Melk Abbey and Schönbrunn Palace

For our last day together, we tried to pack in a couple of more "biggies" - and we were not disappointed!  Since it was Sunday, we had hoped to get tickets to hear the Vienna Boys Choir sing at mass, but despite the best efforts of our hotel concierge, we struck out on that option.  So we decided to listen to a podcast of the service at Lute's church at Hope for our worship time, in the van on the drive to Melk, about 50 km west of our hotel.  Early in the trip, we heard a loud bang, so we thought it was a tire blow-out.  We stopped and checked out the tires, but they were all O.K., and when we started up again, everything sounded O.K.  When we got close to Melk, we started hearing more strange sounds from the van, which kept getting worse.  But we made it to the Abbey!

Beth heading into the Abbey courtyard.

The guest wing of the abbey is huge - the Benedictine monks valued hospitality, so provided lodging
for travelers for centuries!

This is the oldest artifact in the Abbey - an ivory box to hold religious relics.

Paintings of stories depicting the life of Christ.

The abbey is absolutely incredible - this is a scale model.

The abbey sits high on a hill overlooking the Danube.

This is a grand dining hall for the guests of the Abbey.  The monks never used the guest wing or the fancy halls for themselves -- they were only for the guests of their hospitality.

A view of the Danube valley from Melk Abbey.

This is the front of the abbey cathedral, which overlooks the river.

The other direction down the Danube

A spiral staircase in the abbey - so ornate!

The interior of the cathedral is decorated in high Baroque style and is gilded in gold everywhere!

Another staircase which we got to descend.

The back of the cathedral and the organ

A side altar

Another example of the Baroque decorations and gold gilding

Our tour guide said that there were only about 8 pounds of gold used - it's an incredibly thin
layer, but it is really beautiful!!

Beth at Melk Abbey

Ready to head out after our tour

It was a beautiful day to tour the abbey.

We decided to take the van to a service station we had noticed while driving through the town of Melk (as Lute says, so you pronounce it the way you're NOT supposed to say "milk"??  Yep!) before trying to drive it back to Vienna.  Luckily, the mechanic was there at the time having coffee with a couple of guys, one of whom spoke pretty fair English.  Everyone had gotten out of the van except Beth, when the mechanic jumped in and gave it a little test drive to try and diagnose the problem.  He gunned it and slammed on the brakes right before getting to the parked cars ahead --- this is Beth giving us the "what's going on here" look out the window!!  LOL!!

And you guys all left me alone in here with this crazy driver????

Alana helped us out a lot the whole time in Vienna with her German, but here she is
checking out some specifics about car repairs!!  

Paul holding Alana's purse - Lute looking worried about the van - HAHA!!

Tim with the mechanic --- and not hearing good news.  The van needed repairs which couldn't be
done then, so we had to abandon it and return to Vienna by train.  The guys at the gas station were
worried that we wouldn't make it on time for the next train, so two of them jumped in their cars and
gave all six of us a ride to the train station.  So nice of them!!  

A beautiful old house on the way to the train station in Melk.

In the Melk train station

Tickets back to Vienna, and a hot game of Scrabble the three guys were playing on the I-touch!

Bye-bye Melk - it was an awesome side trip!

A train ride through the Austrian countryside!

Approaching Schönbrunn Palace - one of the finest palaces of Europe - comparable to Versailles

The sun was starting to set as we arrived to get our tickets for the palace tour.

We finally took our "Ankeny Register" photo to send in to the paper!!  :-)

There was a live band playing in the New Year's Market on the palace grounds.  We knew we had
missed the Christmas Markets because of the travel delays when the kids arrived, but we didn't know
there are also New Year's Markets which are basically the same thing!!  YAY!!!  

The grand ballroom in the palace was magnificent!!  Kruschev and Kennedy met here.  We had a wonderful tour of the palace with our individual choice of a recorded or a written description/explanation of each room.  I originally chose the written one, but the font was too small to read, so I had to switch to the recording, which I actually really enjoyed so I could look around as I was hearing the narration instead of trying to read/look/read/look.  

The palace all lit up at night, with the Christmas tree in front.  

Every time our train ride back to our hotel passed this station, Tim would mention that it was .........
the Viennese version of Margaritaville!!  But we never stopped there to "waste away"  LOL!!  

We had to take one more trip down to the 1st District in downtown Vienna at night to experience the lights of the city all decorated in holiday style.  There were loads of people, I'm sure anticipating New Year's Eve the next night!  

The huge light displays were amazing!

Our last night in Vienna - having supper at a pub - schnitzels, brats - good food and good times!!  

The Olson kids on the way back to the subway station.  We still hadn't tried Viennese Sachertorte yet, so we stopped for a sampling along with gelato at a shop on our walk.  (To be honest, we all liked the Slovak desserts better, but maybe we didn't get a very good example of Sachertorte - a rich chocolate cake - because ours was too dry.)

These authentic Slovak traditional shirts were Christmas gifts for the kids.  Such intricate embroidery!!  

The boys looking stern!

The girls wanted a way to show off the embroidery on the shoulders, so they are looking tough too!!  LOL!! 

I brought along containers of Christmas goodies (given to us by students and friends), so each night we'd convene in our hotel room to enjoy cookies and sweets again.  Such a fun memory, and such delicious Slovak treats!!  There was a lot of packing to do for the kids, and we had to set the alarm clocks WAY too early for the morning.   :-(