worth the trip. The tour took us through the Prelates Courtyard and into the Imperial Gallery (Kaiserzimmer) side of the Abbey. We could see immediately why the Abbey is often called the finest example of baroque architecture in Austria. There were lavishly decorated rooms once used by the royal family. The last and probably the finest room on this side was the Marble Hall, decorated with red and gray Salzburg marble. The ceiling, covered with an allegorical fresco, seemed to curve up steeply from the sides. Even when our guide told us that the ceiling was really flat, it was hard to believe.
We exited from Marble Hall onto the large outdoor Terrace in front of the Abbey church. There was a great view of the Danube, the town of Melk, and the surrounding countryside.
Crossing the Terrace, we entered the other wing of the Abbey and came to the
exquisite library. The walls were lined with dark wood shelves filled with
thousands of beautifully bound old books (with matching bindings, no less).
The fresco on the ceiling was also painted to give an illusion of depth.
Finally we were led into the Abbey Church. It was exquisite, probably the most beautiful baroque we've ever seen. It was so heavily decorated with frescoes, marble, statues, and gold that it was difficult to decide whether it would be inspiring or distracting for one trying to pray.
That was the end of the tour, and we had about 20 minutes to explore on our own before the bus left at 4:15 to take us back to Vienna. The bus went right by our hotel, but we had to ride to the Opera House where we were dropped off at 5:45. By the time we got back to our hotel by subway it was about 6:30. Fortunately we didn't have an early departure for Bucharest in the morning, so we rested for an hour before going to La Favorita for dinner. This time the restaurant was crowded and the service was exceptionally slow. A cool front moved through with heavy rain while we were eating. We were very happy that it had waited until we were leaving. We got back to the hotel about 10:30 and did some packing before going to bed. Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Copyright © 2000-2023 DarrellPeck.com All rights
reserved. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
