Happy Halloween! FYI Halloween is not really celebrated here although it is getting a little more popular. All Saints Day, November 1, is a bank holiday since Austria is a predominately Catholic country. Ate breakfast at 7:00 so we could go on the
morning walk with Amir. We only walked about 30 min. but it was a sunny, crisp,
and cool morning. At 8:45 we took the bus to the Melk Abby. It is a beautifully
impressive building now lived in by the Benedictine Monks. There are 30 monks
now with 15 that stay there and the others are assigned to parishes. The
building with 7 courtyards is amazing but the library with its collection of
100,000 books is most impressive. The cathedral was the most beautiful we’ve seen
thus far and I wish we had had more time to explore. We made a quick trip to
see the town but including our tour we were only there for 2 hours. After we
came and were on the deck as we traveled through the scenic Wachau Valley. I
even saw the town of Spitz. At noon they had an hour of free drinks. This is
the last trip of the season for the Monarch Baroness so they were clearing out
the alcohol. At 1:00 we had another delicious lunch - we especially liked the
cream of horseradish soup. Then it was nap time since we didn’t arrive in
Vienna until 6:30. I did sneak up on top deck as we went through a lock. It was
really quite interesting to watch the process. We also got to watch the locks a
second time before our arrival to Vienna - fascinating! Another great dinner.
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| Melk Abbey |
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| Melk Abbey |
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| View of Melk |
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| Melk Abbey |
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| Old Town Melk |
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| Old Town Melk |
Views from the Wachau Valley
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| On the left side of the Danube, an old market village |
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| Beautiful sunset from the deck of the ship |
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| Going through the locks |
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| Going through the locks |
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| Going through the locks |
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| Katarina, our Cruise Manager |
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