Remember back on the first day I mentioned something about hopefully staying on the same ship? Well here’s the story:
Prior to the cruise starting date and before we ever flew to Budapest, we all received a message from Viking telling us that the water level in sections of the river were possibly too low for the ship to pass through, but they would make every effort to give us a complete trip covering all the ports in the itinerary. Once we were all on board the ship, everyone asked about the low water level and they explained that since Viking ships run in both directions, if the water level was too low in one section, we would be transported by bus to another ship on the other side of the low area and we would continue on the second ship to our final port. Unfortunately, that would mean we would have to pack and unpack again on another ship and none of us wanted to deal with that. So we all prayed for rain farther up the river and hoped for a good outcome. Each day we asked about our chances of staying on Gefjon the entire trip and each day we were told it doesn’t look good. The water level has to be at least 2.9 meters for the ship to pass and as of today the water level is 2.6 meters. With this in the back of our minds, we all enjoyed our trip as best we could trying to forget the packing issue.
Today, most people were awake early and stationed on the top deck as we sailed through the Wachau Valley. These are some of the scenes you see in all the Viking commercials that make you book the trip in the first place. Unfortunately the weather was rainy and overcast so the scenery was not as picturesque as we had hoped.
Melk Abby in the distance
After docking and eating lunch, our included excursion was to the Melk Abbey.
This picture of the property of the Abbey gives you an idea of the size of the property. The Abbey was originally the site of a medieval monastery and was built between 1701 and 1736 to be the most elaborate structure of its time. In 1717, Maria Theresia had a large section added for her and her 300 companions, servants and maids when she traveled in the area. The Abbey currently houses a boarding school with primary, secondary and high school grades and only 30 monks. It is a Benedictine order founded by St. Benedict who actually established the first written rules and tasks/work for monks that was later adopted by all monks. They have the original hand written copy in their possession.
Entrance to Melk Abbey
Gardens at Melk Abbey
View of the town of Melk from Abbey
Main Entrance & Library
Courtyard
Art Work on some of the structure
Entrance to the Chapel
The centerpiece of the Abbey is the library which houses 16,000 books and some of them are extremely valuable. This library has been visited by famous people for centuries including Mozart .
The other things this Abbey is famous for is it’s Strudel. Some say it is the best Strudel in Austria, so of course we had to find out for ourselves. Low and behold, they were right.
REALLY GOOD STRUDEL!
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