Europe Day 7

Woke up this morning sailing. It still seems like a fairy tale. We opened our curtains and watched the countryside go by. From our bed. This is seriously the life. It's almost not fair that we get to experience this adventure so young because now we know what is out there and will forever have something grand to compare everything to! Anyway. Enough of that. We Ported in Melk Austria and after another lovely breakfast we boarded a bus and took the 10 min ride to the top of hill where Melk Abby sits. It is a Monk Monastery and has been in use for the past 900 years. Yes. It was stunning. It has the longest corridor of any Abby anywhere. Over 2 football fields long. Totally saw a monk walking around. The details inside the chapel are STUNNING. again. These ornate gold lined chapels do NOT get old. The courtyards and gardens are so perfectly kept. There is actually a little childrens school here and the cute kids were waving out the windows as we toured the courtyard. Our guide said it is one of the only private schools that you pay for in Austria because all education is free but this school is like 80 euro a month- 100$ a month. super cheap for this kind of education. There was a 900 year old treasure chest ? lock box? She left it open and turned the gigantic key to show the amazing mechanisms turned each other part. Seriously cool. There was also a coffin that was "reusable" . You would stick the body in it, load the deceased into their resting place and then basically open the under "trap door" and the body would drop down and you could use the coffin again. crazy. The museum had tons of golden goblets, old pope cloaks, and a really interesting shrine of bones that they sewed like ribbon over them to prop them up in the case. A reoccurring thought throughout this whole thing: There are so many religions that are super symbolic and intense. You could study them your whole life and still not know each and every part to the way the worship. There was an AMAZING library.. Like one your would picture in Downton Abby but all the spines are uniform , gold plated and we were not really supposed to take pictures in there. I may have snapped a few. I thought it was interesting that we could go into their holy worshipping chapels and take as many pics as we wanted, but they didn't want us to take pics in their library. hm. If shipping wasn't so expensive I would be a door thief. I have seen SO MANY freakishly awesome doors here. We decided to walk back to the boat instead of taking the 5 min bus ride and ended up taking a short cut through a lush trail . It was so pretty! Austria is really green and has really tall trees. We had another fabulous lunch on the boat and then while Warren got a little massage, I took a short cat nap in our room. They won't massage pregnant women on the boat. Austria has strict rules and they don't want to have a liability - basically they don't want to do anything that could possibly "hurt" the baby. haha. So yeah. Warren got the massage. :) It's ok because he has been packing my gear everywhere and I am so greatful for my little travel assistant/buddy.  Then we cruised through possibly the most beautiful portion of this trip. It's called Wachau Valley. It's basically Napa Valley on steroids. Grape vine terraces COVER the mountainsides. It's really a sight. Then they have orchard after orchard full of apricots. I was in shutter heaven. SUPER glad  I had my new zoom lens for this portion of the trip. It was basically Castle country. Everything here is SO old! I am amazed at the preservation. We docked a little bit up from Durntein Austria and bused into this quaint little town. Here is where the ruins of Durnstein castle are where Richard the Lionheart of England was held. I mean we are talking OLD history here! 1193! Warren totally made it our business to try just ONE grape off a vine. SO yes, we found a couple. And they were delicious. We tried to barter one store for a little Austrian dress we liked. They wanted 109 Euro which is basically $150 dollars. It was gorgeous. She wouldn't come down to 90 Euro so we left it. haha. I won't forget the walk back to the bus. It was all riverside. So peaceful. Had a delicious Veal plate for dinner where we got to sit with the Berry's and talked about a WHOLE bunch of randomness, but also a lot more about Mormonism. He is a very smart guy who has really researched the Mormon history for his new book coming out and we were talking about everything from polygamists to tithing. My tummy is getting so huge! After dinner tonight I seriously haven't felt bigger. haha. They feed us like kings and it's nice. I'm just sure a new stretch mark popped out tonight. haha. After dinner Warren and I went up on top and sat in the hot tub. We had the entire deck to ourselves. It was so nice. Tonight about 2:30 am is when we leave this port and make our way to Vienna. The boat is SO smooth. Neither of us have had A SINGLE motion sick moment. Sometimes you can hear and feel when we are going through a "lock" but it's subtle. I am in love with waking up to us sailing. It is seriously one of the most peaceful feelings ever.
We can't believe that we only have 3 more days. We are looking forward to Vienna tomorrow though- supposedly it's going to be the biggest city we will have seen yet. There is a Mozart Concert tomorrow night but I think Warren and I are going to explore the city instead. :)

Night!

Taisley and Warren

 Melk Abby

 This one's for Benny :)

 A few library pics that I wasn't supposed to take LOL

 Some bones of a saint that they send prayers through them to God.

 Doors.

 Rubi and I!

 Gorgeous walk back to boat

 Castle country!!