We arrived in Emmersdorf around 8am this morning. When we opened up the curtains it was cloudy, cold and raining. Disappointing, but honestly we’ve had really wonderful weather so far, we,vet been lucky. It appears as if everyone snored last night or didn’t have a good night sleep. I’m naming any names on I got what, you know who you are.

Even though our ship was docked on the riverside in Emmersdorf, across the Danube was Melk, our first excursion location for the day. We caught a bus to the Melk Abbey, a UNESCO world heritage site and one of the biggest and most beautiful European Baroque buildings. Since 1089, Benedictine monks have lives in the abbey. Today, 30 monks still live there, but we didn’t see any. The abbey is dramatically situated on an outcrop rising above the Danube. We entered through an enormous courtyard, that had 4 modern paintings from the 1980s that represent wisdom, strength, modesty, and justice. We visited the Melk Abbey Museum, which was unusual and hard to describe the way it was organized. We learned that the Abbey has 60 rooms, 1400 windows, and has a working school on the premises. 700 children attend , and this private school is part of the public system, and costs only 80 euros a month to attend. The frescos on the ceiling we re beautiful. Maria Theresa lived there during her for year reign. She had 16 children, one of which was Marie Antionette.

We walked outside along a balcony that provided beautiful views of Melk and the Danube. Inside was also an enormous and quite beautiful library that houses over 100,000 books and manuscripts. The librarian speaks 12 different languages, and we only saw 2 of the 12 libraries. If you read a book a day, it would take you 280 years to read everything. We couldn’t take photos, but I tried to sneak one. The library has secret doors that lead to windows. The oldest book is over 1000 years old. We visited the Abbey Church which had an immense amount of gold leafed items, it was shocking. We all bought a little something in the gift shop.

We then walked to the city of Melk, which while shrinking in size is allowed to still be called a city. It’s known for its apricot marmalade and liquor. It was cute and quite small. We caught the bus back to the ship. We ate lunch and took off for Krems. Along the way, Claus provided commentary during the scenic cruise down the Danube. It was cold and then raining again, but Bowman and I braved the weather and sat on the top deck to take photos.,hot chocolate and cookies helped until we had to found a low bridge and everything on top had to be lowered. Along the cruise we saw the Wachau Valley, rolling hills, delightful little villages, and of course the occasional castle, church, and vineyards

• Schloss Schoenbuehel – magnificent castle on the rocks right on the Danube. It was the first castle we saw after leaving Melk
• Schallaburg Castle
• Aggstein Castle – ruined castle on a high hill, dates back to the 12th century
• Willendorf – village where the Willendorf Venus was discovered. A 30,000 year old statue now on display in a museum in Vinpenna
• Hinterhaus Castle ruins near the village of Spitz
• Durstein Castle and a beautiful blue Baroque style convent

In the afternoon, George, Carol, John, Bowman and mom went to the Winzer Krems Sandgrube 13 winery, that’s actually co-op. They tasted 3 whites and 2 reds. The tasting rooms were quite beautiful. One of the drools had a map of the region that appeared on the floor, lit up. They watched a multi-sensory 4-d movie that provided smell during the experience. During the tour they learned about how the vines are tended, for example, in the winter they prune and prepare the vines for the following year. They visited wine cellar where they saw the stainless steel tanks. George and Mom bought a Gruner Veltliner and everyone had a lovely time.

For dinner tonight we had all traditional Austrian food, had a tour of the kitchen, musicians played an accordion and a guitar-like instrument.