Day 6 Linz

New Years Day. We had sort of a free day in Linz since it was New Years. I guess this was the only disappointing part of the trip. We were supposed to go to Salzburg, but it being New Years all the stops there were closed. I had looked forward to going to the Mozart Museum at his birthplace. Jim had the right outlook though--that just means we have to go back!!!

On our way to Linz, as we were going through the locks on the river, it started to snow. It snowed for the remainder of our trip. The swans seems to like the snow too--they were flying around the ship and landing in the river in front of us.

Sitting on the ship in one of hte locks on the Danube.

Melk

As we cruised to Melk, this imposing mansion was on the river. It was breathtaking.

You can see the Melk Abbey at the back of the picture. It was originally the home of the Habsburgs, the ruling family of the Austrian Hungarian Empire. Built in 1089, it has 500 rooms. It was donated to the Benedictine Monks to use as an Abbey. It is still an active Abbey. It also houses a Catholic school.

The most intriguing part for me was this library. Well there are actually 12 libraries and the house 100,000 books, many of them hand written manuscripts from the middle ages. Being baroque in style there are cherubs all over the room. It was unbelievable and the desire to take one of those books off the shelf almost overcame me. The books can still be used--under supervision.

The Abbey church is in all red, orange and gold. The gold is 14 ct gold leaf--of course. The pulpit is hand carved.

And of course what would be a church----without----a mummy?

Frescoes on the ceilings, well this isn't' exactly a fresco but it was beautiful beside the fresco.

This was the stairwell--I only had a quick second to snap this (illegal) picture when the nun wasn't looking. It seems to go down and up forever. I have no idea how many floors down or up it went. It was intriguing.

Jeff and Renie were our very special cruise friends. We met them on the first night of the cruise. They were so much fun--haven't laughed that much in ages. We are planning another cruise with them.

The Wachau Valley

The Wachau Valley is where most of the grapes are grown in Eastern Europe. I am used to seeing flat sandy land, or gently rolling hills with vineyards. So when I saw these vineyards that were practically straight up and down, I was amazed. Each level is terraced with rocks to hold it up. It is hard to see teh rock walls in these pictures, but each level is held up by a rock wall.


The vineyards on the mountains went on for what seemed like miles and miles. Every once in a while we would see someone out checking on them up high on the side of the hill. They literally covered the mountains in the region.