From the manager who needs time off to the student who is about to take her final exams: Holidays in a monastery can be enriching in many ways and in unexpected ways. Out and about in Austria.
The choir stalls fill up. Young monks in their waving habit hurry up, the old ones struggle with every step. It is 5.15 in the morning in Heiligenkreuz Abbey near Vienna. Outside the fog wafts over from the Vienna Woods, only the towers of the mighty Romanesque abbey church protrude and float like a mirage over the walls. A good three dozen religious have taken their places in the creaking choir stalls. Then there is silence – until this special chant can be heard. The Cistercian monks from Heiligenkreuz Abbey intone the Gregorian chant, 900 year old sounds, a meditative ups and downs.