Melk....Welcome to Austria where they spend more on opera than the military....
We are docked on a wide stretch of the Danube. The elevation here is higher with the river sculpting a swath through the heavily treed landscape.
Our guides lead us on a path through the forest on our way to the Abbey at Melk. Later on this morning we will wish we had taken bread crumbs with us. Melk is a small place and without the tourism draw of the Abbey there would not be much here. The town is charming with its narrow streets and traditional houses.
We are visiting a working Abbey. The complex is huge. Thirty Benedictine monks are in residence but fifteen of them are busy administering the twenty-three parishes in their bishopric. Nine hundred students attend a secondary day school within the walls for a fee of 90 Euro. The monks own 10,000 acres of land, the profits from their vineyard and forestry enterprises fund the order.
Our entrance is through the prelate's courtyard that abuts the monks' residence. Once inside, we climb the imperial staircase of Charles VI to access the museum rooms.
The museum is set up shotgun style with each room opening to the next. Each room is filled with treasures. There are jeweled reliquaries, chalices and intricately embroidered vestments and mitres, some still used for Christmas or Easter services.
The decor is high Baroque. With the plagues behind them, people rediscovered a passion for life and built tall and heavily decorated churches to approximate heaven on earth. One of the rooms contains a poor man's bible, a double sided altar screen painted with scenes from the life of Christ. The illiterate parishioners learned their religious history from such paintings.
The last museum room opens into the Marble Ballroom. The walls are framed with Salzburg marble and the ceiling is a full length troupe l'oeil fresco so painted as to suggest a steep dome. In reality the ceiling recess is only 1.5 meters.
The ballroom opens onto the grand balcony and Austria is laid at our feet with the Danube winding westward.
From here we enter the library. No photos are allowed here but given the opulence of the ones I have posted you can imagine the marquetry floors ringed with bookcases filled with leather and gilt bound books. There is a gallery above with eight levels of bookcases and below there are ten levels. Extending into twelve rooms the library holds 100,000 volumes, the oldest from the year 830 AD. Inside this beautiful room there are hidden doors within the bookcase that could be opened to allow the monks more light for their study.
Now we enter the cathedral. In such an ornate, opulent and royal place one's mind can't help but be reminded of the poverty of the time. Of course, church construction and restoration did employ generations of stonemasons and artisans. Enduring beauty and history aside, it is almost embarrassing to view. I am reminded, though, that long before there was a V&A, a Tate or a MOMA, an Accademia or an Uffizi, art was enjoyed from churches. The church sponsored, commissioned and protected all these works...the early museum.
No visit would be complete without a stroll through the garden. There are eight acres of pristinely manicured lawn, shrubs and blooming plants. A conservatory turned cafe anchors the center. The Danube valley lies below the back garden wall.
Doug and Lynn join us for a stroll through town. We stop to taste the apricot specialties from the region: liqueurs, jams and chutneys. We purchased an interesting apricot/chili liqueur that we will add to our collection. A little chocolate and granddaughter purchases later we head back to the ship.
This is where the breadcrumbs come in.....we missed the forest shortcut and walked forever until we reached the river. Guess what?...no ship. We asked an officer on a Viking ship if he could call the harbor master but he said he didn't have the number. Now that hardly inspires confidence! Paul had glommed onto a woman with a name tag from the ship berthed next to us thinking she was staff. Not so, she was just another lost passenger but he is following her at great pace. Meanwhile I ask a taxi driver and he says the MS Treasures is at dock 35. I signal to Lynn that they are going in the right direction and rush off to rescue Paul and his companion.
Well we all made it back in time to push off and head down Wachau Valley toward Vienna. The peaks are higher now with a castle or two on the way, and this beautiful church.
We are docked on a wide stretch of the Danube. The elevation here is higher with the river sculpting a swath through the heavily treed landscape.
Our guides lead us on a path through the forest on our way to the Abbey at Melk. Later on this morning we will wish we had taken bread crumbs with us. Melk is a small place and without the tourism draw of the Abbey there would not be much here. The town is charming with its narrow streets and traditional houses.
We are visiting a working Abbey. The complex is huge. Thirty Benedictine monks are in residence but fifteen of them are busy administering the twenty-three parishes in their bishopric. Nine hundred students attend a secondary day school within the walls for a fee of 90 Euro. The monks own 10,000 acres of land, the profits from their vineyard and forestry enterprises fund the order.
Our entrance is through the prelate's courtyard that abuts the monks' residence. Once inside, we climb the imperial staircase of Charles VI to access the museum rooms.
The museum is set up shotgun style with each room opening to the next. Each room is filled with treasures. There are jeweled reliquaries, chalices and intricately embroidered vestments and mitres, some still used for Christmas or Easter services.
The decor is high Baroque. With the plagues behind them, people rediscovered a passion for life and built tall and heavily decorated churches to approximate heaven on earth. One of the rooms contains a poor man's bible, a double sided altar screen painted with scenes from the life of Christ. The illiterate parishioners learned their religious history from such paintings.
The last museum room opens into the Marble Ballroom. The walls are framed with Salzburg marble and the ceiling is a full length troupe l'oeil fresco so painted as to suggest a steep dome. In reality the ceiling recess is only 1.5 meters.
The ballroom opens onto the grand balcony and Austria is laid at our feet with the Danube winding westward.
From here we enter the library. No photos are allowed here but given the opulence of the ones I have posted you can imagine the marquetry floors ringed with bookcases filled with leather and gilt bound books. There is a gallery above with eight levels of bookcases and below there are ten levels. Extending into twelve rooms the library holds 100,000 volumes, the oldest from the year 830 AD. Inside this beautiful room there are hidden doors within the bookcase that could be opened to allow the monks more light for their study.
Now we enter the cathedral. In such an ornate, opulent and royal place one's mind can't help but be reminded of the poverty of the time. Of course, church construction and restoration did employ generations of stonemasons and artisans. Enduring beauty and history aside, it is almost embarrassing to view. I am reminded, though, that long before there was a V&A, a Tate or a MOMA, an Accademia or an Uffizi, art was enjoyed from churches. The church sponsored, commissioned and protected all these works...the early museum.
No visit would be complete without a stroll through the garden. There are eight acres of pristinely manicured lawn, shrubs and blooming plants. A conservatory turned cafe anchors the center. The Danube valley lies below the back garden wall.
Doug and Lynn join us for a stroll through town. We stop to taste the apricot specialties from the region: liqueurs, jams and chutneys. We purchased an interesting apricot/chili liqueur that we will add to our collection. A little chocolate and granddaughter purchases later we head back to the ship.
This is where the breadcrumbs come in.....we missed the forest shortcut and walked forever until we reached the river. Guess what?...no ship. We asked an officer on a Viking ship if he could call the harbor master but he said he didn't have the number. Now that hardly inspires confidence! Paul had glommed onto a woman with a name tag from the ship berthed next to us thinking she was staff. Not so, she was just another lost passenger but he is following her at great pace. Meanwhile I ask a taxi driver and he says the MS Treasures is at dock 35. I signal to Lynn that they are going in the right direction and rush off to rescue Paul and his companion.
Well we all made it back in time to push off and head down Wachau Valley toward Vienna. The peaks are higher now with a castle or two on the way, and this beautiful church.
We are headed into Vienna tonight for a gala evening at a palace...I will post on this later.
The opulence of the cathedrals is forcing me to rethink the decor of our home....I've also think candelabras are a bit under represented
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