Kylin's European Grand Adventure: Day 16

This morning after breakfast we walked though the woods into Melk and up to the monastery. The steps up to the monastery were not that steep so we decided to walk down and do them over. The monastery was amazing. It was a castle prior to the owners giving it to the church for their use. There are 30 monks living there now and there is also a school and a retreat housed there so there are no empty rooms.

Some of the rooms are faux painted again to resemble marble. You can tell the difference only by the touch. Real marble is much cooler to the touch! The monastery was remodeled to the baroque style after the dark ages. Gold was used to resemble heaven and since money was scarce, most of the statues, etc. are plaster and covered with gold leaf to save money! Since the dark ages had so little joy, it was important to them to add joy so the use of gold/heaven was important. The color yellow symbolizes gold or $ so that is why one sees so much of it here. Green symbolizes new growth. Baroque emphasizes symetry so there is also balance in architecture and the gardens. We found a path which lead to a beautiful flower garden filled with most of the flowers we have in our yard -- black eyed Susan's, sage, Veronica, salvia, zinnias, hydrangeas, etc. Really pretty!

We spent time going through the shops and then walked back to the ship for lunch. We sailed from 2-4 and then arrived in Durstein where we once again walked through the village. This walk was much steeper and taxing than Melk. According to Barb's pedometer, we walked 14,000 steps and 50 levels today.

Vienna tomorrow!

Melk Abbey

Town of Mel

Knitted bicycle art

Ceiling in entrance to second floor of Abbey

Green room in exhibition hall

Melk Abbey church

Coffin designed by one of the rulers: the coffin has no bottom so the body slips right through to a big hole in the ground. Economical use of wood and ground! People did not buy into his idea.