We took the scenic route from Czech to our next destination.

Our picnic spot.

The cute sign says farm market on Fridays. I measured it and it wouldn’t fit in my suitcase. hahaha

Our destination The Wachau Valley along the Danube. 

Kevin enjoying an espresso, while I was laughing at him.

This is the water line marks from the River. We saw this in several cities. A sad reminder of the flooding and the devastation it causes. The 2013 had happened in March. This is the corner of our bed and breakfast. Such a lovely place to stay. We stayed in the quaint village of Weissenkirchen. It’s just a few minutes from the charming village of Durstein. High above Durstein lie the ruins of a castle where King Richard of Lionheart was held as prisoner for a long time and no one in England knew where he was. His blondel minstrel went in search for him. He eventually found himself in Durstein and sang King Richard’s favorite song from outside the walls of the castle. King Richard heard the song and began singing with him. A ransom was offered and the king was released some time later.

We couldn’t pass up missing this historical spot so we decided to hike up to the ruins. Yes we are going to hike up there!!

I stopped to take pictures on the way up. It was just an excuse to catch my breath. It was a haul!!! But so worth it.

On the way up there was an American group from a river cruise which was pretty neat since we had not heard Americans for over a week. Plus misery loves company climbing all those steps! But they had a boat to catch and had to leave shortly after arriving to the top so Kevin and I had the ruins to ourselves for as long as we wanted and we explored and climbed and investigated in solitude.

We took a different way down which had historical information to read about the castle. We should have gone UP that way. Good excuse to read and rest. Enjoyable either way!

We spent some time driving through a vineyard. I tried some of the grapes. So delicious. Harvest time is very close. One day while stopped for road work, Kevin noticed the traffic policeman was enjoying the grapes too.  p

The vineyards line the mountains and go all the way to the road side. They have many orchards and had fruit stands selling their peaches and apricots. They are very famous for their apricots in this region.

On our way to the very famous Melk Abby we came across fields of dying sunflowers and I just had to stop to take their pictures. I am not sure their purpose because they are left dying but there was acres of them. 

The Melk Abby was so beautiful. It sits atop a hill. I would love to have seen it from the River. It was so very crowded. But we found a few peaceful spots. The cathedral was just majestic. 

I’ve never seen this before in my life but they had this is a glass sarcophagus of a catacomb saint. It was given to the church in 1762. The saint is unknown so was given the name Friedrich. 

They had two of them.

This one is St. Clemens and came in 1722 from Vienna. 

I think it’s creepy!

But the Melk Abby was beautiful. 

We loved our time along the Danube. This region is very popular for those going along the bike trail so we saw many bicyclist. It is beautiful, friendly, and very historical. I wished we had another day here to visit another town or two along the Danube. It’s quaint beauty is my favorite kind.

Thank you again for following along on our anniversary trip.

Just one more stop left.

Katey