Friday 10th August Melk

Friday 10th August  Melk

By the time we had partaken of the  usual magnificent breakfast, (I will take photos of the breakfast buffet
before I leave the boat & I will then expect congratulations on NOT doubling my body weight)  we were docked at Melk. Melk is the site of a magnificent Benedictine Abbey - existing building constructed in the early 1700's but Melk has long been a site for monks in one guise or another. It was built with the theory of this is what heaven looks like, so be good & play your cards right, this is where you will end up......in the meantime the monks do not have to wait til heaven as they have it now!!!  When Martin Luther took over all things religious in Germany & they  became Lutherans he closed all those monasteries which were just for contemplating navels (or praying), the ones which had some other role, school, hospital etc were left open,  seems fair enough to me.

More food, but so nice

Coloured houses along the river, Austria

Arty evening shot Austria

The entrance to Melk Benedictine Abbey

Melk Benedictine Abbey Austria

Model of Melk Abbey

Heaven on earth for the lucky Benedictine monks

Chapel Melk Abbey

In the afternoon the boat sailed on the Durnstein, another very picturesque river town, & we looked at another beautiful church.......filling in time till the 4pm wine tasting..... the various cellars in the town can open for wine tastings & sales for 3 weeks of the year & they coordinate so there is always on of them open & they do not encroach on each other's time.  I can't see this happening in Australia, you would always get some entrepeneur (read greedy bastard) trying to grab all the market share