A Day in Leobendorf & Melk, Austria
Originally posted on September 16th, 2017One of my first trips while in Austria was to the beautiful and quaint Melk and to the castle in Leobendorf. We boarded up our buses early on Friday and started on our way!
Our journey took us on a road along the Danube that was pocketed with picturesque towns and green mountains. It was all post-card perfect! Our first stop was at the bird show and castle in Leobendorf. The show featured birds of prey, so that's one reason I didn't take any pictures: I didn't want to attract their attention. But! I did take plenty of photos of the castle itself.
Once we were done with the castle, we moved on Melk, which ended up being one of my favorite places in Austria! This town has one of the most famous landmarks within the country, and it's easy to see why it's so famous! This Abbey (a special type of monastery), was originally a castle that was then given to a group of monks in 1089. They turned it into a school, and it was famous for it's huge library that is full of manuscripts. It's said that, in order to read everything in the library, you must know over 15 languages and read one book a day for 300 years!!! Yeah, it's a pretty big deal, especially in those times.
Sadly, I wasn't able to take pictures within the actual monastery (it is a religious space after all), but all I can say was that the baroque period was a huge influence on the design of the interior and exterior space. The monks were also very ahead of their time, which can be seen in the 3D illusion paintings on the ceilings to create a feeling of a bigger room and having separate rooms for the band to play in for which you can control the volume by closing and opening various windows.
We did a tour of the majority of the Abbey, including the overlook into the city itself. The views were breathtaking, with a view of the town on one side and the river Danube on the other. I wish I could've stayed there forever.
The monastery also had a garden that contained a little building with a cafe inside. It was covered with hand painted designs from floor to ceiling. I just couldn't believe my eyes! It definitely gave me some real design inspiration for my future living room.
When our tour was over, we headed back to Vienna. All I could think about on my trip back was how wonderful everything had been, from the sunshine to the soft yellows of the Monastery. It was a truly perfect way to start off my time in Austria. ✨