Dürnstein und Melk

Posted on by Jon

-Got into small itty bitty and pretty town of Dürnstein in the morning. Dürnstein means dry stone, which is funny, as it rained a bit during the day.

-Took long and exhausting hike to top of hills to visit a castle. Castle was ‘home’ of King Richard the Lion Heart while prisoner after the Third Crusade. Castle destroyed by the Swedish in the 30 Year’s War in 1645.

-Visited little town afterwards and did some shopping.

Afterwards we got back on the ship and made our way to the small town of Melk in the same day, so we got to visit two small towns in 1 day.

After a couple hours, we made it to the town of Melk, and visited a wonderful Benedictine Abbey, originally founded in 1089, and turned into a grand palace and monastery in the 1700’s, visited on occasion by Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa. It is still a working Abbey and has around 25 monks still there, aging from late 30’s to early 90’s. Unfortunately photos were not allowed inside, but the museum inside had dozens and dozens of very old artifacts from around 1100 and beyond, including a 700 year old manuscript, many gem encusted chalices and crosses, the robes and incredibly detailed and fancy bishop-looking hooked staves and mitre of one of the leaders from th 1600’s. The church has skeletons of martyrs from Roman times on display in gemmed cloths.

You can see some pictures of the interior here, as well as more photos likely, with an additional search on line.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melk_Abbey

Photos here:

Castle on the hill up in the distance.
The Wachau Valley where this town and many others rest along the Danube is covered in vineyards for wine. A common and popular one here is Apricot wine!
Up through the town.
On the ascent.
Entrance to the defensive outer gate, where arrows and any projectiles possible would be shot or dropped.
Just behind this double gated section is where merchants and profession workers, like blacksmiths and more would be working.
Panorama from up on the ruins. If you’re in the middle looking at the river, the main castle section (on the left) would actually be directly behind you.
I’m not a quitter.
The Ama ship AmaMagna, the same exact length of our ship, the AmaLea at 443 feet, our ship’s width is 38 feet. The width of this one is 72 feet.
Melk with the great Benedictine Abbey in the background.
Neat ship docks designed to look like other ships.
Of the many churches I’ve been in throughout Europe, this is easily one of the fanciest and most ornate and decorated I’ve ever seen. On a walkway overlooking the church courtyard connecting the 2 main wings of the abbey.
A neat clock made around 1810 in the Austrian city of Bad Ischl. It is entirely original, save for a few small metal pieces that it was more recently repaired with. Still ticked and tocked quite nicely, and was neat to see the inner gears slowly ticking around. Video here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hT6dMSD3cGw

Leave a comment