Austria: Danube Valley, Melk and Mozart Concert

On the morning of June 27^th we woke up bright and early to start our boat tour of the Danube Valley, along the Danube River. During the tour, and during our whole stay in Austria so far, we saw many castles, and we learned that there are over 2000 castles in Austria. We also learned that over 40% of Austria is covered in forests. The Danube River is the 2^nd longest river in Europe, running over 2000km long, and going through 10 countries.
We were really lucky we picked today for our tour because, with the massive rainfall in the past few days, the river flooded the surrounding towns, and everything was closed and no tours were running. Today was the first day everything was back in operation.
We took the boat from the town of Spitz, north-west of Vienna, to the town of Melk along the area called the Wachau. Wachau, if pronounced badly, means “cow”. A nice waiter corrected our pronunciation while laughing at our descriptions of how beautiful the area of the cow was.
There are many vineyards and hills in that area, and the area is called the “Thousand Buckets Hill”. This is because it produces enough grapes to make 12000 gallons (or 1000 buckets) or wine in a season. The photo below shows a hill with rows of grape vines along it:

The view of the countryside from the boat was just beautiful, so much vegetation!

We passed by the banks of the town of Willendorf. This town is famous because it is the location where the statue “Venus from Willendorf” was found. The figure is 35,000 years old and is only 4.4 inches tall. It was found in 1908 and it is now housed at the natural history museum in Vienna.
We then passed the ruins of the medieval fortress Aggestein, built in the 12^th century. It is said that they made their prisoners jump to their deaths off the high cliffs.

After that we passed by the Schonbuhel Castle. It was originally built in the 12^th century, but then was rebuilt in 1819-21.

We loved the boat ride, it was such a peaceful and relaxing way to view the beautiful country of Austria.

We finally arrived at Melk, our final destination. Melk is a small town along the Danube most famous for its baroque Benedictine abbey, founded in the 11^th century.



Inside the abbey was a museum of paintings, furniture and artifacts. One of the weirdest things we saw in the museum was a reusable wooden coffin. I forget when exactly they were used, but they were not accepted by the Austrian people, so after only a few years they were taken out of use.
They function somewhat like a normal coffin. The dead is put inside, and the funeral takes place. The coffin is then lowered into the ground, and a latch is pressed to open the bottom. The body falls out into the grave and the empty coffin is used for the next funeral. How disturbing!!

The abbey had many beautiful rooms including the Marble Hall:

The library:

It also had a beautiful view of the countryside and town:

That evening we had tickets to a Mozart concert, where all the musicians dress in typical Mozart era clothes.
The concert hall was beautifully decorated, like everything else we’ve seen in Vienna and Austria.


The concert was really good, and it was a great last night in Vienna and a last night with my Mom before she left for Toronto and I left for Rome.