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Woke up in Melk this morning. We had a morning tour of Melk Abbey which is one of the biggest and most beautiful European Baroque ensembles. It has amazing architecture and is part of the UNESCO's World Cultural Heritage. The baroque building is situated on a rock overlooking the Danube. Some of the first Austrian rulers are buried in the abbey church and you can see the first house saint, Saint Coloman in the church. Since 1089 Benedictine monks have continued to reside and work in the Abbey. Following the rules laid down by St Benedict they try to traslate into action the words pray and work and read by working in pastoral care (the monastery is responsible for 23 parishes) and education (the abbey school is a secondary school with 920 pupils). The abbey museum is in an Imperial room contains an exhibition - The Path from Yesterday to today and tells the monastery's 900 years history in a modern way. Marble Hall, Library and the Abbey Church are special rooms with masterpieces of baroque design. The library has 16,000 identically bound books and is two levels. The abbey church is breathtaking with small alters around the sides, beautiful art works, painted ceilings, large organ and a magnificent altar. After our tour we walked down 250 steps and followed a windy cobbled path through a lovely village, walked over the green iron bridge and made our way back to the boat.
We started to cruise to Dürnstein which was first mentioned in 1192, when, in the castle above the town, King Richard I Lionheart of England was held captive by Duke Leopold V of Austria after their dispute during the Third Crusade. The castle was demolished by the Swedes in 1635. This castles' towering ruins were spectacular.
We hired bicycles and rode around Durnsteins' cobbled roads. Firstly we tried to book the bicycles on the boat, but they were taken so Herb our Tour Director offered to use his Austrian credit card at the bike rank and hired us four bikes, but we needed five. So back to the boat to try and see if there was another bike available. We ended up getting the Captains bike when he heard of our plight. We were having a wonderful time, then the skies opened up and torrential rain poured down. We made our way back to the boat and dried off. As quickly as the rain came, the sun came back out. We decided to take a small boat across the Danube and sample some of the local beers. The boat rank had a large metal bell that you rang which signalled the boat driver that you wanted to cross the river. It was a lot of fun.
Tonight is the Amadeus Crew Entertainment Night. It was hilarious.
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