Vienna Trip Report Day 9: Day Trip to Melk Abbey, Wachau valley

DAY 9, 25 NOVEMBER 2017, Saturday:

Before the report on the day trip here are some more pics from the previous day's Imperial furniture museum.

Ivory

Ivory and mother of pearl

Sisi's dairy farm furniture

Royal potties!! Ha, ha

Contemporary designs

The Wachau Valley:

The Wachau valley, UNESCO World Heritage Site, has a picturesque landscape formed by the Danube river.  It is 40 kilometres (25 mi) in length . The architectural elegance of its ancient monasteries (Melk Abbey and Göttweig Abbey), castles and ruins and the cultivation of vines are the main draw.

The 24-mile stretch of the Wachau between the towns of Melk and Krems is as pretty as river valleys come.

For a fine day trip from Vienna, catch the early train to Melk, tour its glorious abbey, and spend the afternoon meandering down the river to Krems by bike, bus, or boat. From Krems, catch the train back to Vienna.

From May through September, five boats a day make the 1.75-hour trip. (Because of the six-knot flow of the Danube, the same ride back upstream takes three hours.)

Boats were not plying during our visit, so we decided to use the bus; also in the off season, Melk abbey can only be visited through their tours, at 11 and 2. so we decided to make it in time for their 11m tour. Caught the 9.20 train from Vienna hbf to St Poltine, then transferred to Melk.

Tram to hbf

Melk is a small town on the bank of the Danube at the start of the Wachau region at an elevation of 228 metres (748 ft). 

An ancient town linked to the Romans (as a border post) and also to Babenbergs' times (as their strong fortress), it forms the western gateway to the Wachau. 

 Popularity is on account of the Benedictine abbey (founded in 1089 AD), located on a 200 feet (61 m) high cliff. perfect example of a "Baroque synthesis of the arts"

 Walked up the Abbey with a little help from locals. Bought the English tour ticket and had a lovely tour.

Melk Abbey (Benediktinerstift):

The restored Melk Abbey (Benediktinerstift), towers proudly over the Danube Valley. Established as a fortified Benedictine abbey in the 11th century, it was destroyed by fire. What visitors see today is 18th-century Baroque.

Today's Baroque abbey was built between 1702 and 1736. Particularly noteworthy are the abbey church with frescos  and the library with countless medieval manuscripts, including a famed collection of musical manuscripts and frescos .

Due to its fame and academic stature, Melk managed to escape dissolution under Emperor Joseph II when many other Austrian abbeys were seized and dissolved between 1780 and 1790. The abbey managed to survive other threats to its existence during the Napoleonic Wars, and also in the period following the Anschluss in 1938, when the school and a large part of the abbey were confiscated by the state.

The school was returned to the abbey after the Second World War and now caters for nearly 900 pupils of both sexes.

The grand restoration project — financed in part by the sale of the abbey's Gutenberg Bible to Harvard (which was later donated to Yale University) — was completed by 1996 to celebrate the 1,000th anniversary of the first reference to a country named Österreich (Austria).

For 900 years, monks of St. Benedict have lived and worked in Melk's abbey, during the Reformation (1500s), occupation by Napoleon (1800s), and the Nazis (1900s). Today, the institution survives, funded by agriculture and tourists.

High above the grand entry are the Latin words "Glory only in the cross" and a huge copy of the Melk Cross (one of the abbey's greatest treasures — the original is hiding in the treasury, viewable only with special permission).

Inside is the art-lined Imperial corridor, abbey museum, "Marble Hall" (made mostly of stucco) with an impressive 1731 ceiling fresco by Tirolean Paul Troger; library (with another Troger fresco), and the grand finale: the full-on Baroque church with its 200-foot-tall dome and symmetrical towers.

No pics allowed inside; here we are on the terrace

We had all the current timetables from the OBB website; knew there are WL1 buses 40 minutes past the hour to Krems. Our tour was over only by 12.25, we could not make the 12.40, so roamed the village a bit before retracing our way back to the hbf. 

The bus for 1.40 was already standing. It would leave a little later. We had our picnic lunch and then got on the bus , bought the tickets from the driver to Dürnstein, which is the town before Krems.

It was a scenic journey

 Dürnstein has the Kuenringer Castle (now in ruins), where King Richard the Lion-Heart of England was held captive by Duke Leopold V from December 1192 to March 1193 .

The ruined castle above town, where Richard was kept, can be reached by a fairly steep 30-minute hike with great river views.

After the lovely hike we walked along the banks of the Danube, watched the sun set around 4.30. 

then caught the bus to Krems.

There are 2 trains to Vienna from Krems one at 19min past the hour with transfer at St Polten, another at 51 min past the hour which is direct and goes to Franz Josef station in Vienna.

We missed the 5.19 train, bought tickets for the 5.51 train. Walked to the town center, looked at shop windows for some 10 min and walked back to the station. Our train was already standing. We sat in the top deck and reached Franz Josef station. Took bus no 5 and reached our apartment

It had been a GREAT day... pics do little justice to the mystique beauty we experienced!

Our report continues here:

https://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2017/12/vienna-trip-report-day-10.html