Weekend in Krems

Fantastic weekend!

No school on Thursday and Friday, so Wednesday evening after my clarinet lesson, my host family and I drove with their RV to Niederösterreich for a few nights of camping! Wednesday evening we drove about 2/3 of the way to Krems and stopped for the night. The next morning was beautiful weather and the landscape does look quite different than the upper Steiermark. That morning we drove to Mariazell, a well known town for the church and skiing in winter. My host dad told me that when the Pope does come to Austria, this is the place where he stays. From there, we drove to a large castle overlooking a large portion of the Danube river valley, called Stift Göttweig. Our final destination was a campsite in Krems, a town on the banks of the Danube. It was only about 13:00, and shortly thereafter, my host dad’s sister arrived with her family. I met the two parents during Easter, but I hadn’t met their 3 sons yet. They were right about my age- 15 and the two twins are 17! We got along really well, and they were really interested in the US and my experiences so far on exchange. I found out too that they are avid boy scouts! I had been told in the past that Austria has almost no scouting programs, but meeting 3 teens who have been in it for years was really interesting! That afternoon I went to the pool with them, and we swam a bit, played some beach volleyball (they are big volleyball fans too), and got to know each other more. In the evening I rode bikes with Maria for an hour at sunset, trying out a road bike for the first time. It was a lot different than the mountain bikes I’m used to, but I hope to become accustomed to that!

When we woke up on Thursday

The VW RV with a top speed of 82 km/h

Mariazell

The church at Mariazell

View from Stift Göttweig- the Danube river valley

Stift Göttweig

Stift Göttweig way out in the distance

Steady campin

The weather on Friday was forecasted to be dreary in the afternoon, so in the morning I ran a few errands with my peers while my host parents rode bikes. At 13:15, all 8 of us went to the river and took a 3 hour trip up the Danube from Krems to Melk on a riverboat. The landscape was hilly but with grapes growing everywhere. The wine in this region of Austria is very well known. About an hour into the cruise it began to rain, and we had to head below decks, which wasn’t as nice. In the late afternoon we arrived in Melk to attempt to see the city some, but it was raining too much to see anything. It was pretty miserable, plus we were all really hungry. We ate at a small deli, but before long I took the bus back with the twins which only took an hour.

From the river- Dürnstein

Grapes

Monastery in Melk

Then today the weather was really bad with rain all day, so we checked out a museum of famous cartoonists, Erich Sokol, and others. Almost all the cartoons were related to Austrian stereotypes or politics, so I didn't understand 80% of them, but after a bit of explaining, I got the idea of it! After that, we went to a privately owned motorcycle museum with dozens and dozens of refurbished motorcycles, dating back to even the early 1900's. I liked that one could see the progression of these engines and vehicles throughout the twentieth century. By this time the rain still hadn't died down, so Maria, Andi, and I packed up and drove back to Knittelfeld.

Just a fraction of the bikes

80 year old radios too

It was a great weekend, and it felt great to be outdoors for a longer period of time! I have missed that about scouting in the US!