Woke up at 5:30 this morning and made sure it was really 5:30.

6:30 finally arrived and we had another great breakfast.

. Diane is goingto take a camera down tomorrow morning so she can remember what a great breakfast looks like. Perhaps she will be motivated to start getting up at 3:30 every morning and making a great breakfast. Or not.

It is Friday. We decided to ride the boat the Danube today from Melk to Krems. Old legs are still tired from all the walking yesterday. I cannot tell how many times I have heard that we walked 15 miles yesteday. I think pedometers have their place and then there are times that they are better forgotten.
We had to rush breakfast a little so that we got to the tran on time. Rushing breakfast was not a popular choice with some of the team members.
After the mutiny quieted down we went to the train station, got the tickets, and got some pretty vague directions on how to take the train to Melk, which is where the boat ride is supposed to start. There is also an abbey in Melk that we are going to visit.
We got on the first train. Some of us were full and happy, some of us were kind of full and kind of missing the unfinished breakfast we had left behind. Once we arrived at the station where we had to transfer we asked the official train information for information. He was a bit cranky. Perhaps he too had been separated from unfinished breakfast this morning.
Fortunatley the Austrian people in general seem very happy to help dumb looking hicks from the States. The train that we were told to take never appeared but a nice young lady helped us on the right train and since she was taking the same train even told us to get off when we got to our stop. We must really look like clueless lost tourists. But apparently we look nice because we keep getting helped. Never the same person twice though.
When we got off the train the abbey was right there.
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The Melk Abbey as seen from the train station

Why should anyone need to ask directions when it is so obvious where the Abbey is. It is right there. The big thing on top of the hill.

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Part of the defense of old Austrian towns is a network of confusing crooked roads. They are never straight and do not end up where you would expect them to. The attacking Vikings must have gotten lost several times while trying to locate the front gate. I know I did. Fotunately we happeed across the boat dock. We will not need to woory about rushing to look for it after we finish touring the Abbey. The boat dock was not near the front gate.
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The big tour busses do not get this view of the Abbey. A dozen or so junior high school age girls came bursting out of the bushes. There was a path that led up the very steep hill the Abbey was situated on. I thought we should take the path they came down becasue it led up to where the Abbey was. Diane suggested the old ladies in the tour busses probably did not use that path to get to the entrance of the Abbey. And since she left her poles at the hotel she was not going up this steep path any time soon. We then did what no self respecting husband ever does. We retraced out steps and looked for someone we could ask directions from.

The Melk Abbey as seen from the back

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We met some more nice people. This time they were Americans who were also lost but they told us where the information office was.

To insure we did not get lost in the Abbey, we signed up for the guided tour.

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These monks had to much money

Wallpaper would have been easier

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These books can still be checked out

Spiral staircase

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The column are part of the painting

The banquet hall. The musicians sat beind the round windows.The windows were shut if the band played to loudly.

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. Since we knew exactly where the boat dock was we did not waste any time getting to the boat.

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Castle on the Danube	Church on the Danube
another Castle on the Danube	another Church on the Danube

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Arrived at the town safely. Was directed by the team members to go directly to the information desk and get directions to the train. Did so.
The town center of Krems is about 1/2 mile from the boat dock. The city center was a nice long street with many small shops.

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Found a nice park. Had a picnic by this fountain.

rainbow in the fountain.

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Fell asleep on the train back to Vienna
Plan on walking along river and through parks tomorrow as the sights will likely be crowded as Autrians enjoy their weekends.