Two Fridays ago, the group along with Major Lampersberger and a „willing“ recruit went to Melk, and the surrounding area of Wachau. Wachau is regarded as one of the prettiest areas in Austria. The Donau River runs through Melk to Kremz. The area in between is the Wachau region. We started off by visiting the giant Stift Melk. A stift is basically the German word for a church where there is also businesses, and sometimes a school. It was built during the baroque time period and has some very neat architecture. The library inside is extremely old and has a lot of historical books. The Roman Catholic Church also inside the stift was unbelievable. Before we went inside, the guide said it is probably the prettiest church ever built. Needless to say, it lived up to its expectations.
After this we went to the local military post that hosts the 3rd Engineer battalion. We got a short intro as to what they do there, and then we took the motor boats out on the river. They did all sorts of formations, and towards the end I got to drive and attempt to stay in the similar formations. After this we ate lunch and then went to a very old castle, which was very cool. The guy who built it was a robber that stole from people in the surrounding region to fund the castle. He had a balcony high up where he kept his prisoners called the rose garden. The prisoners could either starve to death, or jump to their death. There weren’t big leaves down beneath, so you couldn’t do any crazy avatar stuff or anything like that. After this we went out to eat at a place called a Heuriger. They basically make their own wine and are only opened when they have wine left. We learned all of the steps to wine making. They aren’t allowed to sell most other types of alcohol, and for the most part can only sell food that they make. For example, our meal consisted of a few bottles of wine, a platter of fresh cold cuts, cheese, and fresh baked bread. After much merry-making we headed back to Neustadt.
The following week was pretty standard: riding, dancing, and a few classes mixed in. I had more riding lessons than actual class lessons. On Friday we had another excursion, this time to another monastery type place. This place was more for commercial wine, and there was lots of it. We got a grand tour of the winery below the stift. Additionally, we saw an eagle show at a nearby castle, which was very cool. They trained the birds so they would fly directly over your head. There were golden eagles and also a bald eagle. In German, the bald eagle’s name is Weißkopfseeadler, which translates to white head sea eagle. I came within about two inches of it as it was flying over.
During the weekend I went to Innsbruck in western Austria. We basically went around and saw all of the cultural stuff there was to see. We also took a tram up one of the higher mountains around Innsbruck, which was about 2400 meters. We had to walk up the last 100 meters in order to get to the very top. There was a good bit of snow and ice at the top, where it was also -10 degrees Celsius. One of the cadets from the MilAk showed us around because he’s from Innsbruck, so we didn’t have a chance to get lost. We also ate a lot of the local food, which was incredible. Innsbruck is quite famous for their pork products, and rightfully so. I could barely move after the lunch we had it was so good.
Monday we had another dance course, where we learned more dances that I’ll never use in my life. One of them was a crazy foot crossing waltz type thing. If anyone out there reading has ever done this dance at any time, please feel free to tell me I’m wrong. It’s a good experience though in the long run, further “culturing” myself. Today (Tuesday the 26th) was a national holiday similar to our fourth of july. That basically means that people have an excuse to go out the night before and party, and then use today as a recovery day. Austrians always find something to celebrate. Our Commandant from West Point is coming tomorrow, along with several other officers. We have to show them around and basically give a tour. Luckily the general doesn’t speak German, so I can give my presentation in English. This weekend after another excursion with the major, myself and the other west point guys are trying to go to Budapest. We’ll see how that goes.
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