Cruisin' the Danube!: Krems and the Wachau Valley

Thursday October 27

Half day today, then sailing this afternoon and evening. WiFi is great here so I don’t have to wait until the middle of the night to post!

Visit to Gottweig Abbey, a Benedictine order. This will be a long one. Only posting a fraction of the pics we took!

Abbey is huge, we couldn’t even get the whole building in a shot (but this first one is from their website).

So St. Benedict is known as the Father of the Benedictine’s. Apparently he was quite the task master with an unpleasant personality and was hated by the other monks so much that they tried to kill him, twice. The first time the monks put poison on his bread at dinner. As he was about to eat it, a dove flew in the window and took the bread out of his hand. (Miracle #1) The other monks then confessed and Benedictine forgave them (but didn’t change his behavior). Not to be dissuaded, the monks tried to kill him again, this time poisoning his wine. He drank all the wine at dinner and didn’t die (Miracle #2), so the monks finally realized he was there to stay. As Catholics know, 2 miracles = sainthood, hence, St. Benedict. He then wrote The Rule of St. Benedict, the handbook for monks (perhaps in retaliation for trying to kill him?)

This is the Imperial Wing used for official Royal visits (there was only one). And used for very unofficial visits by Kings and their mistresses (more than one).

900 years old, covers 13000 acres

In case you’re thinking about becoming a monk as a career path:

You must be a male, over 18 years old, speak German
Pass a background check
For 6 months you’re a guest/postulate, then a review
If you stay, you’ll get your new identity and you’re a Novice for 3 years
After 3 years the monks vote to keep you on or vote you off the island (mountain). You’ll then take vows of celibacy and poverty but you’ll get a stipend of €500/mo good news: your health insurance is provided!

There are 34 monks currently, half work in the community caring for the 30 churches the Abbey supports. (Brother Andrew runs the IT Department.)

Live-in Monk daily schedule:

Rise at dawn for morning prayers, discussion and contemplation
Start their duties. All have a job including running the winery, the tours, admin, etc.
mid-day prayers
Work
Afternoon prayers
Evening vespers (prayers) followed by contemplation.

The Sanctuary was spectacular as you will see.

The church did not have much money originally so they took some shortcuts: the windows and clock are painted on, the walls inside are not marble but are painted like marble. Now that the Abbey is an historical UNESCO site, they cannot make changes to the structure (only repair and renovate).

Main altar: Virgin Mary at the top, patron saint of this church. The top portrait is changed 6 times a year for different Holy days, by the 2 youngest monks who must climb a 16-meter ladder from behind the altar.

Smaller altar in the Crypt, an area for prayer and contemplation. Small organ there too.

The Crypt is where they keep the skull of the Bishop that consecrated the Abbey originally. (Eeew 💀).

For our friends who play organs at churches, this one has 3200 active pipes, 45 registers and 3 manuals.

This Fresco took only 45 days to paint once the drawing was approved. (It took longer than that to clean it in 2000.) The painter used an optical illusion to make the ceiling look higher than it is. There is only 16” from the top molding to the fresco. Also the columns “follow” you as you walk up the staircase.

A tree decorated by children who come for workshops. There is currently a 5th and 6th grade class here that is taught in English.

They make most of their income from wine production but also have a restaurant in the Abbey. We attended an apricot dumpling demo…and tasting!

Viking has an exclusive arrangement with the Abbey for guided tours. Approx 3-5 ships visit a day in season. Additional revenue comes from taxes. Austrians pay 1% income tax to their religious denomination. (Registered atheists don’t have to pay!)

Now the requisite selfies on the grounds:

That was the morning! Now we’re sailing and we’re rewarded with a fabulous day after yesterday! 68 sunny degrees. We had lunch on the terrace and sat in the sun on the rooftop sun deck and our balconies.

Scenery we passed:

And Dave thought there would be no golf on this trip!⛳️

You can see shuffleboard behind the putting green, but that’s for old people!!

More scenery. This is the Mountain of a Thousand Buckets, vineyard said to produce that much wine/ year.

And ruins of St. Michael’s church that was a Protestant stronghold until the Catholics plundered it. Nice going, Christians. Those Religious wars sound brutal.

We talked about River Cruises affected by high and low water. When that’s a factor, the ships can’t come down this far. During high water these 3 houses can flood up to the windows. You can just make out markings on the middle roof telling the ships the height of the water!