Viking's Grand European River Cruise: Melk & Krems, Austria

Viking River Cruise, Day 11:  Melk & Krems, Austria (Facebook collage)

(click any collage to enlarge)

I'll tell you right now from the get-go that this day is divided into 3 parts, starting after breakfast and ending before dinner.  Another full day!

The main excursion of the day was the Melk Abbey, after docking in Melk, Austria...a town of 5K+ population...while we were eating breakfast.  By 9:30 a.m. we were raring to go.

 And YES, we awakened to snow!

It was a short walk from the ship to our buses...with the Abbey already in view from the ship.

This is what Melk is known for:  the Benedictine Melk Abbey, founded in 1089.

The golden yellow against the white snow was magical...like a fairytale.

Sitting high up on the hilltop, the views to the town below are spectactular.

I am such a fan of archways and long corridors like this, both inside and out.

Part of the Abbey is a school for approx. 900 students, and I can picture walking these halls every day!

Our guide took us through several rooms, including the Green Room, the Abbey museum....

...the Marble Hall with its magnificant ceiling paintings...

and the library (where taking pictures was sadly prohibited).

Then it was down the famous spiral staircase from the library to the church.

Upon entering the Abbey church, we were then on our own to explore at will.

And to just stare!

I pictured myself as a student there, going to chapel every morning!

Don't you wonder how such an environment affects school kids!

And on that note...we left the Abbey and headed down the hill to the town.

It was an easy walk down, surprisingly.

The Abbey was visible from the town square as we looked back up.

What a sweet little town.

See what I mean?

And that little church we first saw from the Abbey...was open!

It was the last thing we saw before heading back to the boat...(and as of yet has no name!).

But it forever sits in the shadow on the Abbey up above, our last views...

...before crossing the brige to meet up with our boat, waiting for us on the Danube.

It was time for lunch!  We had worked up an appetite.

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Part 2 of the day happened after lunch when we cruised through the Wachau Valley.

On that freezing cold day, yes, we went up to the sunroof.

It sure beat running back-n-forth across the lounge to see the sights.

THIS is what I expected Austria to look like!  

  These were some of the churches we saw along the way...and vineyards, too.

And castles!  All in the span of 1.5 hours.  I don't think we could have lasted longer.

It so happens this valley is between Melk (think Abbey, our morning stop) and Krems, our afternoon stop.

It's 40 km (25 miles) in length and perfect for a scenic tour, no matter how cold!

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And now Part 3, Krems...or as you're about to see, it's neighbor, Stein.  It's a funny story, actually.  We were on our own to explore the city any way we wanted until suppertime...about 2.5 hours....

As plain as day, the sign said Krems.

Unbeknownst to us, we were supposed to turn right and walk about a mile to city center.

Instead, we turned left and within minutes were in THIS wee town...which we found out later, after the fact...
was Stein.  Kinda like a suburb?  A neighborhood of Krems, Wiki says.

 But there was method to our madness, you see.

From the boat we could see the high tower of this Frauenbergkirche.

Wouldn't YOU assume that was where we were supposed to go??!! 

Apparently this was St. Michael's church from 1081 but was desecrated in 1785

and restored 1963-1965 as a war memorial.  

Right next door is the St. Nikolaus Church.  Look at how close here.

Did you know St. Nikolaus is the patron saint of sailors?
This church is from 1400, hopefully helping sailors ever since...a short walk from the Danube.

We are gluttons for these small towns in Europe so close to the main rivers.

Did I mention it was the Tuesday before Easter, March 26?

 I don't remember seeing a single soul--or not more than a handful--that late afternoon.
(Everyone else must have been in Krems!)
But we sure got an eye-ful, and that was enough before heading back to the boat.

It was the only cruise day in which we made TWO stops.
And totally worth them both! 

Viking's Grand European River Cruise: Abridged

WE DID IT!  And for those of you who didn't see this on my Facebook page, here's the short version of our incredible 15-day river cruise in one swell foop:

Day 1: Amsterdam, Netherlands. 

The only thing we wanted to do today (besides find our longship, which is the middle one of the 3 above) was to walk to the Python Bridge from 2001, which we hadn't yet seen. It was a two-hour walk total and was a good way to start our cruise. So far so good. :)

[Amsterdam is in our backyard, which is why we didn't do anything else our first day.]

Day 2: Kinderdijk, Netherlands. 

