Students:Day 5

It was goodbye to Graz today and our very comfortable JUFA hostel. Today we headed north for approximately an hour to the small town of Admont where we visited the famous library in the Admont-Stift monastery - allegedly the largest monastery library in the world. We were given a guided tour of the library comprising three section: a central portal and two adjacent wings, each containing a specific category of books - bibles, theological tracts and 'vulgate' worldly books on philosophy, politics, etc. The tour also included a commentary on the various artwork in the library, with various depictions of the apostles and evangelists, and the four 'things' one can expect upon death, e.g. death, God's judgement, heaven and hell. Death was depicted with a not-quite-fully decomposed skeleton hanging over the shoulder of a pilgrim.

The next scheduled stop was at Gesause National Park where we were again guided by a park official, beginning with a presentation on the history of the park (established in 2002) and what it's ongoing operations include. A road runs through the middle of the park and is not included in the park's territory, so it's effectively cut in half. The tour included the explanation of the park's new carbon footprint maze and a walk along its educational trail that is punctuated with a variety of ingenious interactive mechanisms designed to involve the visitor in the workings of the park.

We eventually got to the luxurious JUFA hostel in Eisenerz shortly before 6pm.

More images: Day Five Photos