AUSTRIA - DAY 12

Guess what? It's raining again. We headed off today on an excursion of the Vienna Woods and Mayerling.

Our first stop was Mayerling, which was once a hunting lodge of Crown Prince Rudolf but now a strict Carmelite convent. It was here in the Memorial Chapel that we were told the tragic story of how on the 30th January 1889, Crown Prince rudolf shot his lover, Baroness Mary Vetsera, with his revolver, and then himself. On the orders of his father, Emperor Franz Joseph, all sources of information, letters, police investigation files, were destroyed to cover up what happened.

The Emperor considered his son's end disgraceful: nothing should be a reminder of the event so he directed that the hunting lodge, Mayerling, should be erased. Only the pleadings of his wife, caused him to compromise and only the rooms in which the tragedy took place were demolished. In their place a Memorial Chapel and convent were built and given to the Carmelite Nuns. They still live there in strict seclusion praying for eight hours a day. It was interesting seeing the memorial and I remember having watched a movie not long before heading overseas about this story.

After that we travelled to Cistercian Monastery of Heiligenkreuz founded about 1133. Approximately fifty monks live there and go out into the community and help where they are needed. Here we toured the church and found out a little about the Babenberg family and the tomb of the last Babenberg Duke, Frederick II, who was killed in 1246 in battle against the Hungarians.

Next we headed for the Seegotte, the largest subterranean lake in Europe. This was once a gipson mine, but a disaster in 1912, in which water flooded in, closed the mine. It was used from 1944 to 1945 by the German Army for the development and production of the German jet fighter plane Heinkel He 162, the so called 'Volksjager' (people's fighter). Here we toured the underground caverns and went on a boat ride over the lake. Every year on the first of December the Vienna Boys Choir perform in the Chapel Cavern illuminated by 90 candles.

We headed back into Vienna and travelled around on the hop on hop off bus until we decided we were over everything and headed home. Pasqual led us on a wild ride by travelling on four different trains to get back to the hotel.