The Wachau grand tour

It's been a whirlwind few weeks of lots of visits, so much that I sometimes get the feeling that my german is still recovering and maybe my english is still a bit more mumbly than usual (mumbly = normal for the viewers at home). Today we get a selection of photos from my parents' visit. As they make up a high percentage of the readership of this blog, detailing everything we did seems mildly perverse, but what what would a 'web log' be without the logging?

In the Wachau 1

I will pick one trip to describe in detail, as that's the one I have photos of. In addition to that though, we of course did and consumed plenty of things, including going to the zoo! It was way better than the last time I went, the nice weather had brought the animals out and we saw nearly everything. Highlights include the giraffes (it is so easy to forget how IMPROBABLE they look in real life!), the orang-utans and the polar bears in their new enclosure, including fantastic views of them diving and swimming. Yes, those are the polar bears which were catapulted to infamy around the same time when they ate a free-living zoo peacock. Oh and on the friday night we looked in a bunch of churches for the Lange Nacht der Kirchen and even got to hear a concert of proper old instruments, the theorbo and the viola de gamba!

In the Wachau 2

Although Vienna is of course a beautiful city with near infinite power to fascinate and provide sugary snacks in equal measure, it was agreed we would take a trip out of the city to give a taste of the rest of the country and its even more relaxed way of life. The decision was made to travel to the cliff and vine lined world heritage area of the Wachau, along the banks of the Danube about an hour to the West of Vienna. Through complete fluke, I managed to buy us the ticket which included a rail journey to one town (Melk), entry to their world famous Abbey, a trip down the river to the second town (Krems) and then a train home. A pretty good deal, even if I only realised what I had bought while perusing the ticket in the train!

Inside the church...

Melk abbey really is magnificent, enough to charm even a jaded catholic church viewer such as myself. The monastery is situated imposingly above the town and about 1/3 as large as it. Inside it is huge with vast corridoors stretching out all over the place. The exhibition was very well done, going in a much more spiritual direction than I feel we would have taken in the UK. Especially amazing were the 10th or 11th century portable altar and a 800+ year old sculpture of christ on the cross. Oh and the midday service in the vast church complete with organ was a real eye opener. The effect on someone from the 18th century must have been even larger!

1200 year old Jesus

A fascinating and macabre story is that of the Abbey's patron saint, St Koloman. An irish pilgrim in 1012 (according to tradition the son of an Irish king) was suspected of spying by the locals and murdered. However, out of remorse or some other motivation (the legend goes that the dead elder tree he was hanging on began to grow and flower again and his body did not rot) he was made a saint just a few years later!

Duernstein

Afterwards it was time for a leisurely voyage along the Danube. The Wachau is known for its dramatic cliffs, terraced hills overflowing with vines, and romantic perching castles. It really is a wonder and definitely great to see either by boat or by bike. We even sailed past Duernstein, the place where Richard the Lionheart was imprisoned, which boasts a ridiculous and impressive blue ornate church tower which features in the photo gallery.

Hope you enjoy the selected snaps!

Der Tom