Melk Abbey

The day after Jeff arrived we got to tag along on a student field trip to Melk Abbey and a 25 mile bike ride along the Danube.  Another dreamy day.  Especially with the parental reinforcement.This place was so incredible.  We got to take a tour with the BYU students and learned so much about the history of the Abbey.  It is OLD (built in the early 1700’s) and filled with old books and manuscripts.  Wished those walls could tell us their stories.These guys were super happy about mom trying to take pictures.  Enough already mom!Always so exciting to find the relics in these old barouche cathedrals.

we stopped for ice cream and cake mid morning because we couldn’t resist this little café housed in the gardens.

And then comes one of the greatest bike rides of my life.   We got to bike through these charming Austrian little towns and through vineyards and past old ruined castles and through valleys and by rivers. Aside from a tiny bit of complaining it was a pretty spectacular way to spend a beautiful day. Here we are starting off.  Charlie was a bit overly upset that he didn’t get to ride up with all these college students and his big cousins.  So upset that half way through we let him take off with them, only to have him take a spill and hold up the group.  He was MUCH braver than he might have been had he taken that same spill with us and those students were so good to him, it all worked out.  But it was a little tricky to navigate that situation.  It was extremely difficult to not take my phone out of my pocket to take pictures of what we were flying past. I was wishing for a go-pro on my helmet.  I had this little guy tagging along behind me, so I refrained from photography most of the time, and then all of the time after we had a little crash due to my one hand driving.  Dumb mom move.  I think this is the photo I took right before the crash.   ^^Luckily this tough guy survived with muscles in tact.  Stopping for lunch. And to visit the Venus of Willendorf.  Remember that from art history? Do you like how those kids are trying to imitate her pose?  Hands resting on chest?  This is not the actual statue, but it marks where the 4 inch statue was found.  The Venus is one of the earliest images of the body made my humans and dates back 25,000 years ago.  Seriously.  That’s old.  And what an interesting model of perfection for the human body.  I love it and all the fertility that it embodies.

We also rode by this amazing ruined castle that we hiked up to.  The view was spectacular.  And we had this little warrior to protect us from all the dragons attacking us as we hiked up the mountain to the castle.  It never gets old, those dragons got him through every hike and walk of our trip. 

  

                  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me and Hazel stayed behind going down in search of the castles bathroom.  It was a lovely facility.What a ride!  I didn’t want it to end, ever. 

This is how Hazel distracted Peter out of his tired and grumpy state on the bus ride home. That girl is really the master of distraction. 

Then these kids ate pizza and watched a movie while Rob and Mary Ann and Jeff and Maddie and I went and ate some really typical Viennese food in the plaza outside their house.  It was a lovely end to a pretty magical day.