We took it easy the morning after our Salzburg trip, but left after the little kid’s nap, to see the Danube Gorge and visist Weltenburg abbey. I had been to the abbey before and loved it there and wanted the kids to see it as well. I went once for a photo weekend and another time with my driving school teacher. Since he was a drunk, he liked to visit beer places - makes sense for a driving teacher, right? Sometimes just taking a car ride to a place near, can proof difficult and we had children that were unhappy in the their car seats, detours that had the only intention to get us lost and toddlers throwing up, but we managed to make it to Kelheim on the Danube after all.
In Kelheim, on top of the Michelsberg is the Befreiungshalle, the hall of liberation, which is a classical monument built by King Ludwig I to commemorate victories against Napoleon.
We took a boat to ride through the Danube gorge. It was a perfectly clear day and the sky was so blue and the rocks of the gorge so white and the sides of the river so green. It felt good for the soul. The 3.5 miles long Danube gorge is between Kelheim and the abbey Weltenburg in lower Bavaria. The Danube has made it a few hundred kilometers at this point and still about 2500 to go - what a long river. The rocks on the sides are up to 250 feet high and have some caves and holes to hide in, kind of neat. They have very funny names like three enemy brothers, robber rock, cuddle rock, bavarian lion, suitcase of Napoleon, Peter and Paul, two kissing each other.
This spot already had people here in the stone age, the Celts were here as were the Romans, who had a rope bridge going from rock to rock above the waters.
It was a 40 minute ride through the gorge and to the abbey. Unfortunately we came with the last boat and it only gave us 20 minutes to explore the abbey. We literally ran to the abbey, through the courtyard and into the church.
The benedictine abbey is on a peninsula in the Danube. The monastery was already founded by Scottish or Irish monks in 620 and is considered the oldest monastery in Bavaria. The baroque church St. George is in the center, it was build by the Asam brothers, who were famous sculptors, painters, architects and stucco workers in southern Germany. The abbey’s brewery (Weltenburger Klosterbrauerei) is in operation since 1050 and is fighting with the Weihenstephan abbey for the title of oldest monastery brewery in the world.
It is so interesting to go to places like this with children, as they just rarely have this overwhelming feeling of awe, they just get hooked on funny little details and it is fun to see it with their eyes. We were very lucky and got to hear the monchs chanting at six - just perfect. Even though I could not sit in the beautiful courtyard and enjoy the peaceful atmosphere of the abbey, at least I saw it shortly.
We had to run back to the boat, the girls were very afraid we would miss it, but we made it just in time. Back in Kelheim we thought it might be a nice ending to find a beer garten in the town and started walking. Just by accident we found the Biergarten for Schneider Weisse, the oldest brewery of wheat beer. What a great biergarten, one of the nicest I have been at, that is for sure and the food and beer were great - I was very happy and content.
On the way home nobody could find Anna’s pacifier and she was very upset, we had to sing one German children’s song after the other, which brought back memories to evenings when we had to do that with Johanna, singing our hearts our while trying to remember all the verses of a song half forgotten.
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