Last Wednesday out group took a bus out to Melk. The countryside in Austria is amazing! We took a tour through the Melk Abbey before heading off the the bike rental place. Melk Abbey is absolutely beautiful! Besides the beautiful architecture and design, there is something else that makes the Abbey amazing. It has one of the most amazing "Trompe L'Oeil" finishes (French for illusion). The Library has the barrel-shaped dome ceiling that was common to the time period. The Marble room however, does not. The interesting thing about this, is that the difference between the two ceilings is not noticible without studying it intently.















The first picture is the curved ceiling in the Library. The second picture is the flat ceiling in the Marble room. Isn't it amazing?!
Another interesting thing that Melk Abbey has are relics. These include a piece of the cross of Christ, bones of the apostles and different saints, and even enitre bodies. In the main part of the church there are many different "mini-alters" dedicated to different saints. Each alter is different, but a few of them hold some of the most fancy corpses I've ever seen!
















When we left the Abbey, we went and rented bikes and then we rode our bikes from Melk all the way down to Kremms. It took the entire day, but it was beautiful! Anne, Eric, and I rode together and we went exploring in most of the little towns we passed through. We also found quite a few little tunnels that we went exploring in. We found a beautiful little waterfall through one of the tunnels, and through another, we found a little forest path that went right along a brook. For our lunch, we stopped at various fruit stands and bought plums, apples, and the most amazing grapes ever! We also stopped later at a Bakery and bought some bread and some delicious pastries. Here's some of the pictures that I took while on the bike ride.