Matt and I on the Danube
My dream library (it sort of brings back memories of the board game Clue)
The front of the church (yeah that's gold)
Me at the Aggstein Ruins
A real life wine cellar!So this should of been posted like a week ago, but instead I let the suspense build up. On Friday (not last Friday, the one before) we traveled to the Wachau, which is the most beautiful section of the Danube River (die Donau auf Deutsch). The Wachau is about an hour away from Wiener Neustadt and lies between the towns of Melk and Krems.
We first drove to Melk to see the base there and learn about the Pionier Bataillon 3 (we call them Engineers in our army). We got a tour of the base, which was quite small, but included a memorial built for the Concentration Camp there. We also got a presentation on the battalion and drank some coffee. The battalion’s main job is helping in catastrophes, so the location is prime since the Danube floods frequently and usually floods really bad every ten years or so.
From the base we drove to the Danube and got on some engineer boats. Some of the soldiers were practicing driving boats, so they let us hop on and gave us a quick tour of the Wachau. It was a little chilly and very foggy, but it was great. We saw a pretty large castle compound and a monastery during the tour. On the way back, they let me drive the boat. While I didn’t crash or flip the boat or anything, I did realize that I am an army guy and not a navy guy.
After the boat tour we headed to Stift Melk. A giant, part-monastery, part-school building that was extremely cool. Built in the baroque style in the 1500’s (I think) the Stift is now basically a museum. We received a tour and I spent the majority of the time mouthing “wow!” or just nodding my head in interest. The coolest part for me was in between the huge library, filled with books from the 15th and 16th century as well as modern books, and the giant church. It was basically the library of my dreams and the Catholic Church was just ridiculously ornate, with gold everywhere and detailed paintings on every wall.
From the Stift we headed to Burgruine Aggstein, the ruins of a castle originally built in the 12th century. The castle was incredible; it sat on the top of a small mountain overlooking the Danube. Castle history says that in the 1400’s a robber baron named Jörg Scheck. He used a giant chain stretched across the river to stop all boats going upriver and taking a toll (and a lot more). He built a castle balcony on a cliff that he used as a dungeon, prisoners couldn’t get back inside, so they could either starve to death or jump to their death. He called it his “Rosengärtlein” because for some reason, it reminded him of a rose garden.
After Aggstein, we headed to a little restaurant to have dinner. The Wachau is well known for its wine and we saw vineyards everywhere. The restaurant is run by a vineyard and a small farm. They only serve their own produce, so they are basically open until they run out of supplies and then they close until next year. We tried a couple types of wine their and also drank Sturm, which is extremely sweet wine that still has live yeast in it. We call it “gefährlich”, which means “dangerous”, because it is sweet like juice, but alcoholic like wine. Since there is still live yeast in it, it sort of swims around in your stomach. It has a very small shelf life, and can only be found for about two months of the year. We also got a tour of the vineyard and saw how the wine was made. It was a very enjoyable day.
We first drove to Melk to see the base there and learn about the Pionier Bataillon 3 (we call them Engineers in our army). We got a tour of the base, which was quite small, but included a memorial built for the Concentration Camp there. We also got a presentation on the battalion and drank some coffee. The battalion’s main job is helping in catastrophes, so the location is prime since the Danube floods frequently and usually floods really bad every ten years or so.
From the base we drove to the Danube and got on some engineer boats. Some of the soldiers were practicing driving boats, so they let us hop on and gave us a quick tour of the Wachau. It was a little chilly and very foggy, but it was great. We saw a pretty large castle compound and a monastery during the tour. On the way back, they let me drive the boat. While I didn’t crash or flip the boat or anything, I did realize that I am an army guy and not a navy guy.
After the boat tour we headed to Stift Melk. A giant, part-monastery, part-school building that was extremely cool. Built in the baroque style in the 1500’s (I think) the Stift is now basically a museum. We received a tour and I spent the majority of the time mouthing “wow!” or just nodding my head in interest. The coolest part for me was in between the huge library, filled with books from the 15th and 16th century as well as modern books, and the giant church. It was basically the library of my dreams and the Catholic Church was just ridiculously ornate, with gold everywhere and detailed paintings on every wall.
From the Stift we headed to Burgruine Aggstein, the ruins of a castle originally built in the 12th century. The castle was incredible; it sat on the top of a small mountain overlooking the Danube. Castle history says that in the 1400’s a robber baron named Jörg Scheck. He used a giant chain stretched across the river to stop all boats going upriver and taking a toll (and a lot more). He built a castle balcony on a cliff that he used as a dungeon, prisoners couldn’t get back inside, so they could either starve to death or jump to their death. He called it his “Rosengärtlein” because for some reason, it reminded him of a rose garden.
After Aggstein, we headed to a little restaurant to have dinner. The Wachau is well known for its wine and we saw vineyards everywhere. The restaurant is run by a vineyard and a small farm. They only serve their own produce, so they are basically open until they run out of supplies and then they close until next year. We tried a couple types of wine their and also drank Sturm, which is extremely sweet wine that still has live yeast in it. We call it “gefährlich”, which means “dangerous”, because it is sweet like juice, but alcoholic like wine. Since there is still live yeast in it, it sort of swims around in your stomach. It has a very small shelf life, and can only be found for about two months of the year. We also got a tour of the vineyard and saw how the wine was made. It was a very enjoyable day.
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