Melk & Vienna

Today was a lot. In terms of activity, stimulus, stress, excitement, fun and awe. It was all those things and more.

But it was also a wonderful day.

We woke early and I went to the restaurant and requested a pot of coffee for our room, which is a nice treat. Betsy went down for breakfast, but I didn’t feel hungry so I skipped it and continued to pack and get us ready to travel.

Adam, our Daytrip driver, was right on time and he loaded our luggage into a beautiful and comfortable BMW luxury sedan. Daytrip is a private transfer company that contracts with local drivers all over Europe. We’ve used the service several times and it takes the hassle out of moving from one city or region to the next and means we don’t have to haul our luggage on and off trains and buses. Adam is 21 and from Slovakia and he is intelligent and kind and interested in the world. We had wonderful conversations about Europe and America during our four-hour+ trip. He told us his favorite passengers are Americans.

We arranged the transfer from St. Wolfgang to Vienna with a two-hour stop in Melk, a charming Austrian village along the Danube River with a colossal abbey and church built high on the hill that dominates the skyline. The village is beautiful with cobbled streets and alleys and cafes and shops.

A monastery was founded on the site in 1089 and the abbey was built on its foundations in the early 1700s. Some 30 monks still live there and it hosts a school with more than 900 students.

We entered a beautiful courtyard and then into the museum part of the abbey. Photos inside were forbidden (or verboten in German), but Betsy isn’t the best rule follower, an admirable trait most of the time. We walked through gallery rooms filled with art and chalices and sacred relics and other items telling the history of the monastery, the Benedictine monks who founded it and Catholicism in Melk and the region. The restoration process was massive, beginning in 1978, concluding in 2018, with ongoing work beginning in two years.

Next we entered a large marble hall with frescoed ceilings painted to look three-dimensional.

The library was next, with 16,000 volumes in its main hall, two large globes and another frescoed ceiling. A locked gate prevents the public from climbing the spiral staircase where another 100,000 volumes, many medieval and some dating as far back as the 900s. There are six hidden doors in the bookcases. The Italian writer Umberto Eco drew inspiration from this library for his novel, The Name of the Rose.

We exited the library and walked down a beautiful marble spiral staircase. Mirrors at the top and bottom give the illusion that the staircase is infinite.

We stepped into the church, which was jaw-dropping and breathtaking in its ornateness. It has been described as the most beautiful Baroque church ever built and we believe it. It features a barrel-vaulted hall with side chapels. The interior is ostentatious, adorned with gold leaf, marble and stucco. The high altar features life-sized sculptures of Peter and Paul shaking hands as they part. An enormous golden crown hovers above them. The theme of the church is a celebration of victory over death.

When did they know they were finished? Betsy whispered, noting all the flourishes, carvings, sculptures and over-the-top features of the sanctuary. When were there enough cherubs? There must be hundreds.

Because of the location of the abbey at the top of the hill, we had great views of the landscape and the Danube.

From there, we were in Vienna in about an hour, but it took nearly another hour for Adam to negotiate the traffic and streets to get us close to our apartment. Much of the Old Town is pedestrian only or very restricted, so Adam dropped us within in a few minutes walk.

We stacked our luggage and began the trek into the old town. The cobbled streets made it impossible to roll the suitcases upright on four wheels, so we had to drag it on two. It was heavy. We must learn.

Our apartment is fantastic. High ceilings, spacious, comfortable and stylish and in a perfect location.

Since we have a kitchen and will be here for a few days, we needed to make a grocery trip for coffee, eggs and some other staples. It’s Sunday and most everything is closed, except one store about five blocks away.

As we walked to the store, we heard chants and cheers that sounded like either a protest or a celebration. The closer we got to that area, the more crowded it became, the louder the chants and shouts. We saw several police vans and at least 50 policemen surrounding the crowd. We learned it was a sort of pre-game rally for the big soccer game between Austria and Croatia.

Before we entered the store, we could see through the window that the lines to registers were crazy long. It looked like the kind of run on the store we make in the south when we expect snow flurries. We entered the store and every inch was crowded. We tried to hurry and grab eggs, bread, butter, yogurt, wine (they were out). It was mayhem. Employees were closing off sections before we could get to the aisles. We got a few necessities and escaped back to the streets just as store staff started running the large floor sweeper to herd out the customers.

It was an adrenaline pumping experience. We dropped the groceries at the apartment and sat for a bit to recover before heading back out on the streets.

We stopped at a pretty outdoor space to have a drink and talk about our Vienna plans and ended up chatting with a nice family from Munich. They said they were here a few days to attend a musical event. We assumed, since this is Vienna, that they were attending some classical concert or an opera. Nope, they were here to see Billy Idol of White Wedding and Rebel Yell fame. In fact, they said the last time they were here three years ago, it was also for a Billy Idol concert.

It was about 8 p.m. and all the great outdoor spaces were either full or closed because it’s Sunday, so we bought some food from a takeaway place that turned out to be pretty good and probably healthier and cheaper than what we would have had otherwise.

Tomorrow, we’re going to tour the city and its sites and hopefully catch some music in the evening, something other than Billy Idol, who I actually like but don’t want to see in Vienna.

More scenes from today