Today was an action-packed day where we traveled about 80 km along the Danube from Krems to Grein via Melk. We got our normal leisurely start and then crossed the Danube to ride along the south shore of the river. This gave us another great view of the huge castle on the southern ridge overlooking Krems. Then we settled down for a couple of hours of unrushed pedalling along the winding shore with occasional breaks for photos of castles.

Melk is a fairly small town (see card) with a fairly large Benedictine Abbey in it. We walked around town admiring their old buildings, took a tour of the abbey, and had a delicious lunch. The tour took us through the hallways done in perspective to make them seem longer, frescoes that made the rooms look taller, and paintings that seemed to look at you regardless of where you stood. Is everything what it seems in this religion? They also had a huge library with over a thousand manuscripts, some older than 1000 AD.

Lunch was outstanding. Mine was wild boar in a nice sauce, and some starchy sausage slices, a pickled cabbage salad; Rony had rump roast and noodles with a sauce "just like mother used to make."

As we pass through these towns we keep trying to figure out what the people do. They have nice houses, they drive nice cars, and they seem to hang around and talk all day. The guide in the tour of the Abbey (which had an incredible gaudy gold gilden chapel) said that the three main sources of income were agriculture, forestry and tourism. I think tourism, especially here along the Danube is a large part of it. It's hard to believe that locals could afford the prices that we pay in these nice, shaded, outdoor cafés.

West of Melk we crossed the Danube again, and then rode along fairly concertedly until Grein. The tourist info place found us a pension, very reasonably priced, roomy and immaculate. I saved Rony from a killer bee, the largest I've ever seen. Had a late dinner in an outdoor café down by the river. Filled up by eating several small snacks and then the Truffel Torte. Looked around town, slept too hot, but well.