It’s April 23rd, and we’re traveling about 55 kilometer from Enns to Lambach.The Archduchess would have been riding in her carriage the better part of the day. My train travel will be complete in about 90 minutes, including a transfer in Linz.

Now, getting to Lambach Abbey after arriving at the small Lambach Market train station is a bit more interesting. I walk to the taxi stand and not a taxi in sight. The only other traveler departing the train hopped in a waiting car and was quickly gone.

My hotel is two kilometers from the train station. I look around me. Across the street from this lovely little train station is a Montessori school and a row of well-kept houses. I pick up my small soft bag, grab my rolling backpack and open Mapquest. Within a block was the instruction to follow the path. The path? OK. I see an opening between a couple of buildings, the next best thing to a path.

As I walk, I made sure that little blue ball stayed centered on the blue line of my screen. Twists and turns between buildings, past a woman hanging clothes, a man loading things in a van, some pretty gardens As I make a right turn onto a bike trail along the Traun River, I can see Dreifaltigkeitskirche, a famous pilgrimage church.

It’s near lunch time and outdoor venues are waiting for the arrival of families spending time on the path. I walk across the bridge into the adjoining village of Stadl-Paura. I cross a busy street and right at two kilometers stands Kapellerhof.

Kapellerhof is a former monastery and now a hotel and conference center. The hotel continues to have the feel of the spiritual in this peaceful beautiful building. It hosts seminars, meetings and frequently hosts pilgrims as Saint James Way is nearby.

Lambach Abbey sits high above the towns of Lambach and Stadl-Paura. I once again make my way across the Traun River where for a thousand years, Lambach Abbey has continued to dominate the scene, in spite of the car traffic and hustle and bustle of the towns.

The only tour of the day is conducted in German, so I tag along with a wonderful guide who manages to make everything clear enough.

We walk into an incredible library that houses more than 50,000 volumes and there before us is a printing press

Lambach Abbey is the only abbey from the era with a theatre. Maria Antonia was treated to a stage play at the theatre. The short comic play titled The Marriage Contract was written by Father Maurus Lindemayr, a writer and prior at the abbey.

The gardens around the abbey are lovely but compact in comparison to those at Melk Abbey,

Maria Antonia may have spent her April 23rd staying up a bit late for the play. As for me on my April 23rd, I’m turning in early. I have a slightly longer journey tomorrow for our next stop and our last stop in Austria: Braunau am Inn.