Kehlheim and Abbey Weltenburg

Another day unfolded today without me having to do anything except get myself and my luggage on a bus. This adventure is becoming more and more unknown as each day passes. The tour directors are working frantically behind the scenes to organise us a day in advance. Reports are that there is so much flooding in Budapest it might not even be worth going there!

But I guess we'll worry about that in a few days time!

So back to the bus. We headed out of Wurzburg at 8:30 this morning after another exceptional breakfast on board the Amadeus Classic and headed towards Kehlheim. We are in southern Germany, in the area of Bavaria.......where the Black Forest is......but didn't see any cake around!

We had a super coach today :-)

It struck me as we motored along that you don't see any animals on the farms - it's all cropping in this part of Germany. Evidently farming animals is done in the north. Everywhere is so green! Beautifully planted and cared for crops. Every now and then you see fields of yellow flowers which is the canola plant for producing canola oil.....obviously!

Fields of canola

The crops are lush and green

We arrived in Kehlheim and boarded a boat for a 40 minute cruise on the Danube - 40 minutes is better than nothing I guess!

Not quite the Amadeus Princess but at least we moved from one point to another.

As we passed these old buildings you can see how high the water has been - it was to the top of the brown debris.

It was very beautiful on this part of the river and we were very grateful to at least see a part of it.

The Abbey in this photo is where we were headed.

The Abbey Weltenburg was a very interesting place, combination of a church and monastery and a brewery.....in fact it is the oldest brewery in the world, having started in 1050.

This building houses the brewery

And this is the outside of the monastery 

But before we ventured inside we were given lunch.....very tasty too......and HUGE jugs of beer, of course!  We were in a private dining room, about 50 of us, including us kiwis, some Canadians and Americans and a dozen or so Aussies. It was actually quite hilarious in the end....we were all laughing at the amount of beer....so we all did big cheers and shouts and I even managed to get everyone cheering for the All Blacks!  Ha!!

John and Robyn Cooney

Our tour directors from the Amadeus Princess - Mirela and Andrea

We had a very scary German lady waiting on our tables......and it was like.....drink everything, eat everything or else!

I really didn't want dessert but you didn't dare say so.....ha!

After lunch we ventured in the Abbey itself which is absolutely beautiful, incredibly ornate and also incredibly cold. You'd have to wear a fur coat to go to church there.

The front of the Abbey......the light is all natural....so well designed to bring the light in where needed.

The ceiling......takes your breath away!

I heard something worth pondering while at this place today....

The monks have a saying " to work and to pray"

They like to ask people what is the most important word in this phrase.

Most people say "pray".......wrong!

Others say "work"......wrong!

The most important word is....."and"......which suggests there is something between work and prayer.

Maybe that's why they have a brewery??

Till next time......