Europe Holiday Part 5

That night we went to the Mozart/Strauss Concert in the Kursalon, the building where Strauss used to play - this is a statue of Strauss.












The next day we went on a tour of the Wachau valley which included a cruise on the Danube.












Because they are not allowed to build bridges over this stretch of the Danube this is one of the ferries that plies back and forth across the river.





We could have been back on the Rhine with the lovely castles and building along the river.

After completing the cruise we arrived at the Abbey at Melk which was, indeed magnificent.

It is still used by the abbotts and is also a school for the local children.

These are the views from the upper level of the abbey.

This bishop's cloak is still worn today at Easter celebrations.

The frescos are beautiful

and the library consists of about 10 rooms of books, many of which were hand written by the monks - they are still used for research.

Part of the church which was a mass of gold - apparently only 4lbs of gold was used for the whole church!

And after returning to Vienna we found a delightful Italian restaurant and shared a "small" antipasto plate as an entree!!