A thunderstorm last evening and forecast for rain today 40-60%. We were undecided whether to ride or hunker down, but our hotel was full for the next (Friday) night. That gave us a push to ride instead of looking for new lodging. Turned out to be the right thing to do.
We spent the morning on a guided tour of the huge Melk abbey. Melk was the original capital of Osterreich (Austria), and when the king moved to Vienna in about 1050 he gave his castle to the Benedictines. It's been an abbey ever since, except that the Nazis took over the place during WW2. Most of the current buildings date from the era of Empress Maria Theresa in the 1700's. Spectacular baroque buildings, especially the abbey church, on a grand scale.
Finally on the road in light rain about 1:30 for Melk, a three hour ride. The route along the way was wonderful. The river winds through mountains and the area ("Wachau") is famous for vinyards and apricot orchards. Our path took us through a series of picturesque villages with narrow cobbled streets. In one of the villages, Willendorf, a paleolithic fertility icon was discovered in the early 20th century. Google for an image of the "Willendorf Venus". Another village, Weissenkirchen, claims to be the original home of the Riesling grape. Apricots are in season, and when we stopped at one point to take a picturea a woman picking them gave us two each: delicious like no apricots I've ever had before.
One of our best days, but by the end we were very tired. We went to the nearest restaurant for a good Italian dinner, and a local farmer there insisted in givingg us a bag of apricots. Those we've eaten are just as good as the ones we ate up in the hills. All the regions apricots and most of its wine are consumed locally.
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