Melk

One of the ports our river cruise ship stopped in was in Melk (Austria).

We were only in Melk for half of day and the prime attraction for the majority of that time was Melk Abbey (Stift Melk).

Melk Abbey is a Baroque monastery that still to this day houses Benedictine monks. The abbey is also used as a school for boys and girls.

A bus took us the short (but with steep incline at points) distance from the river port to the parking lot of the Melk Abbey.

The main entrance to Melk Abbey features statues of St. Koloman and St. Leopold along with the star from the coat of arms of Berthold Dietmayr.

The portal in the main entrance leads to the outer Gatekeeper's Courtyard and the Eastern Facade.

Moving through the next portal leads one to the Prelate's Courtyard and its fountain.

We found that some of the highlights of our various destinations in Europe came from the views provided from strategic overviews and Melk Abbey's view of the town of Melk and of the rivers was no exception.

The ticket to Melk Abbey included admission to the Stiftspark and Gartenpavillon, but we only spent a few minutes there because we wanted to see the town of Melk before returning to the cruise ship.

Those who did not want to see Melk would ride the bus back, so it allowed us the 20 or so minutes to walk through Melk and back to the cruise ship. We are happy that we made that decision and were able to experience the charming town of Melk, even if only for a few minutes.

Going back to the river port via Milk was also advantageous because of the views of Melk Abbey from that route.

Two additional blog posts that provide detailed descriptions of Melk Abbey based on river cruise visits are "Part 2: Austria: Melk Abbey, Wachau Valley and Vienna" and "Melk Abbey: Visiting Austria's Famous Abbey on the Danube". The blog post "Bob and Nella's World: Melk" also provides significant more details on Melk Abbey. Two other interesting resources are "The Best Things to Do in Melk, Austria" and "11 Top-Rated Tourist Attractions in Melk."