“To travel is to take a trip within yourself” Danny Kaye
The cruise up to Passau was pleasant, in the way that we woke up and were already there. Waking up somewhere you didn’t fall asleep is always interesting and we’ve been doing it daily on this trip! We took a walking tour in the morning and straight off the boat saw this little park down where the rivers meet, Passau is the city of three rivers, and they were setting up for quite the shindig. A beer and comedy festival with tents and music, really quite the event. Everywhere we’ve been they appear to be doing something every weekend but from what I’ve heard about the winters I would use every bit of nice weather I got too! We walked along the river and saw a religious pilgrimage site with 321 steps leading up to a church where people stop and pray on each one and a nifty thing about this church is there is a brewery attached so as we were informed technically the beer they brew is holy, not sure if that’s true or not but it was tasty. Another interesting, yah, let’s say interesting tidbit, is right below this church once lived “maybe the most hated man on all the world, maybe” as the guide put it, you have an idea who that might have been? Yah, it was hitler. He apparently fell in the river as a boy and nearly drown before some dumbass saved his shitty life, something the other boy who grew up and became a priest apparently regretted later on life. (Hitlers house)An interesting thing that happens when you live where three rivers meet is they tend to flood, a when they flood, they flood a lot. Over the last 100 years this little town had really been put to the test and as recently as 2013 when the rivers came to collect the lands between them. Apparently the villagers accept this as part of life and claim this is where is home and they wouldn’t think of leaving. We saw some photos when the flood came and it covered everything with mud and silt from the river bed and took a great deal of effort, manpower and will to clean but they claim the village is more beautiful now than it has ever been, and it is a pretty beautiful little village. 
At the end of our walking tour we attended a organ concert where someone played the largest organ in Europe which happen to be in this small town. To be honest, Alex and I both agreed we could have taken or left this part. While it was interesting to see and hear, the guy started playing and then played some more and some more and some more and some more and some more and some more and some more……I’m sorry I drifted off there. Ah hem, anyway he was ok but in all honesty he was kinda sloppy and droning, then again I am a bit quick to judge as I play music myself and it seemed like he was phoning it in. We were not the majority it would seem as some people reacted as if god rode the notes into their ears and set up shop in their heart. And well good for them, their god likes sloppy music with rolling slurs and unenthusiastic movement all played in double forte. (Picture or the organ)We walked through town on our way back to our ship interlacing side streets as we were followed by elderly lost ship patrons stalked us down the streets like a jerryatrick lion dressed up like dick van dyke in the first scene you saw him in Mary Poppins. We had a quick lunch on the sun deck back aboard and an even quicker nap and then it was off again! Our drive consisting of an hour and a half passing in and out over the Austrian and German boarder and we came to the small town of Schärding an adorable little place where all the buildings are painted different colors. 
From here and deciding we hadn’t had enough cruise on our cruise, we went on a small separate river cruise! We went up a small environmentally protected finger of the river in a completely silent boat where the people aboard were dressed in traditional clothing and thus my obsession with lederhosen has officially started, to the woe of my future wallet, as apparently it’s not double or triple what I thought it would cost but five times what I though they get for those little shorts! Then again I learned much more goes into their making, they really are an impressive pair of britches. We learned on our tangent cruise about tricky Catholics who getting sick of fish and believing beaver tails looked like fish nearly wiped out the beaver population in this area, I’m just telling you want the guide said here people. 
Then came the beer and pretzels! They served it with this interesting yet tasty spread, a mix of Camembert cheese and butter with paprika and a little cumin. It was actually delicious although it was incredibly rich. Alex and I kept making note of how similar the scenery was to the Carolinas and parts of Tennessee. At points it looked just like some rivers we raft in NC. The river wound between to very small towns, literally one had only 10 buildings and the other wasn’t even visible through the trees. We pulled a super hardcore and slow motion 360 under a walking suspension bridge and tied to a staircase that led into the river, totally tubular. We walked the plank back to shore and crossed the bridge that seemed to dip under ever step, this was made worse when you would look down and the decking of the bridge was a metal grate. Coming off the bridge we learned that some fancy pants built a house on the river bank next to the bridge and he liked the way a plague monument looked so he made one for his back yard, like I said before the people here are macabre. 
