The City of Melk is part of Lower Austria and is loacted next to the Wachau valley along the Danube River (die Donau). It is the home of the iconic and massive baroque Benedictine monastery, Stift Melk (Melk Abbey).
Decided to come here because I missed out on the water rafting trip with most of my friends and also because Sankt Pölten was quite disappointing. I figured there had to be something in Lower Austria worth seeing and sure enough, this little city of Melk, with only just over 5,200 people living here, proved to be the one I was looking for.
For me, Melk is all about the Melk Abbey and the River Danube. Was a day well spent admiring the amazing architecture of the abbey and then relaxing along the Danube River, enjoying the nice river breeze :)
Entering the massive Melk Abbey after a short climb up the hill from the city centre. Somehow the photos don't seem to show how huge it is, but trust me, it's really really huge!
The Melk Abbey is considered to be one of the world's most famous monastic sites. The dome seen here is over 60 metres high.
Once you enter the monastery church, you'll see how beautiful it is. This photo doesn't really do it justice but it's good enough to depict the very typical high baroque style it was built in.
Both the interior and exterior of the Melk Abbey are really beautiful. The lighting that day made helped me quite a bit as well as it amplified the unique yellowish glow the abbey had.
They did say that Melk was along the Danube River, so even if it takes quite a while to walk to the river, you have to go there. I was starting to wonder where the people of Melk were. Then I realized they were all relaxing by the river.
Now it does look blue... The Blue Danube! Enjoying the breeze while relaxing by the river as well as the late afternoon sun.
The little port along the Danube River has some ferries that take tourists for a cruise along the Danube. Not bad, when it's a windy day :)
It turns out that the sunlight wasn't staying for long... After heading back towards the abbey from the Danube River, the rain clouds were already on its way...
The Stadtpfarrkirche (Parish Church of the Assumption), which is very much different from the Melk Abbey itself, as you can see.
Due to the "massiveness" of the Melk Abbey, this is the best I could do to get both the abbey and the Stadtpfarrkirche in the same photo.
Was a wonderful day spent in Melk. The beauty of the Melk Abbey was well worth the really long train ride up from Graz here. Relaxing along the Danube River was really nice too. Thanks for the wonderful day, Melk. Auf Wiedersehen!
This is how massive the abbey is... Was waiting at the Melk Stadtpark for my train and you could still see that it's still quite big even though it's in the distance...
Was a wonderful day spent in Melk. The beauty of the Melk Abbey was well worth the really long train ride up from Graz here. Relaxing along the Danube River was really nice too. Thanks for the wonderful day, Melk. Auf Wiedersehen!
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