Melk Abbey was the inspiration for Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, which I have read a couple times and enjoyed very much. I was disappointed to find that the medieval buildings were pulled down in the Hapsburg days and the whole place done in Baroque style with lavish rooms for visiting royal guests.
I guess that is sort of like Rome being rebuilt in the Renaissance and if you want to see older church art, you have to go to Ravenna, where the pope was in exile following the Visigoth invasion in the 5th-c.
The morning was foggy when about half of us arrived at the abbey for Sunday Mass.
I'm not Catholic, but I am perfectly capable of sitting in the church, enjoying the organ and praying for those around me. I snapped this picture before we were told no pictures were allowed inside the buildings.
I was sorry that we had to leave early for our tour. We tried to be subtle, but the floors of the pews creaked, and I'm afraid we were a distraction.
The abbey sits high on the cliffs overlooking the medieval town and the river.
We could even see our boat not far away.
In the above picture we are headed into the famous library (central to Eco's medieval mystery.) We only saw two rooms (and were not allowed to take pictures.) The other ten are up or down a winding stairway. But the rooms we saw were awesome, two story affairs. I have already told the Lord that that's what I want for my room in heaven--two-story, floor-to-ceiling, dark-wood bookcases with all the best books I didn't get to during my lifetime on earth plus the ones worth re-reading in eternity. I don't need the ostentatious decoration of the Hapsburgs, however. (Here are some
photos from the Internet.)
On our way back to the boat, we stopped for a wine tasting, accompanied by local entertainment.
The climate of the region is good for a particular kind of white wine, unique to the thousand acres of the Wachau Valley.
From there we walked back to the boat past this lovely view of the abbey where I took the earlier picture of the boat.
After another gourmet lunch, we spent the after cruising the Danube past villages and a couple more locks.
Salzburg is on the schedule for tomorrow, but it is a two-hour bus ride from the river, returning to Passau, Germany. I'm thinking I may stay on the boat and enjoy a leisurely cruise instead.
Concert Content:
October 23/Melk Day - Amadeus Queen
- Mozart: Sonata for Violin and Piano in C Major (1778)
- Maria Theresia von Paradis (?): Sicilienne
- Brahms: Violin Sonata No 1 in G Major
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