Day 25

Another crazy day in Vienna. We had to wake up nice and early today at 4:45 to catch our 5:15 U-Bahn (subway). I did not feel rested enough...But we made it on time and we caught our 6 am train to Krems. Today we went on our Wachau Valley River Cruise. We started the morning off in Krems. And let me tell you, it was so cold! Not a little cold. But SO cold. And I was not prepared for it. We stayed in the train station for as long as possible and then ran outside to get our blood pumping. We stopped by the Pfarrkirche which I think means parish church. It was beautiful inside! We spent a good bit of time in there because it was so warm. After we left we noticed a very nice looking building up several flights of stairs. We had the time and we needed to warm up so we jogged up the stairs to visit the church. It closed unfortunately, but at least we were a bit warmer. We climbed back down the stairs and started heading towards the Steiner Tur, the only remaining Medieval gate in the city. It was pretty nice. We started walking back to the train station to make sure that everything was set for the rest of the day. We were very surprised when we saw that our train was not scheduled for today. After some digging around we found that they provided a bus to St. Polten (our destination city) and that it would be free of charge. We boarded the bus and headed off to St. Polten. We transferred to Melk and made it a few minutes late. But that was no surprise considering the luck we've had with trains in Austria. It was slightly warmer by the time we got there, but still cold enough to keep my mittens on. We walked along the Danube for a bit until the Melk Abbey came into view. That was our next stop. We made the climb to the top and were handsomely rewarded with what we saw. It was beautiful. It was a bright yellow and it was massive! We spent some time outside taking pictures before we went inside for our tour. Every room had a different purpose and each was more beautiful than the next. There were 12 rooms dedicated to the library, but we only saw 2. The books looked like they were made of gold. The chapel was by far the best room. It was one of the nicest ones that I have seen so far on this trip. The ceilings were painted with murals and the alter was covered in gold and silver. After the inside of the abbey, we walked outside a bit more and then walked over to the abbey gardens. We were slightly disappointed because they weren't on the same caliber of the abbey. We walked down into the city and across a bridge to get a better look at the abbey. The pictures were incredible. It was almost time to board our cruise though, so we started heading back. We made it early enough and decided to sit on the top deck. That might have been a mistake because of the combined cold and wind. But the view was nice and we had a good time. Our boat stopped in Spitz (10 minutes late) and we left and went to go pick up our rental bikes. But not before we got our picnic lunch. And guess what it was. Ham sandwiches. Woo! At least they had some mayo and lettuce to mask the taste. We ate our lunch quickly and then started our 12 mile bike ride back to Krems. We stopped at several places along the way including vineyards, the water front, and Durnstein. We parked our bikes once we arrived there and started walking around the city. It was very crowded because a few tour buses had just released their groups. We hung around a little bit to wait it out, and eventually the streets cleared. We saw the castle ruins up on the hill and the city abbey, which was a nice bright blue. It was about 5:15 and our train from Krems was supposed to leave at 6:03, so we started heading back. We biked the last 4 miles to Krems and found the docking station for our bikes. We had 18 minutes left to spare. Now all we had to do was find the train station. this proved to be a very difficult task. We started walking where signs pointed us to, but made a quick u-turn when we thought it was the wrong direction. However, once we were back to our starting point we found another sign which read "Bahnhof 1700m." Now, for all you non German speakers, I will translate that for you. "Train station - over 1 mile!" Now we had 13 minutes to make it. And if we missed this train, we would be stuck in Krems for another hour, which isn't the worst thing...We decided that our best option was running. And after biking 12 miles, my legs were in no shape to be sprinting for a mile. But I did my best. The very heavy back pack that I was wearing didn't help much either. With 3 minutes left and close to 600 meters to go, we didn't like our chances. We walked the rest of the way thinking that there was no hope. We arrived at 6:05, 2 minutes after our train was scheduled to depart. But remember the luck we've had in Austria with late trains? Well, it turns out that it actually benefited us for the first time today. Our train was 5 minutes late! So we ran up and down the stairs to our platform and made it with 2 minutes to spare. I guess that's one benefit of late trains. We rode back to Vienna and to our hostel. We just finished up dinner, which for me was spaghetti carbanara (made from a package). Now I'm just up waiting for my laundry to finish. Tomorrow we have mass at 9 am and will see the Vienna Boys Choir. After that is the Vienna Opera!! Good night :)