Exploring Melk Abbey

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Melk Abbey is known for its beauty and architecture.  Perched on top of a hill overlooking the city of Melk, Melk Abbey provides spectacular views of the city of Melk, the Danube River and surrounding countryside, as well as the Abbey itself.  Melk Abbey is a Benedictine Abbey that has been in constant use for hundreds of years.

 

Tours of the Royal Wing provide a great history of Mek Abbey as well as the royalty who visited there.  I would have spent all day taking pictures of both the ceilings and the floors.  They are so spectacular.  A strict no photography rule is in place thanks to those who were asked not to take flash photography and did so anyway.  Oh, well.  I have the memory of those rooms etched in my brain.  I did manage to get one photo of a ceiling in an archway outside.  Simply beautiful.

 

Melk Abbey was once fortified with protective walls and towers that protected both the Abbey and the city of Melk.  Some of the remnants of those fortifications can still be seen.  Besides being a working Abbey and a great museum, the Abbey also houses a school.  Those are some school halls I would like to roam!

 

The gardens around Melk Abbey are quite large and are almost divided up like rooms.  Stroll along the many paths to see the various gardens and enjoy the beauty there.  The gardens also provide some wonderful views of the surrounding area.  In addition, on a warm day the gardens provide some shelter from the heat as well as a relaxing break from the days travels.

 

Be sure to take the stairs down the hill to the old town!  This was quite a fun surprise.  We wanted the opportunity to walk, so we decided to skip the bus and walk back to our river cruise ship.  Other than getting lost (yes, I missed one very important detail) the walk was beautiful and took us through old town which has all of the quaint details you would expect from these historical towns, but it also provided some spectacular vistas of Melk Abbey above.  The Abbey appears to be standing guard over the town below.  You can’t miss Melk Abbey if you are in the area.  Truly a must see! 

 

If you would like to learn more about our river cruise on the Danube River with Avalon Waterways River Cruises, click here.  If you would like to view some of the photos we took while visiting Melk and Melk Abbey, click here.  When you are ready to start planning your next bucket list trip, contact us, your land and cruise specialists.  We are your river cruise specialists and experts.