Monks and beer.... or not

As I already said last night, we started this morning with a visit of the Trappist Monastery of Engelhartszell, called Stift Engelszell. 
It's the only Trappist Monastery of Austria. They were founded in 1293 but after many struggles they were dissolved in the 18th century. After World War I, in 1925, the monastery was re-established by German monks that had fled from Alsace. During World War II all 73 monks had to flee, afterwards only one-third returned. 
Nowadays only 4 monks live permanent in the monastery. They live from brewing liquor and trappist beer. We were welcomed by an external monk who works there during the day but who goes home to his wife at night... yes that's possible! Lol
He gave us a very interesting tour of the church in Rococo style and the Gotic chapel. But I have to admit I was slightly disappointed when I found out that this was all the visit included. I honestly thought (as did everybody else) that we would also get to see the brewery.
To appease the disappointment we received a tiny bottle of liquor in the souvenir shop.... yep, they even have souvenir shops in Monasteries! ;-) Everybody bought the Trappist beer, except me of course..... this zero alcohol bird can't even be convinced by a few monks, lol. 

Back on board we sailed on to Aschach where we only stayed for 2 hours. There was nothing specific to see in this little village but mom, dad and me took a small walk through the narrow streets with the very colorful houses. All the villages out here look kind of similar. (Passau had more or less the same architectural style) I'll add some pictures of Aschach so you can see the similarities with Passau.

You might wonder why we stop in a village as Aschach when there isn't really anything to see. Well, I'll explain ;-)
This boat also has a lot of passengers that are on a cycling vacation. Which means that they get off in one village, ride their bikes to the next one where the boat picks them up again.
This is great for us because 90 % of all passengers are cyclists. So we have the whole sundeck for ourselves most of the day :-D
Definitely great for the next days, it will be sunny and about 30° Celsius for the rest of our vacation!

It's amazing, the beautiful nature and architecture you see while sailing on the Danube. So much green, huge churches on top of mountains that make you wonder how they built that in those days,.... Funny thing is that you get used to it very easily. Also the many locks we pass daily are impressive. The amount of water that gets pumped in or out (depending if you go up or down stream) in such a short time is really interesting to see. 

I will upload some videos as soon as I get home. Definitely also some videos shot on deck to show the beautiful surroundings. 
I have to be economical with the internet, it's crazy expensive on the boat (10€ per 100 MB which you reach in no-time when you upload some pictures). Good thing I have a good understanding with some of the staff members ;-)

After Aschach we started our longest travel of the whole vacation (280 km) towards Devin, Slovakia. We will arrive there in the morning. 

So for now.... goodnight!