Tuesday 23 April 2024

It’s cold this morning. Colder than ever. Over breakfast we watch the digger dredging the Danube. Apparently this is an ongoing thing, because the river is particularly shallow here

Cherrie braves the cold and goes up on deck. Where she meets only sleet. No one else is stupid enough to be out in this. Even the locals can’t comprehend this weather. But the photos she takes warrant the challenge

We dock in Krems, a small Austrian town, at the eastern end of the Danube, at 10.30am. The boat has forecast “Chance of Rain, 6 degrees”. An hour after docking we head off on an excursion to Gottweig Abbey, constructed in the 11th Century, and boasting 5300 hectares which includes 26ha of vineyards. And 40 monks.

The weather gods following us on this journey have not heard of spring. That beautiful temperate season between winter and summer. We have had miserable weather since we arrived in Berlin, wet and cold. But today takes the torte. As we approach the Abbey

we get a hint of what is to come.

Yes, folks, that’s snow. It’s chilled the wine

And the tourists

The literature we are given states that the most impressive room in the Abbey is relatively small library, filled to the ceiling with 130,000 volumes. It’s closed to visitors.

The Abbey houses the largest private collection of engravings in Austria, more than 30,000. It’s closed to visitors.

We decide against taking a seat

We think about walking through the snow kissed gardens. But they’re not open to non-monks

So we head into the warmth of the Chapel

We climb the stairs of Abbey, which are low, gentle steps. Built so as to cover the women’s ankles, back in the day. The day when women wore crinolines, with their bosoms falling out but their ankles covered. Ankles were considered the height of obscenity, and so the effect was of the women levitating up the stairs. Having checked our socks were up, we proceeded up the gentle staircase to see the friezes we were allowed to see

Outside again, we get some chilling information

Briefly, very briefly, the rain stopped for us to catch (as it were) a corner of the Abbey

But to remind us it was spring, it just kept snowing

The literature we are given describes the slopes of Krems as being bathed in sunlight all day, and thus create some of the best wines in the world. We are yet to see the sun or indeed taste anything that even comes close to a good wine.

To warm up, we return to the boat. Then we walked into Krems, a small university town which reminded us of Tallin, the capital of Estonia, which we briefly visited last November.

The snow has eased but the rain persists. However, we are resigned to it now and can still raise a smile

We met some of the locals, who were also cold

Cherrie was pleased to see these flowers

And we were both very pleased to discover the museum, to get out of the cold and the rain

But it was closed.