We arrived in the medieval town of Durnstein (a walled "city" of 600 souls with a main street three blocks long) early in the morning, and after breakfast walked out to explore the town before our scheduled train trip to the winery... Ray decided to use the time to climb the hill (very steep) behind the city to see the ruins of the castle in which Richard III had been imprisoned. (When he returned, hot and sweaty, he said the spectacular views of the valley in all directions made the climb worth it, and he truly hoped that RIchard hadn't been imprisoned in the "cage" he saw carved into the side of the rock at the castle: an enclosure measuring about 10 x 12 feet, with about a 4 foot square opening covered with an iron gate!)
It was "Corpus Cristi Day" and all of Austria comes out to celebrate - schools and shops are closed, and there are costumes and street processions. Durnstein was no exception, and the cobblestoned main street had been covered with grass clippings and rose petals and either side of the street lined with tree branches for the big procession. People were emerging from their homes, dressed in traditional costumes, and church bells pealed as people headed for Mass. I fell into conversation with a woman and asked her why Corpus Cristi was such a big holiday in Austria. She was somewhat startled by the question and started to explain to me that "Corpus Cristi" meant "the Body of Christ," which I assured her I knew. "But why the big holiday?" "Well, because we have a lot of Catholics here. Don't you have Catholics in America?" "Well, yes, but we don't celebrate Corpus Cristi..." "Then I suppose I should ask you - why do YOU NOT celebrate Corpus Cristi?!" Well said!
Mass lasted too long for us to see the procession, as our train was leaving and we had to go to the scheduled winery tour and wine-tasting... (Some very tasty wines, hand-cultivated-and-picked from the steep terraced slopes of the valley!) Back at the ship we had a nice barbequed lunch and then spent a restful afternoon cruising north along the Danube (lots more castles!), enjoying the sunshine and the scenery. It was so peaceful and pleasant you could almost feel and residual stress just fall off!
We arrived at Melk in the late afternoon, the site of a 1,000 year old Benedictine Abbey, still in active use with 3 monks, and headed up the hill to visit. (I was so naive I thought it would be a REAL functioning Abbey, and perhaps it is - where we didn't get an opportunity to see! What we DID have was a huge tourist-as-consumer experience, which was a real disappointment to me! Two redeeming things: the library, full of very ancient manuscripts, including one by the Venerable Bede; and, the unexpected summer thunderstorm which caught us unawares and far away from ship or bus! However, the ship takes its job of guest-care-taking very seriously, and before we knew it, a cab arrived bearing umbrellas for all of us drenched souls! It turned the late afternoon into quite a (wet!) adventure! Back to the ship for an "Epicurean Pairing" - a five course meal with wine pairings from the local area. Fun! (But much more than I normally drink! They don't let your glasses get empty!)
The blog won't post pictures for some reason, so those will have to come later! Tomorrow is our last day in Austria, and we'll be going into the Lake District and exploring some small towns at the base of the Alps. Should be fun!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Sounds wonderful! Seems like a great way to do a trip.
Post a Comment