This day started with a relaxing morning, sailing along the Danube. Well… the Main-Danube Canal actually – but sailing nonetheless, gliding past fall-coloured shores. Just beautiful. We enjoyed an extra cup of cappuccino onboard along with a comedic German lesson before lunch. After lunch we had chosen as our excursion a visit to Weltenburg Abbey, one of the oldest monasteries in Bavaria. Yup –more pictures of churches. We only saw Regensburg from the bus as we headed off to Kelheim to board a local tour boat to sail through the Danube Gorge on our way to the abbey. The gorge is too shallow and narrow for a river cruise ship. The abbey is famous for it’s Dunkel beer, which it has been making since 1050 (making it the oldest monastic brewery in the world) and also for it’s abbey church built in the early 17th century and dedicated to Saint George. We had a curated tour of the church by a woman that made the history informative, exciting and humorous (she was awesome). This was followed by a sample of their beer in the dining hall, and then a bus ride back to the cruise ship just in time for a sail-away drink before dinner.
Our local tour boat docked at the abbey, with part of the Danube Gorge in the background.
While we waited for our time to enter the abbey church (seen in the background), we wandered around up the hill, and came across this row of stations of the cross. There were several sets of these at various points around the hill.
Up on the hill, we came across this simple little chapel.
Inside the little chapel, with it’s opulent interior. This foreshadowed what we would find inside the big abbey church.
The relatively simple exterior of the abbey church (with the convent attached) belying the ornate interior.
Inside the abbey church, with it’s presentation of the altar as “theatre”. There is no Christ on the cross in this church, it’s dedicated to Saint George, and that took “centre stage”.
A close-up of the altar. The statue on the right is apparently the likeness of one of the two brothers that had the church built.
One of the sides of the church. The other side was equally impressive. Well…the whole church was impressive.
We found high-water markings like this in several towns. Seems the Danube can be a bit high at times, even in recent years. Good thing they built most buildings out of stone back then.
A view as we sailed along the Gorge.
In the small town of Kelheim, where we caught the tour boat, you could see up on the mountain, the Befreiungshalle (Hall of Liberation), built by King Ludwig I of Bavaria (yeah, never hear of ‘im) to commemorate the victory over Napoleon in 1815.
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Danube River Cruise - Oct 2017