Almost to Germany

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Thursday, 2 Oct, 10:15 AM
Still in Austria cruising toward Passau, our first stop in Germany. The scenery is reminiscent of the Hudson around West Point; wooded slopes coming right down to the river. We are waiting for a lecture on European styles of architecture to start at 10:30.

Yesterday we stopped in two places, Dürnstein and Mellk, both of which are in one of the wine producing areas of Austria, the Wurchau valley of the Danube. Dürnstein is a small village perched right above the river where we took a walking tour through narrow cobbled streets. Durnstein is noted for two things, good wine and the place where Richard the Lion Hearted was imprisoned and ransomed on his way home from the crusades. We spent a little over two hours in town, the first of which was taken by the walking tour. After the tour Mom and Grandma stayed in town and sampled the local refreshment, apricots soaked in apricot schnaps. I hiked up to the ruins of a castle above the village where I could see the entire sweep of the valley. It was a quick trip because I only had an hour to get up and back to the ship. Obviously we all made it back on time, Mom and Grandma from the liquor store and me from the castle.

Melk is about 20 miles up river from Dürnstein and is noted for its abbey and monastery. The monastery is still active along with a 900 student school. The grounds and buildings are in remarkably good shape, in part because the site has been used continuously for almost 1000 years. The buildings are not 1000 years old because they were destroyed and rebuilt a number of times; but they were always rebuilt. The last time it was rebuilt, it was in the Baroque style with lots of fancy carvings and gold everywhere. I have seen a good number of Baroque churches and this one was clearly in the best shape and the most spectacular.

Vienna was the day-before-yesterday and was capped by a delicious dinner with music, singing and ballet provided by some members of the Vienna philharmonic, the opera and the ballet. This all took place in a room reminiscent of what one might see in Versailles. Life has been really rough thus far. Actually, Beethoven had a contest with Salieri in that same room and stormed out because Salieri cheated by practicing ahead of time.

Okey Dokey - that’s it for now. Hoping you have lots of down-time at work to read about our adventures!

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Photos

Dürnstein
The tour competing for space with the local traffic

Dürnstein
From the castle ruin looking toward Germany

Dürnstein
View from the castle, looking toward Vienna

Dürnstein
Departing on the river

Vienna
A little eye candy...and yes he could really sing.

Vienna
One of three dances

Vienna
Another beautiful voice with members of the philharmonic