December 15: Sailing the Wachau Valley / Göttweig
Abbey
Wachau Valley Scenic Sailing
Today was another great day, especially the morning when the sailing was as picturesque as we could ever have hoped for. As I said to my good friend Dennis this morning as we were watching the vistas go by, "The photos I'm getting today are EXACTLY what you see online and we so hoped we'd see for a Christmas Cruise!" Throughout the entire morning the snow was gently falling and framing the castles, palaces, churches and hillsides covered with vineyards. Just amazing. There's not much narrative I can add to these photos....I captured nearly seventy-five images this morning over a 2 1/2 hour period on the river and it was very difficult to narrow down the pictures for uploading. So here's the best of the pictures.....
The cruising ended a little after 11 am and we had an early lunch so there would be time for us to make the 12:15 pm excursion to the Göttweig Abbey. As we boarded the bus our program director Lee came on board and said that there was so much snow up at the abbey that we would have to alter our program - nothing really changed, we just did everything in reverse because the rear of the abbey was covered in deep snow. As we approached the abbey on the hillside it was more of the same scenic views with the softly falling snow on the evergreen trees and the vineyards. It is a working abbey and it was very ornate - much of it still the original building from it's opening in 1093.
Göttweig Abbey
The cruising ended a little after 11 am and we had an early lunch so there would be time for us to make the 12:15 pm excursion to the Göttweig Abbey. As we boarded the bus our program director Lee came on board and said that there was so much snow up at the abbey that we would have to alter our program - nothing really changed, we just did everything in reverse because the rear of the abbey was covered in deep snow. As we approached the abbey on the hillside it was more of the same scenic views with the softly falling snow on the evergreen trees and the vineyards. It is a working abbey and it was very ornate - much of it still the original building from it's opening in 1093.
The ceiling fresco above the grand stairway
Below the church in the holy crypt is the tomb of the bishop who founded the abbey, and here displayed separately is the bishop's head in the case (you can just make out the silhouette if you look carefully)
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