In the morning we took a guided tour of the Melk Benedictine Abby. Like many places here, it has a long history, but this place was largely rebuilt in the 18th century, Baroque style. A quick bus ride took us to the Abby area where about 30 monks live today. Also every day about 1000 high school aged kids come for school. Since it is a private school, they take an entrance exam to get in, and since the 1960s, both boys and girls are allowed (only boys before that).

The two keys symbolize St. Peter and St. Paul, who are the patron saints of this Abby.

No photography of any kind was allowed inside the Abby. So I will describe it a bit. The first part was a line of over 500 rooms along one hallway on the second floor which was used by the Emperors and other royalty when they visited. These are not in use over 90% of the time, but when needed, the monks had to be sure all the lords and ladies (and their court people) were comfortable.

The second part was the oldest library I have ever seen. In the room we were allowed to visit, most of the books were from the 15th and 16th century, with a total of over 100,000 books. The old books spines and covers were redone when the Abby was rebuilt, so they all look similar, in the Baroque style.

Then we saw the church, where only 8 pounds of gold was distributed over zillions of statues and other art. Truly impressive.

The weather has been unusually hot. All of our tour guides have mentioned it. And, looking at people, many are eating ice cream. Here is one ice cream cone, Brian for scale.

After the tour of the Abby, we walked back downhill through the tiny town.

The yellow buildings on the horizon are Austrian army barracks. From the tour guide, it sounded like these people are more like our disaster relief helpers than soldiers. They are always first there after a flood on the Danube.

After lunch, we went through the Wachau Valley on the Danube, one of the largest wine grape growing areas in Austria. Interestingly, the vines are horizontal, sub parallel to the river while along the Rhine River Valley the grapes were sub vertical, perpendicular to the river. Brian read the descriptions and history of things we could see on the river, the cruise director was pointing out exactly when to look for the castles and churches. A lovely afternoon on the way to Vienna.

• Europe 2018