August 7

Today we didn’t go to class because we went to Melk Abbey. The town of Melk became the residence of the Babenbergs in 980 AD, and Melk Abbey was given to Benedictine monks in 1089 AD by Markgrave Leopold II of the Babenbergs. Ever since then, the abbey has become a famous place for tourists and students alike. We all had to meet at the Westbahnhof (train station) for our 9:44 train to Melk. The train ride was only an hour or two, and it went by pretty quickly because we just played 20 questions the whole time. The cool part about the train ride was that we got to see the Austrian countryside as we traveled to Melk. The town of Melk was very nice and quiet compared to the hustle and bustle of Vienna. There was one main road, which we walked up to get to the abbey, and it was full of cute little antique shops, gift shops, and restaurants. The actual abbey was built on top of a hill overlooking the town, so the view from the abbey and from the town were both very pleasing. We had to climb a ridiculous amount of stairs to get to the monastery, but once we go there we took a break and ate some lunch at the little café next to the monastery’s gardens. I was a little confused when my sandwich was served with a side of ketchup, but apparently it is normal to eat sandwiches with ketchup in Austria. I thought that this was a little weird, so I just ate my sandwich without the ketchup. After lunch, we started our tour in the main courtyard of the monastery. The tour consisted of a walk through the museum, the church, the library, and some of the hallways of the abbey. I learned many facts about the abbey and the Catholic religion in general while on the tour, such as how important saints relics are in this religion. There were many saints relics on display inside the museum and the church of the abbey. Sometimes, the relics (bones) of many saints are put on display together in one case. It is much easier to get a bunch of bones from the many less important saints than to get the bones of the more famous saints and other important people, such as Jesus Christ. There are no relics in existence from Jesus’s body except for his foreskin, which was cut off when he was circumcised. There were some contact relics on display in the abbey as well. Contact relics are objects that a saint has touched or come into contact with. Inside the church, which is decorated in the elaborate and beautiful baroque style that takes my breath away, there are a few skeletons of nameless saints on display in the side altars. The reason that these nameless saints were put on display is because there aren’t enough full skeletons of famous saints to go around to all the churches. There was one famous saint who was buried in this church though, and that is Saint Colomon, who was hanged and became a saint because his body didn’t decompose after 2 years. Also on display in the museum was a replica of one of the reusable coffins that Joseph II had people use in order to make the burial process easier and less elaborate. One of my favorite parts of the tour was our visit to the abbey’s library. To see all of the old illuminated manuscripts and books put together in one room is really exciting for me. I also liked the globe in the library that was made by a 16th century mapmaker, who thought that the west coast of the area that would be the U.S. was separate from the rest of North America. I also really enjoyed walking through the gardens and the little town after the tour. I bought some souvenirs to remember the place by and rested in the peaceful gardens for awhile before dinner (I can see why the monks like it here). We had dinner at the abbey’s restaurant, where we had a wine tasting. The good food and wine were a perfect end to the day.
The German word of the day is beantworten, which means “to answer”.