June 21, 2022

We planned to visit Wachau Valley today and took the morning train to Melk, a small town on the Danube River. A short walk from the train station up the hill through the town’s main street was the Melk Abbey, the world's most beautiful abbey with more than a thousand years of history. The distinctive yellow-painted monastery was built on the cliff overlooking the Danube River. Converting a part of the abbey into a public high school now, it has a museum and a church and offers a guided tour in English. This place was spectacular in every aspect. The buildings and the surrounding garden were very well-maintained and beautiful. We visited the vast park first while waiting for our tour to start. The guided English tour took us through the museum, the library, and the church. The tour was informative and gave great insight into the abbey's history. Since no pictures were allowed inside, we only had pictures outside to share.

After visiting the Melk Abbey, we boarded the river cruise down to Krems, a charming medieval town located at the eastern edge of the Wachau Valley. While cruising on the Danube River, we saw many gorgeous castles and vineyards along the shores. The weather was perfect for cruising on the river. We had our lunch on the ship, and it was a relaxing and enjoyable ride. We also passed by a couple of big river cabin cruise ships. We had dreamed of taking a week-long river cruise on the Danube before this Europe trip, and today's short version river cruise could reduce our appetite for our dream Danube river cruise with just a small fraction of the cost of the big cabin river cruise.

Krems was a beautiful medieval town with many historic buildings and lots of small alleys with cobblestone streets to explore. Next to the Krems was its neighbor, another little medieval town called Stein, situated along the banks of the Danube River. This little town forms part of the Wachau Valley UNESCO World Heritage Site. Down to the alleys and up to the hills, we strolled from one town to another and had a great time. As we walked around and tried to find a place to eat, this lovely Spanish restaurant caught our attention, and we decided to have dinner there. We ordered Tappas, and the food was excellent.

We took the train back to Vienna. After arriving in Vienna, we decided to check out Belvedere palace. When we exited the subway station, we walked in the wrong direction and ended up at the Museum of Military History instead. When we finally got to Belvedere Palace, it was already closed. The guard at the gate was very friendly, and he let us go to the garden and took some pictures. The palace was huge and gorgeous.

欧洲游第三十二天:一早从维也纳坐火车来到多瑙河边上的一个小镇Melk(梅尔克)。小镇上有号称世界上最漂亮的修道院-Melk Abbey (梅尔克修道院）。这座已有千年历史的修道院建在小镇的山岩上，俯瞰多瑙河。跟着解说向导在里面走了一圈之后我们从梅尔克小镇坐游船沿着多瑙河来到下游的另一个小镇Krems an der Donau (克雷姆斯），沿路在河的二边能看到许多城堡，算是享受过了梦寐以求的多瑙河船游。另外我们还在小镇上吃了顿西班牙晚餐。味道很不错，也算是改善一下伙食。晚上回到维也纳后，又去了另外一个景点，可惜巳关门了，好心的门卫还是让我们进去照了几张照。感觉太阳落山后的维也纳街上游客少了许多，安静多了。