Melking it

Melk, a little town in Austria, was a perfect stop for a few recuperative days. Venturing out of the city was a good move. We got some zzzzs and saw some very pretty sights!

As soon as we got to Melk we napped. Borrring! Waking up reinvigorated we went for dinner at a pub called Familie Ebner Restaurant. Boy was it worth it! The restaurant itself was charming - filled with bottles of booze (decorative ones - not my first time in a pub!), wonderful wooden booths and circular benches. A breadbasket was delivered replete with a selection of wholesome rolls. I had fillet steak, with steamed vegies and baked potato. It was a gargantuan meal and hungry me consumed it all. Actually, the whole time I was in Austria my appetite was ravenous!

I go nuts for hazelnuts and in Germany and Austria you couldn't keep me away from the stuff. I've been eating hazelnut chocolate, drinking hazelnut coffee and cooling off with hazelnut milshakes. I also love muesli, and in both Austria and Germany hostel breakfasts have featured muesli with whole hazelnuts and choc flakes!

For a more substantial course, reader, let it be known that Stift Melk, the Melk Monastery featured in Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose is truly a resplendent sight. Pictures will come later, but even the library was a thing of beauty! The monastery has an interesting history, undergoing many changes over the years. Most visually edifying are the changes from the baroque reconstruction between 1701 -1736. Melk was magical, and a wonderful reprieve from many a city.

Ending with a funny story, I discovered in a Melk tourist store signage announcing 'No kangaroos in Austria'. Later I met some Austrians on the train - they told us that they often get asked by tourists and foreigners about the kangaroos in Austria.

(RR) They were really lovely people - a hilarious loud teenage girl with a serious dedication to Metallica, and her mum who had spent a year in England. "I wanna 'sick of school" break, the young girl said when she learnt of our long trip. We had so much fun speaking with them. Both competed to remember the most specific English words - and announced half-jokingly that all home conversations would now be conducted in English. We almost missed our stop, but luckily the train stopped for a few mins. As we hurled our crap onto the platform, I looked up to see the train move off and our Austrian friends waving at us from the window.