Melk, Bavaria

Last night Marshall was in a lot of pain, so he took an Advil+oxycodone combination and went to bed.  This morning he felt better so we assume he just overdid it yesterday.

We docked in Melk, Bavaria this morning and I took the tour of the Melk Abbey and then walked back to the ship through the tiny town.

We left Melk at noon and began the most scenic part of the entire cruise – castle ruins along the Danube.  This is kind of what we expected the entire cruise would be like.

But today was exciting.  All of the passengers were on the Terrace taking pictures of castle after castle, as well as colorful towns.  But a few hours of that and we were back to cruising down the Danube looking at lush greenery. 

Anyway, we docked in Vienna this evening.  Most of the passengers left the ship to attend a Mozart concert in Vienna, but we decided we would just have dinner and get rest so we can be up early tomorrow to explore Vienna.  We are going to see if we can hire a driver to take us around for a few hours and point out the sights.

The Program Director on this cruise is a piece of work.  There are several other people on board who are “handicapped” like Marshall and she clearly would prefer that handicapped people sit in a corner and leave her alone.  We’ve spent a bit of time with a couple from Scotland.  The wife, Yvonne, is a cancer survivor and now has some sort of problem with her legs that makes walking difficult.  She uses a cane, like Marshall, and she also brought her own wheelchair.  Her husband is an energetic fellow and handles pushing her around during the tours.

When we were in Regensburg the Program Director told Phil that he and Yvonne were holding up the group and they should consider not going on any more tours.  When it comes to Marshall, she just says, “You shouldn’t attempt” this tour or that tour.  She called our room this evening to ask why we weren’t at the gangplank ready to leave for the Mozart concert because the group was ready to leave.  I told her we weren’t going to the concert.  She said, “Then why did you sign up for it.”  I told her we didn’t.  She insisted we did.  Then she must have looked closer at her list and realized she was mistaken.  Did she apologize?  Of course not.

Anyway, enough of that,  Thank goodness we don’t have to deal with her very much.  We have heard quite a few complaints about her.

Looking forward to Vienna tomorrow…

 

The view of the town of Melk from the top of the Abbey.

On the terrace this afternoon -- the sun finally came out.  Briefly.

One of the castle ruins along the river.  This is where Richard the Lionheart was held captive during the Crusades.  I commented, "Oh, like in Robin Hood!". And our shipmate said, "Yes, but this one is real."