On Melk

*Nick in Vienna

I promised awhile back that I would write something about Melk, a monastery town that we visited with my family as a day-trip when they were here over Christmas. I mainly just want to show some pictures because it was an amazing place.

We left in the morning and caught a train to Melk from Vienna that took a little over an hour. They have a ticket here where 5 people can ride for 27 euros on a regional train, which is a pretty amazing deal. I, like most Americans, continue to be amazed and very jealous of Europe's train system. I realize it is unlikely that Americans will ever have something like this, but I, for one, would be more than willing to have higher taxes to have more trains, but I hate driving.


Anyway, we arrived in the town and started heading to the monastery. Luckily it wasn't too difficult to find because it looks like this (my brother took this picture). It was a very cold, windy day but that seemed to cut down on the tourists which was nice (and kind of a theme of my family's visit). We managed to get there just in time for a tour of the monastery in German and English - not sure if that was planned or we just go lucky. The tour is the only way to see the monastery, which is still functioning, and they keep pretty close tabs on us. They locked every room right after we left it, for example. The tour was very interesting, and if you ever find yourself in Austria definitely worth your time and money (especially if your parents are paying for it). One highlight was a reusable coffin, which I sadly don't have a picture of.


Half way through the tour we went out onto a terrace. Even though it was very cold the view was quite spectacular. I imagine it is also very lovely in summer, but I thought Melk did quite well for itself in the winter.

Next we went through a really cool library (that I might end up using) and then the highlight, an extremely lavishly decorated baroque church. I've never really been in anything quite like it, and I've been in quite a few churches over here. Here are a couple pictures, including one of the bones of a saint (can't recall which one).


After the church we made our way into the town for a very nice late lunch. We then walked around the town for a little while, but it was really just too cold to do much else, so we headed back to Vienna.