October 30-Off to Melk, Austria

Left at 01:30 heading toward Melk, Austria. Our first indication of movement was the regular "Thump" of the side of the ship hitting the side of a lock.

Had another good breakfast with 'the gang' (several folks we have met along with Sue and John Low).

Discussion with our group leader, Marten. Gave us a lot of information about optional tours, the city of Melk and various rules of day to day operation.

The current is very strong and there are quite a few vessels on the Danube. We have had to wait several times for traffic to pass.



Got to Melk at 1:15, right on schedule. This town is mostly known for the Benedictine Monks who inhabit the Abbey.


The bus took us up the hill to the Abbey for a one hour tour of the outer edges of the abbey, There are still 30 monks living in this enormous building and the place was fascinating.




 After the tour, we walked down the hill back to the ship, passing thru the small town of Melk. The town is very old and quaint, set up for tourist shopping.

Tonight is Mexican night at the bar and presentation. I can hardly wait.....

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

November 3-Nurenburg

Image
Saturday, Nov. 3 If it is Saturday, this must be Nuremburg. Famous for its' WWII war crime trials, Nuremburg is also a classical German very old city. It had been the center of trade for many decades due to its' central location for rivers and trade routes. We had an excellent guide on the Red bus (there were three groups off the ship, Red-Blue-Yellow) who had a funny way of highlighting the various spots. We ended up in the market square, complete with quite a few vendor setups for tourists and locals. St. Peters' Church was on the edge of the market square. It is famous for the Glockenspiel clock and its' noon (actually 2 minute till noon as the Germans are very precise) performance. Glockenspiel on St. Peters Church Market square "Beautiful Fountain"--as it is truly called! At 12:05 (after the precise glockenspiel performance), the ship travelers gathered in the Bratwurst Rossele (sp?) restaurant for a paid lunch. Complete with bee...
Read more
Well. While we were at our Lake Erie Condo (doesn't that sound grand and pretentious !) , we decided to take a river cruise (again.) As we had been on a Viking River Cruise, we decided to try another line, one that seemed to be a quality tour. Grand Circle Cruise Line (GCT.) We read the reviews, had some recommendations from friends who had been on one of their cruises and figured "what the hell, go for it." Perhaps wrong. Here is the story to date, as this blog is being created Oct. 23, just 3 days before departure. Some emotion is left out, blood has been wiped off the page, and tears don't stain if you dry them quickly. 1. We paid the full price on time. 2. Apparently two separate accounts were created for us due to an administrative error at GCT. That caused several small problems with mail delivery to NY vs. Florida. 3. We were to receive the 'final package' three weeks before departure, something along the lines of the last week in September....
Read more
Image
Oct. 28-start of the cruise. Marvelous! Our bags arrived at the hotel! Fresh clothes! Sauntered down to the restaurant to get some coffee, at least 1,000,000 children running around the buffet. Will wait a bit to go down to eat. Grey, poopie  day so we will hang around the hotel till noonish and take a taxi to the docks and the ship. We should be able to board around noon. More later. Later. Checked out of the hotel@ 11:45, got a car to the ship. Settled in, had lunch, chilled out. Met Sue and  John as they checked in, had a beer and met folks they had met on a pre-trip stay in Prague. Listened to a welcome set of speakers and had dinner. Tomorrow is a full day in Vienna with a morning walking tour and a planned afternoon in a museum, exploring the subway to get there. More tomorrow.
Read more