After another nice breakfast at Pension Arian, we were picked up by the tour company and whisked off to the Wachau. The bus took us through the countryside and several small towns to a vineyard, which we walked through, down to the edge of the Donau (Danube). We took a ferry across the river to Spitz, where we boarded
the Prinz Eugen for a 2 1/2 hour cruise upstream to Melk. At Melk we climbed down to the village to wander for an hour or so. Beautiful little town. Then the trek back up the hill to the
Abbey for a 45-minute tour. It has a gorgeous library and really beautiful church. It has been occupied by monks for about 1000 years.Onboard the boat we had beer, sausages and a roll on the sundeck -- though it was raining off and on.
There were many castles and other ruins along the shore. Most disturbing were the evidences of the record-breaking flooding about a month ago. The trees had high-water marks about 20' above the water level and there was a lot of mud on the banks. In many places trees had been toppled. We noticed at Melk that other historical sites that "restoration" has been more like "renovation", with the result that nothing feels very old. Nearly every place reports WWII bomb damage.
What a weird day this has been! We left Vienna with no problem and arrived that the Sudbahnhof in plenty of time. Today at breakfast was t...
We're getting very adept at navigating by subway. Today we went first to St. Stephen's and the area around it. These very old chur...
After another nice breakfast at Pension Arian, we were picked up by the tour company and whisked off to the Wachau. The bus took us throug...
No comments:
Post a Comment