Melk and the Wachau Valley

When we left Vienna we sailed through the Wachau Valley, an area of wineries and castles, including the one above. The same family has owned and lived in it for over six hundred years. 

The mountain sides of this valley are covered in grape vines. The wineries make mostly white wines, including an ice wine made from the grapes left to freeze at the end of the growing season. 

The town of Melk is at the end of this valley and contains an abbey that has been active since the eleventh century. We visited this abbey. 

The library of the abbey has over 100,000 volumes. The library is in the left hand corner above. We could take photos everywhere in the abbey - except in the library. The photo below is from the abbey's website. 

The glass case in the center holds some of the older books of the collection. When we took our tour I was looking into the case and noticed one book in particular. It was dated 1517 and was a handwritten catalog of the library with book locations noted. I asked the guide about it and she said, "0h no, the library catalog is on the Internet." I couldn't convince her that the book in the case was also a catalog of the collection - only  earlier than the current internet catalog. 

We walked from the abbey down into the village via the abbey steps, and after shopping a bit, back towards the ship. 

A little parched, we stopped at the local gasthaus garden for a nice beer. Mike had to buy a glass to bring home.