Around the World with Marsha & Joel

As we cruised the early morning overcast toward Krems we passed the
Schloss Schönbühel, a castle in the Lower Austrian town of Schönbühel-Aggsbach, below Melk on the right bank of the Danube. The origins of the castle date from the early twelfth century.

And then the Monastery of Augustinian Canons, the Herzogenbury Monastery in the town of the same name. The Priory was founded in 1112 and refurbushed in the baroque style in 1714.

The day deteriorated a bit, but cleared up (just enough) in time for our ride through the lower Austrian hills around Krems with spectacular views on our way to Goettweig Abbey.

The last time I contemplated my belly button I only found Linz. Appropriately, Linz was our first port of call as we crossed into Austria. Looking across the Danube we could swear we heard echoes (British accented) singing, “The hills are alive with….”, but probably only our over stimulated imaginations. We did have a full day to find out with a walking tour of the city in the morning and a drive into the Austrian countryside in the afternoon

Proving Linz wouldn’t be Linz without us.

[Special aside…. We’ve been notified that the first few blog posts, before this one, were not delivered to many email subscribers. We believe we’ve got that fixed, so if this is the first of the posts you are getting, please feel free to go back to the (click here):website version of the blog and the first post for this trip. Catch up and come back here to join us!]

That’s right. On this lovely day (you can’t win them all) it was only the border gate that gave us a hint that we were finally in Bavaria and on our way to Passau. The storms and downpours were pretty violent, but they only lasted for our four hour bus trip. It let up substantially as we arrived at the dock on the Danube where the Viking Embla, all shining and ready, welcomed us with champagne and treats.