On Monday, our last day in Vienna, we decided to go the the Wachau Valley to cruise the Danube and visit the largest and most famous Benedictine Abbey in the country. Melk, where the Abbey is located, is about 1 1/2 hours outside of Vienna. The trip to the Wachau Valley took about an hour+ and then we boarded a river boat in the adorable town of Spitz. The scenery along the Danube River was nice with a number of small towns, medieval villages, ruins and castles along the river; and it was also dotted with lots of grape orchards. Along one section, there were a number of nude Austrian couples enjoying the river bank and the warm temperatures – it was a sight to behold! It was a beautiful day but it did make us realize (as we watched at least 5 large river cruise ships on the Danube) that the slow pace of a “sleep-on-board” river cruise is not for us. The scenery was lovely for our 1 1/2 hour cruise to Melk but could get quite monotonous if one was on board for a week to ten days on these very popular river cruises.
The monastery towers over the Danube and is located along one of Europe’s ancient trading routes in the Wachau Valley. The Melk Abbey is a very large, stunning structure; an historic beauty and still houses about 20 monks and a secondary school for 900 children. The abbey is over 900 years old and has been beautifully restored. It is immense; however, only a small portion of the Abbey is available to tour due to the monastery and school. We were very surprised to discover that at the Abbey’s peak, it only housed 100 monks. The Abbey was a gift from one of the Hasburgs that ruled Austria for 650 years. There are 8 libraries; however, we were only able to see two. The main library was quite spectacular with its 16,000 ancient books, richly-decorated galleries and the ceiling covered with awe-inspiring frescoes packed with precious leather-bound volumes. It clearly would be overwhelming to any book-lover. Actually, the library is still in use where a few gaps in the bookshelves showed. The church inside the Abbey is a masterpiece adorned with frescoes and ornamentation. The church itself made the visit worthwhile for us. The tour was informative but the church was much more decorative than we expected from Benedictine monks.
The Benedictines’ lifestyle is ascetic. Living in this splendor, no doubt, has to lift their spirits. You can’t help pondering about the monks’ extraordinary housing, gorgeous domed towers, baroque sculptures, gold-plated wood carvings, fine marble columns, a library packed with precious leather-bound volumes and a spectacular view across the Danube!
Overall, we had a very pleasant time on a very warm day. Tomorrow we are off to Prague for 6 days.
