Melk and Durnstein adventure

Today we went to visit the towns of Melk and Durnstein......absolutely beautiful ride through the Austrian countryside. We passed fields of sunflowers, windmills, corn, vineyards as far as you could see and orchards of apricots which are now in season.

Both towns are on the Dunube River which was surprisingly muddy!

At Melk, we toured a huge Catholic Abbey that was build in the 1000's. Difficult to even conceive that far back. As most of the cathedrals, etc. are, it was very ornate. There were some ancient documents and artifacts there as well. It was quite an intersting place!

I especially enjoyed our trip to Durnstein. It is a lovely little village built below the ruins of a castle that was supposedly where Richard, the Lionhearted lived. The town had twisty little brick streets with quaint little shops. I had some of the most delicious yogurt there made with cherries! Robin and I visited a cemetary there that has an interesting story. It seems that here in Austria, a family has one plot for burying family members...one upon another. When the grave is six people deep, the first person's bones are removed and put in a common place stacked on top of each other to make room for the next person being buried. The graves were all beautifully planted with flowers. It is considered disrespectful to not keep the grave well tended and a family can actually be thrown out of the cemetary if they neglect their family plot....having to move the bodies!

When we returned to Haus Edelweiss, we had a church service that was very special. One of the translators showed a power point from one of the former Russian students who is now serving in India. She and others there have taken in 18 of the "untouchable" children from the streets and are providing them with a home and everything they need. It was a very moving presentation. She spoke of the difficulty of living in a whole new culture away from family and friends but of the assurance that she is doing exactly what God wants her to do and the peace that has been given to her.

After communion, Claudia and I joined a group of female students from Russia for the prayer time. Everyone is encouraged to pray in their native tongue so even though I couldn't understand them, I could tell that they have a deep love for the same God that I do! That was a very special ending to the day.

Finally, I was able to call my mother and wish her a Happy Birthday. She is 95 years old today.

When I get my pictures downloaded from today, I will post them.

Thanks for the prayers being sent up for all of us. Please remember the students who will be traveling to join us tomorrow. When everyone gets here, there will be about 100 of us! I am going to be busy this week: cleaning, setting tables, doing laundry, etc.