I'm sitting on the top deck waiting for the ship to depart from
Bernstein and trying to catch up on my journal and emails. We were only here
for 4 hours but it was plenty of time to see everything. Durnstein is not very
big. They produce mainly wine and apricot jams and liquors which are very
sweet.
We walked the whole village and came back the long way walking
through another small village.
On the deck as the boat sails in the Wachau valley we see mostly
vineyards and occasionally a small village or hamlet with between 12 to 15
houses. There are a few castles perched on mountain tops.
The sun is shinning but the wind has come up and it's much cooler
than yesterday when it was about 22 degrees.
This afternoon we visited a Benedictine monastery or Abbey in
Melk. There are now only 26 monks there and most are older than 50 with very
few young ones. The riches inside the church reminded me of the Vatican.
Since we were only a little over a mile from the ship we decided
to walk back and pick up a couple of caches.
Tonight's supper was a buffet with all sorts of Austrian food with
live musicians playing the guitar accordions etc. A lot of the songs were
polka. It was fun but very loud.
Internet is sporadic when we are travelling on the river. It is
not a problem when we are in port but then we are often out exploring.
Tomorrow the tour is 8 hours long, so I had better find some euro
coins for the restrooms. We will be in Linz, Austria but the tour will take us
into Cesky-Krumlov, Czech Republic.
Durnstein and Wachau Valley
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Melk Monastery
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