Melk & Vienna

We left the ship at 9:30 AM for a tour of the 900 yearold Melk Abbey. It was beautiful.

Melk Abbey is an Austrian Benedictine abbey, and one of the world's most famous monastic sites. It is located above the town of Melk on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Danube in Lower Austria adjoining the Wachau valley, The abbey was founded in 1089, when Leopold JJ Margrave of Austria gave one of his castles to Benedictine monks from Lambach Abbey. A monastic school, the Stiftsgymnasium Melk was founded in the 12th century, and the monastic library soon became renowned for its extensive manuscript collection. The monastery's scriptorium was also a major site for the production of manuscripts. In the 15th century, the abbey became the center of the Melk Reform movement which reinvigorated the monastic life of Austria and Southern Germany. Today's impressive Baroque abbey was built between 1702 and 1736. Particularly noteworthy is the abbey church and the impressive library with countless medieval manuscripts. Due to its fame and academic structure, Melk managed to escape dissolution under Emperor Joseph JJ Melk when many other Austrian abbeys were seized and dissolved between 1780 and 1790. The abbey managed to survive other threats to its existence during the Napoleonic Wars, and also in the period following the Nazi Anschluss that took control of Austria in 1938, when the school and a large part of the abbey were confiscated by the state. The school was returned to the abbey after the Second World War and now caters to nearly 900 pupils of both sexes.

After the tour we headed back to the ship & sailed through the Scenic Wachau Valley, past a number of quaint little villages, churches & vineyards.

We arrived late afternoon in Vienna. Maxie, her daughter, Tracy (pronounced TRASHY in Germany), Mom & I took a cab to the city center of Vienna to their Christmas Market. The sights on the way to the market were worth the cab ride. The lights & decorations were so pretty. We walked around the market & the surrounding area until everyone's feet were cold & we decided it was time to head back to the ship.

We had to call it a night early because we had to be up & ready to roll by 3 AM.