Arriving at 7.20am in Durnstein we soon disembarked to walk around ...what a really lovely town this is, and we could easily have spent another hour here, it was picturesque and the views fantastic....no real estate agents here as you are not allowed to sell, all homes are passed to family..quite a few were under restoration and looked like new, one we walked past the owner said he was just finishing after a few years, the house looks nice and they had a lovely garden as well...the fruit trees are laden and I know a couple of people who tried the apricots that were overhanging the path!!! The verdict ...delicious....who brought that crowd along!!!! The streets were narrow, one car width, and the paths all cobble stones...in case you don't know Durnstein was were Richard the Lion-Heart was imprisoned in 1193...Durnstein would have to be the pearl of the Wachau Valley, and protects this most famous stretch of the Danube...there are less than 1000 people living here but the hotel looked great....from here we then travelled on to Melk and with thunder around we thought we would be missing out on the views but with only a light shower we were able to visit the Abbey.
The Abbey was the residence of the Babenberg family but since 1089 it has been a Benedictine Monastery, today it is also a day school for 900 pupils...the monastery has over two thousand hectares of land which is in real estate, grapes, apricots and they rent out land for forestry...tourism however is where most of the money comes from...for all of that it is very impressive, the library, church, and now they have also found when they were doing some work some ancient archeological sites..
Sunrise
Durnstein
Danube from Durnstein
Looking back to Durnstein
Monastery at Melk
One of the courtyards at the Monastery
Two cruise ships in the lock at dawn
I think I had my Abbeys mixed up. The library was really something and the church was gold gold gold! C'mas in July went well even with a blackout.
ReplyDeleteMonica