10/12/14 Melk and Krems

We awoke to a very foggy morning.  There was a lot of  ship traffic on the river last night and this morning so as a result we had to take a bus to Melk Abbey.  Although the abbey was redone in the baroque style, I found it much less garish than St. Stephen's Cathedral of Passau that we visited yesterday.  We had a lovely guide who first led us through the museum full of the abbey treasures.  The last room was my favorite as the ceiling was flat, but painted so as to appear vaulted.  It was quite well done.  We then walked out onto a balcony with fantastic views of the countryside, the town of Melk, and the Danube.  Our next stop was the library.  They have twelve rooms containing 80,000 medieval manuscripts.  My favorite part was the wooden doors with built-in bookcases that covered the windows.  In earlier days (I don't know what happened here), the monks would open the door and let in the natural light in order to read a manuscript rather than light a candle and risk the danger of fire.  Our last stop was the church itself, which was festooned with olive branches to celebrate the 1000 years of a Benedictine monastic order here.  The thirty monks who live here run a school for 700 students, both boys and girls.  We visited the garden - very formal except for the smattering of cartoonish animals scattered throughout - very whimsical.  We walked down the hill through town until we were back on board the ship.  After lunch we went up to the sun deck.  The sun had come out while we were at the abbey and it was a glorious day although a bit windy on the top deck.  The ship sailed through the Wachau Valley, which was delightful - many small towns, terraced  grape fields on the hillsides, and some great castles on top of the hills.  One of them was perched  on the top of a craggy rock on top of a hill  over the river.  Another (Durnstein Castle))  was the one in which Richard the Lion-Hearted was imprisoned until he was ransomed.  We also saw some naked Austrians swimming in the river - whole families of them.  We finally  docked in the town of Krems. We walked around the historic part of town,but as it is Sunday, the shops were closed..  We did take a few pix and saw a hot air balloon.  We are now back on board and will have dinner soon. on top of a craggy rock at the top of a hill.  Another was the one in which Richard the Lion-hearted was imprisoned (Durnstein Castle) until he was ransomed.  Unfortunately, we did not see anyone harvesting the grapes even though this is the season as today was a Sunday.  The grapes from this region are used to make Riesling - a white, dry, fruity wine.  Out next stop was Krems.  We walked through the old historic district, but again, as it is Sunday, none of the shops were open.  We did take some pix and saw a hot air balloon.  We are back on the ship now and will be here until almost midnight when we sail again.