Q and A with the Captin and the Melk Abby

“The world is a book and people who don’t travel, read only but one page.” – Saint Augustine. We had a laid back day, did a Q and A with the ships captain about the cruise, the route, and general boating questions. First off, as I can’t wait until further into this post but, if I gave you ten guesses you couldn’t guess our captains name, don’t worry I won’t make you guess and I’m not sure how that back and forth would even go, his name, waaaiiiitttt for iiiiit, Captain Tits. No for real, it is. I don’t think its spelled that way and the meaning from the pronunciation obviously doesn’t work the same from his native tongue, but he told a lovely story in which he confided his name and then just asked as we are English speaking to just call him captain in order to avoid any awkwardness, on our part at least. He was very patient with a wonderful sense of humor and answered every question our group could come up with and we couldn’t be happier with our captain and the crew. We were informed that on Friday however we would have to perform a ship swap. Apparently a lesser ship captain than ours thought he was a big boy and drove his ship with a ten foot draft into five foot water and got his barge stuck. It gets worse as dumb seems to travel in packs, his buddy, not willing to learn from what his very own eyes just witnessed, followed suit and piloted his little barge into the river bed as well. Now because of this roughly 50 miles of river are nigh impassable, that mixed with the lower water level, means we, unlike our Davey Jones predecessors, shall find a different route. Luckily we have gained passage on a great cruise line and we are being moved to a new ship at the next port. So Friday we take a bus to our next location like we would have anyway and then instead of coming back to the ship here, we go to the ship in our next location, so a very small change in comparison to how some companies sailing this river who are canceling trips or changing to bus trips! I’m extremely glad we are not having those issues! We arrived in Melk and walked a path to the location the buses were waiting to take us up to the Abby. The path ran along the river and we were passed many times by people on bikes, as it seemed we were on a incredibly popular biking path and even though I come from the land of flat, Florida, I was also tempted if we had more time to make a go of these beautiful hills myself. We got to the bus and took a slightly winding road up the “hill” more akin to a cliff face they scratched a road into as we got up to the Abby. We unloaded and had near a mile walk as a follow up to the mile walk we had to the bus, yup today was a walking day, well every day is a walking day, but this one was up hill both ways and on a mountain top so it seemed a little more pronounced. The grounds of the Abby were stunning but with the previous guest list containing kings and queens including Marie Antoinette I suppose it would. The Melk Abby is still a function abby with 30 full fledge monks ranging in age from 26 to one in his 80s. We took a tour of the Abby seeing religious relics, some creepy, some creepier and some that could feed whole villages. I’m not sure why monks need or needed so many solid gold items. A common thread of many items however seems to be macabre. So much stuff seems to focus on death and is represented with such beautiful art, it’s mentally and emotionally conflicting seeing something so intricate and beautiful that took months or years from a craftsmen’s life that is that is used or represents something so focused around death or punishment. We got an incredible view of the river and the small village from the back courtyard that was built flush up to the cliff face before making our way across the Abby to the library and down into the church. The library was like it manifested straight from Beauty and the Beast just slightly smaller. Full with metal spiral stairs, leather bound books from the floor to the ceiling written in many different languages, stained glass, and fresco painted ceilings. Unfortunately for y’all, we were not permitted to take any photos inside which get worse for the next part as I fear you won’t believe me. We headed down a stone spiral staircase and into the church covered in more gold then pews and here truly macabre things. Here they had more religious artifacts and they stepped it up a bit. One such item were the bones of a saint gifted to the Abby by Mother Teresa. They had the bones dressed in embroidered silk clothes and mask with gold thread and jewels positioned in the cleopatra pose inside a glass sarcophagus. This was one of three visible skeletons amongst several other tombs they had to the sides of the church just steps from the ends of each row of pews. Each of these closed and open resting places were of saints one having ties to John the Baptist. Another such relic was the jaw bone of a monk placed in a large open gold cross and a carved ivory box covered in gems containing what is believed to be a small piece of the cross that Jesus was executed on. I know religion is a touchy subject for some people but all I could keep thinking was do as I say not as I do. In this place where I saw more gold then in a tour of a museum exhibit of Golden items I couldn’t help but wonder what men who have taken a vow of poverty or god and his son the son of a carpenter whom lived a modest life would need with this many riches. How much good for the betterment of man kind could be done in place of this palace upon a hill? And while I think it’s wonderful to create something this stunningly beautiful as a physical manifestation of your faith it came at the detriment of the locals and gods own children. I don’t say this to provoke or insight anger, it’s merely my opinion, and I do not make a claim that no good has come from this place that would simply not be true as currently there is a school providing education for children amongst other things on the grounds. I suppose debate could fill months with conflicting ideas. I simply believe you don’t need more wealth than some countries or palaces upon mountaintops to help people nor in my opinion is that the best way to help the most people. This could also be said about many “non-profits” active today with six figure salary CEOs and groups keeping more money than they use to help their cause. Seeing the disproportionate allocation of wealth and silk and gem incrusted bones makes me itch and want to do more to help the world, it didn’t didn’t touch me deep inside to revel in the past or the dead. Now, saying more than I should have, y’all should have these these damn gardens! They were unbelievable and meticulously manicured. On the way back to the bus we ran to squeeze in time to see the gardens and as Alex would put it “spent to much time looking at bones and now had to rush” we got to the gardens and they had rows of manicured trees where they were kept cut like upside down bowls, where the undersides were kept flat. There was a building at the end of a large courtyard with rows of rose bushes in front of it. Inside this building was a little cafe we didn’t have time to enjoy and the most wonderful painted frescos. The building backed up to another side of the cliff face and had a walkway lined with trees leading down to the south. We took in the garden as much as we could before it was back to the bus and up river again to Passau!