We sailed through the night from Amsterdam to Kinderdijk where we just spent the morning. Before we lose our internet connection [which never happened!], while sailing the rest of the day and night to Cologne, here's a taste of Holland. Kinderdijk is just half an hour's drive from where we live in the Netherlands and is a UNESCO site...even on a grey winter's day.

[My blog header is from Kinderdijk and is another of our favorite backyard sites.]

  After Kinderdijk this morning we've been on the Waal river all day, sailing towards Cologne, Germany. We even sailed past our city, Gorinchem. Besides an obligatory fire drill, we played sjoelen (table shuffleboard). Astrid grew up on it and came in second, losing by one point. As she says, "More Dutch you cannot get!"

[click any collage to enlarge]

Day 3: Cologne, Germany. 

We've been in this one spot all day in gloriously SUNNY weather. The Dom/Cathedral is the main draw, but so is the St. Martin Church and the white Alte Abbey across the Rhine river. The Hohenzollern Bridge that crosses the Rhine has love padlocks the entire length (we're guessing over a million). Yes, we're in heaven!

 [We were at their Christmas markets this past December, for those who remember.]

Day 4: Koblenz and Middle Rhine, Germany. 

Today was a day of castles. First, this morning we took a tour through the Marksburg Castle, which is Germany's oldest castle that was never conquered or destroyed or damaged in its 800 years (top left image). In the afternoon we sat on the top deck in the sun, looking at some of the 29 castles on a 16-mile stretch of the Middle Rhine. Heaven!

 Day 5: Miltenberg, Germany. 

We're passing through 60+ locks on this cruise and today was the first day of watching several of them. We could reach out and touch the lock walls, that's how close we were.  Our excursion today was in a little medieval town, Miltenberg, with half-timbered, gabled houses. It was like a fairytale.

 Day 6: Rothenburg and Würzburg, Germany. 

We're on the Main River now, still sailing through lock after lock. Today we visited the best-preserved medieval town in Germany (Rothenburg), followed by Würzburg where we visited the Bishops' Residenz/Palace. As Astrid says, we're short of eyes!

 Day 7: Bamberg, Germany. 

We're on the canal between the Main and Danube rivers right now. It was a gloriously sunny day today but freezing cold! Bamberg is known for its rauchbier/smoked beer. :)

 Day 8: Nuremberg, Germany. 

This is Bavaria's 2nd largest city and is sister to Atlanta [where I lived 25 years]! No wonder I love this place, with its medieval old town and castle. We're still sailing the canal between the Main and Danube rivers.

 Day 9: Regensburg, Germany. 

We're on the Danube River now and this is its oldest city, among the best-preserved medieval towns in Europe. And because it's Sunday, we spent much of the afternoon inside many of its churches. South Germany is very Roman Catholic!

 Day 10: Passau, Germany. 

Before sailing into Austria tonight, we stopped this morning in this border town at the confluence of the 3 rivers, Inn, Ilz and the Danube. St. Steven's Cathedral, built in 1688, boasts the largest pipe organ outside of the USA. It's still bitter cold with off and on sun, but no rain! We even saw some snowflakes this afternoon.

Day 11: Melk and Krems/Stein, Austria. 

We woke up to snow today and then watched it snow all day. This morning we stopped in Melk to see the 900-year-old abbey. After lunch we sailed along the Wachau Valley and then stopped in Stein, next door to Krems, where we spent time walking through the little town. Snow and more snow, all day. 

We were like little kids!

 Day 12: Vienna, Austria. 

 It's impossible to synthesize this day into one collage, but here it is regardless. What can I say! You'd need to spend days here to "get" it. Just glad we could taste it.

 Day 13: Bratislava, Slovakia. 

We were here only for the morning but fell totally in love with this capital city, with a chance to visit the castle as well as the main square of the old town. Don't you love how they can take a joke!

Day 14: Budapest, Hungary. 

Today is our last full day of our river cruise. Lots of rain. Tomorrow we disembark and then stay another 4 days on our own to explore this incredible city, rain or shine. It really has been the trip of a lifetime for us both! Thanks to all of you who have been following it with us.

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We did indeed stay another 4 days in Budapest on our own to see the sights!  We flew back home to the Netherlands yesterday afternoon and are now getting back into the saddle.  Astrid is back at work while I start weeding through all the photos to make more complete posts.  Stay tuned!

 In the meantime, talk about "short of eyes," my favorite Dutch expression!

That's what my short post at Vision and Verb was about this past Monday.