After reading Kathleen Norris, I had it in my mind to visit a monastery. Then by chance in Jerusalem I met a beautiful woman named Trudy who took me back to her convent, where I was able to stay multiple times. It was a place of freedom and love, which I really needed. And now in Vienna, I continue my new love of visiting holy places by taking a day trip to Klosterneuburg....

I had read about this abbey, so I decided to go check it out. They offered an English speaking tour on Sundays at 2. I set out for the station around noon, hoping to be at the abbey around 1. Even though I thought I'd done my homework and new the time and place for the train I needed, something went wrong and, it wasn't until I was already on the wrong train that I figured this out. Fortunately a really nice old man helped me in Germ-glish (it works better to combine Spanish and English to Spanglish...oh well). I made three really confusing connections, maneuvering my way around in German. Woohoo for me.
At some point I discovered that there were two stops called Klosterneuburg, at which point I began hyperventillating. I kept thinking, "I'M GONNA MISS THE TOUR! EEK." As you can see, I really wanted to make the tour. I asked several people which one it was and no one knew (probably because I made up a word for abbey in German that is definitely not the right one!). Finally a man helped me, "The next, the next," he yelled as I was getting off at the first. Woops. By the next stop I had four minutes to hike a major hill to the abbey. No problem. I'm a runner! Unfortunately, at the abbey I got lost and couldn't find the ticket office. So I passed the tour group (not knowing it was them) and finally arrived at tickets.
The man was so nice and sympathetic to my frustrated German that he put his jacket on and walked me to join the tour! I nearly cried I was so grateful and I kept repeating, "Vielen dank. Vielen dank." The abbey was great, but its greatness lay in its history, which was enthusiastically offered to us like a feast for the imagination by an older Austrian who obviously loved his abbey very much.
I'm sure he was encouraged in his enthusiasm by my enthusiasm, but that's a good thing. It was an incredibly informative afternoon, and my education came not only from the tour guide but also from the helpful people I encountered along the way.