An afternoon cruising the Danube

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While we are in this part of the world we want to take a cruise on the Danube.It is one of those special things that is on our to do list.
However we don't need to be in too much of a rush as one of the places that regular daily cruises are operated from at Melk is only a short journey away.
After the debacle of trying to find our hotel the other day this will be the first time we have taken RR out on the road looking for a destination.
There are always two options in getting somewhere,the fast way on the motorway or the slow way on local roads.The local roads are much more enjoyable as you don't have the trucks and traffic volumes to contend with and you see more of the local flavours.
However a look at Google maps shows the highway is a much more simple way of getting there and much shorter in travel time.The only problem is that we will be going against the best intentions of the BBA and would have to pay to travel on the toll roads which make up a good part of the fast way to get there.The other cheaper option is much more complicated in clearing the suburban area we are staying in we will opt for the highway and pay the tolls!!
RR has been happily parked for the last two days and it has been a change to travel to what we want to see by public transport.However there is no public transport from where we are staying although if we went into the city we could take a combined ticket to get there by train and then take the boat ride.
The entry to the highway is just 1km down the road from our hotel so getting on the journey is easy and the road is not too busy with trucks.
The road surface is excellent which goes to show what you can get if you invest heavily in infrastructure of highways.
Early in the trip we even pass through three long tunnels that take the road underground even though there doesn't seem a need for them as there are no hills within cooee.!!
The E60/A21 soon joins in with the A1 which started its track in Vienna and we still haven't struck a toll booth.All rather strange as both our Atlas map and Google maps showed that the road was a toll road.
Still we weren't complaining and after another few more kilometres I put away the Euros I had out thinking we were going to have to pay for the pleasure of driving on this highway.
As we mentioned you don't really see the countryside travelling on the highways and the A1 wasn't any different to any other we have been on.The road did travel through hills which made looking out at the countryside different to crossing the plains around Vienna.
Google maps had said it would take just over an hour to travel the 100km and sure enough we were just over that and turning off the highway(without paying a cent!!)at Melk.
A further bonus was that there was also no cost to park RR for the rest of the day.
As we had an hour or so to spare before the cruise began we walked up through the small village which is overshadowed by a huge yellow coloured monastery that sits on a cliff above the town.
Our stroll through the cobbled pedestrian mall took us past cafes and to a bakery where we bought lunch and took it back to the middle of the mall where we sat and ate it and whiled away the time doing some people watching.Thankfully we were able to get a seat that was in the shade and out of the hot early afternoon sun.
We hoped that by the time we were on the river the heat might be taken out a bit by the wind usually created by a boat moving on water.
We went aboard the Prinz Egan,a large cruise boat with two covered in decks and an open top deck and capable of carrying 600 passengers although for this trip there was lucky to be 100 passengers.The cruise line we had chosen of the two available,operates two boats and they pass each other at mid point between the two towns they operate between on a section of the Danube called the Wachau which is a 35km section of the river that passes through a gorge.
We managed to get seats which provided some shade on the upper deck but even here is was very hot and the forward motion of the boat downsteam didn't provide the air movement we had hoped for.It didn't take long before we ordered up a couple of cold beers to try and keep ourselves well watered and cool !!
There was a lot to see on the downstream jouney from very old churches in small towns we pass and remains of castles with facinating history told as part of the commentary on the boats public address system,in 6 languages!!
The Wachau has a micro climate that allows fruit trees such as apricots and peaches to thrive and there are also substanial vineyards growing mainly on the rocky hillsides on terraces.
At Durnstein there is a magnificent blue coloured church with interesting statues adorning the building right on the edge of the river.It is so photogenic and after the boat had stopped to drop off and take on passengers it was difficult to know when to stop taking photographs of it.
The downstream journey to Krems took about 2 and half hours and we were only berthed for a few minutes to drop off and take on a few passengers before we were on our way back ustream again.
By now the sun had lost some of its heat and it seemed the upstream passage did create some cooler air making sitting outside in the open air more comfortable.
Although we passed the same towns and buildings on the return journey they all looked a bit different coming from another angle and with the sun also at a different angle the shadows created made for more photos.
Just up from Spitz our boat caught up with a freight boat pushing a barge.What it was carrying in anyones guess as its cargo was under cover but it all looked very cumbersome and slow.We edged up to it and then passed it leaving it behind quite quickly.
During the afternoon we had passed a couple of other freight barges and also a couple of long distance boats.
We arrived back into Melk just before 7pm and with an hour and a bit to drive back we decided to have dinner at a cafe in the town where they had a good deal on weiner schnitzel.
The sun had gone down behind the buildings in the mall but it was still warm and sitting out on the terrace with a tasty meal and a decidely good glass of local reisling made for the end of a very pleasant and restful day and another of our 'must do's' ticked off our list.
The drive back home was straightforward as we retraced our steps from the morning and although it was dark by the time we got home we didn't have any problems finding the exit off our highway back to our hotel.RR though would have to spend the night on the street as the car park was full !!

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Comments

[KJ]

Durnstein yes my screen saver!
Delighted to see you at least sailed past Durnstein-this was my favourite place on the whole trip and I have a screen saver photo taken of Durnstein and the church on my laptop. The Wachau is an amazing part of the Danube. Pity you didn't get to explore the Monastery at Melk it is very impressive iside and it ceryain ly commands the area around it from the cliff top