Full of beer and pretzels we re-boarded our bus and took a lovey long drive through the countryside which seems to make up this whole country back to Passau and our original boat. One thing that’s become clear is that Germany is taking green energy much more seriously than we are back in the States, everywhere has wind turbines or solar panels, people in small houses all have little gardens in their yards in and out of town and many of the farms have parts growing maze for bio diesel. Many of the cars are electric as are the buses and taxies and trains. That being said and everywhere being so clean and pretty, you do tend to get odd whiffs every now and again, some from the river, some from of the sewers, but mostly from the old people that fart in public and blow your hair back as they pass you.
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!
After a lovely introduction to part of Europe and a wonderful day parading about Budapest we press forth! Away and up river lies our destination and we will find it with a laid back leisurely putt putt while we indulge ourselves with naps, fine food, and lovely entertainment. So much so it would make a Ancient Greek celebrating Dionysius blush. It becomes so incredibly clear why rich people with more money than sense get boats and putt about. From the party yachts of Caligula to the party yachts of pretty boy Leonardo DiCaprio, of which I assume similar acts take place upon, it would appear the best way to travel and indulge oneself. While drinking and partying to the excess of the previous mentioned might not float our boat so to speak we are finding the trip rather agreeable in a sense that connects you back to a basic human thread causing you to pause and breath in life. Even just two days in it becomes clear how quickly one is able to become so caught up with “life” in this case referring to work and plans for the future, school for Alex and general worry as we set plans in motion to to track our lives for years to come, you overlook “life” in the right now and here. At a pace akin to a Sunday walk, with no easy means to change the course we’ve placed ourselves for the next two weeks and after the familiar anxiety of trying to plan and think of what you must or need to do, you take a breath and realize sometimes the best part of life is doing nothing but being here, where ever that is, just alive. There are deep rooted differences between life in Europe at least in the areas I’ve traveled previously and where we are traveling now and life in America. The labels of past expansion to the “New World” from here the “Old World” fit still today it would seem as the way of life here and the way of life back home seem polar. Then again my perspective is most certainly not universal, but it is mine. There is great truth in the quote with today’s post. Interesting and incredible clarity comes with self discovery you can only find by placing yourself in different settings. From culture to langue to basic differences in human personalities or people who will debate different opinions contrary to your own and which on this boat we are graced with a plethora. It tantalizes my appetite of what’s to come as even as I myself have traveled before this experience, now older, no longer alone and married in fact, traveling with my wife (still weird to say) and by methods I couldn’t have dreamed of I’m my younger years this will prove to be something nearly unfathomable to predict and Alex and I can’t wait to continue. 
They continue to feed us excessively! We indulge them of course, to not be rude, and imbibe ferociously trying to find the bottom of our glasses. They have live music in the afternoon in the lounge and each evening which we have made a habit of attending. We have had good fun being sociable and informal with the staff whom are so professional it makes you feel like a Brit in one of the old imperialist films, in other words they are too nice and it makes us feel funny so we joke around with them as being pampered upon to this extent is unfamiliar. All the “Mr. Martins” seems unnatural and I love ever bit of it. Today we travel upriver most of the day and will arrive in Vienna tonight around 7pm in time to go to a Mozart and Strauss concert. We had a fire drill this morning which was interesting as we got to a late start on our breakfast and I took my coffee and pastry upon the top deck in my life vest. This afternoon we are attending a talk outlining and reviewing optional excursions to which we’ve signed up on nearly everyone and following that we will be having a Hungarian tea time during a presentation where they will be showing the traditional method of making apple strudel. This continues to be incredible in every way. 
Maybe even 9:45. Lol the whole area was on the Buda side of the river and high above everything else with spectacular views. There were many public bathrooms but these tricky little guys around here charge you to use them! So we found a Hilton hotel next to the church area and went right in and played the American tourist, acted like we knew what we were doing, wandered around till we found the bathroom and used it, free of charge and really showed it the what, what! We walked around the district and saw where they kept “Dracula” Vlad the impaler for two years in an underground prison cell.
Erroll & Alex's European Honeymoon Trip! 