Durnstein On The Danube

Our ship left Linz Tuesday and traveled through the beautiful and lush greenery of the Wachau Valley (a Unesco World Heritage site) to the Melk Abbey. Our tour there included many exhibits, the apartments, the amazing library and spectacular Baroque church, all perched high on a hill overlooking the Danube River. Then we continued our cruise east on the river to a small town gem of Austria: Durnstein. In this small town we saw ancient stone streets and the ruins of a castle where Richard The Lionhearted of England was imprisoned in 1192. Our tour of Durnstein ended with a wine tasting including a Zweigelt and a Riesling, which were dry and unusual wines. The local vineyards are so small that these wines are never exported. When we rejoined our Amadeus ship we traveled through two locks on our way to Vienna. - Dan