I woke up in Krems.

 We sailed all night, at first light I pulled open the curtain and snapped this through my window while still in bed. I thought it was a castle but later learned it is the Gottweig Abbey we were scheduled to tour.

The abbey was about a 10 minute bus ride from the boat. I learned we're on what is called a lollipop (sucker) tour for the reason below. 

Viking has provided us with really good audio boxes, the guides can walk along slowly, speaking in a normal voice, and we shuffle along behind, alternately watching our feet and whatever she is describing.

The abbey is a Unesco World Heritage site, and was delightful. They have acres of fruit and grape orchards surrounding the buildings and produce jams and wines that are for sale for the cause. They are specifically known for their apricots. In our half day there, we had a short class learning to make apricot dumplings, toured the grounds, had a wine tasting and some of us wandered into places we had not bee invited to....

View from the abbey into the valley.

Violence at the water fountain:

Many words were spoken about the frescoes, we guessed it took the artist around 5 years to paint them, in truth it took the artist 90 days in the early 1700's. I am certain these have religious and historical significance, but I find his subject matter kinda quirky. An angel practicing modern dentistry, for example.

Are these two smirking, holding The Nails?

No idea what these two little monsters are up to, but I know it's nothing good.

Angels gone bad, bad to the bone.

As soon as we got back to the boat, we were invited in for lunch and cast off for Passau through the Wachau Valley. It's so relaxing to sail on these boats, the countryside just streams past you at a nice slow pace, there are no sudden accelerations or stops. You can wander around the top deck or sit on the bow and drink tea or whatever. Our activities director, Lovey, narrated what we were seeing.

There were ALOT of words today. I only half listened and opted just to soak up the beauty instead. This gist of what I heard: Richard the Lionhearded. Limestone. Medievel stacked stone structures. Multimillion euros. Imprisoned for trying to pay for a meal. Sold the Gutenberg bible to the USA to pay for church repairs. That's about all I can remember.

Here some the pics from the UNESCO canyon.

We went through several locks today, each one takes about 20 minutes. Our boat captain absolutley slayed this one. There was a handspan of space on each side of the boat. When we entered, it was deep and dark. Incredible technology.

Hard to go to bed last night with the excitement of the day. One last picture of locks at night. We were on the upper deck enjoying the quiet and dark when peace was rudely disrtupted by an inibriated passenger coming up the stairs yelling "wheres the neon?" Our first brush with incivility on the boat.