Melk, Lower Austria, Austria
Saturday, May 29, 2010
S is off to Slovakia and I am off to the dorm. The room is not as fabulous as our apartment but not bad for a military barracks, I have my own shower…YAY! The Colonel who took us on a walking tour of
Vienna last week was kind enough to take some of the group on an excursion to
Melk (
http://www.planetware.com/austria/melk-a-n-melk.htm). Melk is about 100km (60ish miles for those of us who can't do metric!) west of
Vienna. The main attraction is
Melk Benedictine Abbey (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melk_Abbey), home of the Bible used by several U.S. Presidents. After a leisurely tour of the Abbey and many lovely photos, and some car trouble, we drove back toward
Vienna along the Danube. The Colonel pointed out many historic and beautiful sites. We stopped in Durnstein for dinner. Durnstein (
http://www.duernstein.at/sites/ueber_geschichte_en.php) is famous not only for being one of Austria’s best wine regions, but also it is in Durnstein castle that Richard the Lionheart was held captive by the Austrian Empire in the 1190s
. We had dinner at Richard the Lionheart restaurant, yummy food…snotty waiter…I would not go back just b/c of him. After more car trouble we made it safely back to
Vienna.
To my dismay, I learned that we do not have internet access at the Academy so we have to bounce around to McDonald’s, 7 Sterns Brau and the Museum Quarter to get online when we are not at the University. Between this and no cell phone I feel sooo disconnected!
Me and some girls hit 7 for some dinner and internet action before bed. 7 Sterns Brau (
http://www.7stern.at/) is a microbrewery around the corner from our dorm…7 different beers, all made on site…feels like Boston!
Comments
Yay for exploring the city by yourself now! not yay that S left...