Melk and home

Packed up and left the apartment, and took my large pack to the
station where the lockers are. These are probably the best bargain in
Vienna - #4 for up to 24 hours' storage, provided you don't lose the
little ticket that they give you.

Then I had to wait half-an-hour for a train to St Polten, where I
changed for Melk. The first train was delayed, so I thought I would
have another half-hour wait, but luckily the connecting train was
delayed too, and I caught it with seconds to spare.

Melk is a little medieval town in sight of the Danube--in fact it has
its own tributary to supply water-- and the old town is quite touristy
and crowned with a magnificent Abbey. I strolled around a bit and then
toiled up the hill to the abbey, stopping for coffee and a sweet cake
on the way. Entry includes the abbey itself, the magnificent church in
the centre, the gardens, and a few little side exhibitions of
artworks. The Abbey is obviously still controlled by the Church, and
so there are little homilies and bits of religious propaganda
scattered throughout, including some religious modern art which -- if
such a thing were possible -- is even worse than ordinary modern art.
But the ancient stuff was interesting and there are great views from
the abbey walls.

I wandered out of the old city and into the main town for lunch, where
I bought something that was called 'egg salad', but was really a kind
of semi-solid egg pudding with chunks of hard-boiled eggwhite in.

Caught the train back to Vienna with a couple of hours to spare, and
decided to sample the local beers. Discovered that if I had stayed on
the train to West Vienna rather than changing at St Polten again, it
would have dropped me right on the doorstep of a brewery. As it was I
got the U-Bahn to Fredericksplatz and went first to a brew-pub, but it
was a bit too fancy for me, so I crossed the road to an 'Irish Pub'
instead. It had Irish barmaids and a couple of Irish beers, but I
eschewed those in favour of two local brews, and had a very nice
dinner in the shape of pork knuckle and mashed potato with gravy. It's
costing me more and more to enjoy Vienna, so it's probably good that
this is my last day.

Walked rather carefully -- mindful of the effects of a litre of beer
-- back to the station and retrieved my bag. Bought a ticket to the
airport, but the train wasn't due to go for half an hour, and I
discovered from Google Maps that I could have got there via the local
S-Bahn line more quickly. To make matters worse the train was late,
and when it finally got there it took about ten minutes for everyone
to load up with their bags -- for a fifteen-minute trip -- and as long
to get off at the other end again.

Went through the usual airport preliminaries, strolled at leisure to
the gate, and found they were already boarding. Air India seems to
like to leave an hour or so to board; which is nice when the plane is
cool and air-conditioned and the airport is not. Took a tablet and
whizzed off into the night.



--
________________________________

Jon Jermey
Indexer and database consultant
042 535 0422
webindexing.com.au