Melk, Durnstein and Weissenkirchen - Austria

Stop Press!!!!!

By special request of Matt and Andrew, and with almost superhuman assistance from our tour leader Uwe Nitschke as well as some dedicated technology improvisation, we can now bring you genuine, untouched and non-artificial (also contains lanoline) pictures of Jillienne constructing Strudel. See the previus entry - Passau to Linz.

Today we arrived at Melk before breakfast. Sorry Matt, despite our best efforts we still cannot upload our own pictures to the blog while onboard.
(Later: All our own photos, now we're home.)

Tried desparately last evening  to bring you pictures of the strudel making but no luck. Andrew too will be disappointed that there are no food pictures. Hate to disappoint you both but we did our best. (See Stop Press above) Never mind, lots of food pictures when we get back. There is even an excellent one of a poached egg - just imagine that! Wonderful.

(PS among our fellow cruisers is a family of four. The Gregory family. Their children LOVE taking pictures of food - take note Matt and Andrew).

Melk proved to be a small but incredibly attractive village. The critical aspect though was the amazing Abbey which dominated the hilltop above the village. We spent several hours wandering around this. It was so difficult to take it all in - so much to see. Continuously used as a monastry for nearly 1000 years and still functioning as such, the span of activity is staggering. The church itself is pure baroque - incredibly ornately so - quite breathtaking. I'd learned about this in Yr 12 art history, and am thrilled to have the opportunity to visit it.

The pipe organ looks SO impressive. Not by any means as large as the one at Regensburg, and not old at all. Built in the 1970's, in fact. But with all the gold carving, filagree and other decoration surrounding it. it looks amazing. Of course I took some photos, Donna. Wish you could've been there to play it for us!! It would've brought the place alive.

There are many relics around the monastry and church on display including skeletons from the Rome catacombs and a splinter of the cross.The wealth of the monastry is certainly on display everywhere you look.

One of the highlights was the monastry library. 100,000 volumes in several languages and including parchments. Very special. Arthur thought he might have died and gone to heaven.

Once out of the monastry we walked through the town and back to the boat (about 25 minutes and all downhill). We took advantage of the walk to stop in the town and have a coffee with REAL milk [the boat only uses long-life milk so I am becoming very interested in black coffee (rarely) or black tea ( more often)].

Right this moment we are crusing on to the next stop, the small village of Durnstein. Outside the rain is now falling steadily (it was fine this morning). There is no sign of snow and the Austrians are really worried. Winter skiing is one of the major sources (even 80%) of their national income. And there is no snow. Not even any frost! We don't mind, but the locals are rather worried. With the winter trees we can see more of the forest interior and no snow to get in the way of the view.

Ten of our fellow passengers took advantage of the option to cycle between Melk and Durnstein - a 30km. ride. When we passed them the captain sounded the whistle several times... and there was great excitement from the shore AND on board!! It's a shame the weather is wet this afternoon. Later in the day when they met up with us, they were rather additionally weary. A cross river ferry that was included in the route was not in operation, so the 32k ride became a 47k one in order to reach the next bridge and then double back to the boat! They were ready to get off the bikes when they reached us!!

Our short stop at Durnstein (below right, with the castle ruins high above the town) was really great. The town is very small, very quiet but totally appealing in terms of a "genuine" old town. Lots of tiny alley ways, quaint houses and tiny shops. The key features of the place are the ruins of the castle where England's King Richard (the Lionheart) was held prisoner and a neat little Baroque church. We gave the church a miss (after Melk, we thought it would be rather an anti-climax) and could not summon the energy to climb to the castle (520ft UP!!!). Rather, we padded around the village taking photos of everything - well almost.

In passing, today has been an exceptional day of food. Every two hours (nearly exactly) there has been yet another round of food and drink - all good and all beautifully and artfully, displayed. Keeping Arthur's carbs under control is a hard task. Most lunches and dinners are 5 course or more, but to have morning tea, afternoon tea, refreshments before breakfast and after dinner, etc. etc. Phew!

(...sounds all amazing, and it is. But I confess neither of us are eating it all.)

Take for instance, tonight's dinner. Instead of the 6 courses on offer, we chose - Only 3! plus a little of the delicious Austrian breads (served tonight with Rosemary butter).

Mixed garden greens with Toasted Hazelnut, Cheddar Cheese and Pear

Cream of Tomato Soup and Ginger and Coriander Cream.

Filetti di Baramundi alla Pugliese.  ...Grilled fillet of Baramundi with White Onion Ragout, Pistachio Sauce, glazed carrots, Broccoli and boiled potatoes.

(Arthur had a chicken dish)

...and that was heaps!!

We're now hoping to have a relatively empty lounge, as most are going off to walk by torchlight to taste wine at a local cellar at Weissenkirchen.

Arthur, incidently is becoming increasingly restive regarding the continuing motif of a "Choo, choo". So often when we stop for an excursion, the "less able" or usually termed the "gentle walkers" are offered a ride on a "choo, choo". They get quite excited about this and seem to look forward to it but when the said train arrives, it is invariably a thinly disguised farm tractor hauling some badly decorated (and disguised) trailers. Much more of this and he may go loco himself!
PS. the last paragraph was inserted just in case our gentle readers are concerned at the continuing references to food.

Well, off to Vienna tomorrow. Hi Ho.