Danke, Danke, Danke Schön!: May 31st: Monks and Moors

Back to blogging! Note: I realized I left something out of my May 30th post, so I just updated it. Check it out!

On Thursday the 31st we took another excursion outside of Vienna, this time to Stift Melk, or Melk Abbey. We arrived early (before our scheduled tour), so we had plenty of time to explore the small town of Melk. It was a lot of fun! We found an antique store, a bakery, and a chocolate shop all in close proximity, so we took the opportunity to buy some souvenirs and/or food. One interesting thing I noticed was that many of the stores we walked into had fancy liquors for sale, and the storekeepers were all very enthusiastic about offering samples. I'm surprised we weren't drunk by the time our tour started! The tour of the abbey was one of the best tours of the whole trip. The first part was laid out chronologically, so we were able to see the history of the abbey from its founding in 1089 to its "baroque-ification" in the 1700s to its present state. Our guide spoke very dramatically ("Join me... on a journey... to the NEXT ROOM!" Okay, that was an exaggeration, but you get the idea), and it made the tour all the more enjoyable. After learning some about the history of the abbey, we stepped into an incredible hall that was decorated in an elaborate Baroque style. Particularly impressive was the ceiling fresco; the ceiling of the hall was not a true dome, but it appeared to be so because of an optical trick incorporated into the painting! After the hall, we stepped out into a large terrace-like area and enjoyed the sunlight for a few minutes before heading into the library. We weren't allowed to see all of it, but it was a truly massive place with over 100,000 books, some dating back to antiquity. One interesting feature was that the main room of the library did have a true dome, also with elaborate frescos, so we were able to compare it to the previous hall. I never would have known the difference if our tour guide hadn't pointed it out. After the library we headed down a totally awesome spiral staircase (it had a mirror at the bottom of it to make it look bigger) into the next room, the cathedral. It was probably the most ornate cathedral we had seen yet, covered in gold and sculpted with an unbelievable degree of detail. The best part, however, was the pair of skeletons... There were human skeletons, the remains of two "unknown saints" that had been given to the church... somehow(?), dressed in ceremonial robes and placed in windowed chambers at opposite sides of the cathedral. The weirdest part is that they were posed, one of them kind of like a model. Oh, and they were given the random names Friedrich and Clemens. Cute. The cathedral marked the end of our tour, so next we decided to take a walk through the abbey park. It was a really chill place, perfect for monastic people but kind of boring for touristic people like ourselves. Thus we didn't stay long before heading into the gift shop. It had a selection of several fine wines and liqueurs that were brewed by the monks, so I picked up a bottle as a souvenir before we headed out to go back to the train station. When we got back to Vienna, it was almost time for dinner, so we headed off to the Museums Quartier, a very popular area for college students and other young adults. There we were treated to another free dinner from our professors at a biergarten called Gangl. Everyone—except Dr. Toub—enjoyed the entrées, and some of us enjoyed the beer, but my favorite part was my dessert, "mohr im hemd." The name means "moor in a shirt," which I find odd, but I suppose you could make the connection; it was a chocolate bundt cake with hot fudge and whipped cream on the side. Apparently it is a popular Viennese dessert, and for good reason, because it was delicious! After dinner, some of us decided to go down to the Danube to see a special area with shops right on the waterfront. Unfortunately we got there too late and everything was closed, but we stuck around for a few minutes anyway just to enjoy the atmosphere. After that we headed back to the hotel and socialized for a bit (my friend, Rosy, ended up climbing a tree in our courtyard, that was fun!) before calling it a day.

PHOTO UPDATE: