Melk, Austria

Melk Monastery

The Melk monastery dominates this town. Founded in 913, the original building was a fortress. The monastery was completely redone 300 years ago in Baroque style. There are 470 rooms and 1365 windows. There appear to be a lot of gold statues, but most of these are wood statues gilded in gold. Today the monastery has 30 monks, but it also has 900 gymnasium students. The tour of the monastery is primarily along the 600 foot long imperial corridor which were the rooms were guests would stay. Today the corridor houses exhibits and artifacts about the history of the benedictine monastery. The Benedictine philosophy is to pray, work and read. Monks would stay at the same abbey, swore obedience to the abbot, and were to continually move forward. Most impressive was the Marble Hall, built of stucco, the library, and the church.

The Library

Sailing out of Melk, we went through the Wachau valley, surrounded by hills. The valley is famous for its white wines and apricots. Apricots were planted here after a disease devastated the grapes. Apricots provided a source of income until grapes could be replanted. We saw a number of castle ruins as we went down the valley. These castles were used to defend against the Hungarians.

Schoenbuehel Castle

We arrived in Vienna, in the late afternoon. That evening we went to a wonderful concert of Strauss, Mozart, and some opera movements. It was just what you expected to see and hear in Vienna.

Viennese Concert