Day 158, 9 December 2012, Durnstein and Melk - cruising the Danube in Austria's Wachau Valley. Big day. Huge. Unbelievable. We docked this morning in Durnstein and headed out for an info stroll - it's like a tour, without a bus. We were clothed from head to foot in our ski gear, the sun was shining and we were comfortably warm - right up until we spent 25 minutes climbing to the ruined castle of Kuenringer (pictured) - it's main claim to fame is that Richard the Lionheart was imprisoned there in 1192. The views were outstanding and it was well worth the climb - looking up afterwards from the village level we couldn't believe we'd just been up there.
Returning to the ship with 5 minutes to spare (and a tiny bit worse for wear... between the climb and the hurried sampling of cherry licor and apricot schnapps on the way back). Once underway we found out the Wachau valley stretch of river we were on today was part of the Holy Roman empire until roughly 500 AD - they seriously got around. Just think, back in the day, it wasn't bird flu or swine flu - it was "Romans - the virus coming to a town near you". These days it's known for it's wines and apricots (some of which get made into wines and licors as well). We cruised past many terraced vineyards prior to passing by Weissenkirche village (the village of the white church. It's actually a fortified church - which came in handy over the last 800 odd years - particularly in the 1500s when the village chose to support Protestism / Lutherism. (Somewhat like a game of table tennis - they bounced back and forward between Protestantism and Catholicism over the last few centuries). We also learned we are cruising through the lands of the biggest wine scandal ever - Some Wachau wines in the 1980s had anti-freeze added (to improve their flavour) - right up until some greedy vintner tried to get a tax deductions on 1000s of litres of anti-freeze. This was obviously a huge scandal and Austrian wines were considered the lowest of the low... But the increased regulation and standards have actually led to incredibly high quality wines. One of the best rules, to enforce quality over quantity over the last 20 years was the production limit based on the size of the vineyard - if you only have 2 acres of vines then you can only produce so many litres. It's so good now, most of it's consumed in the Wachau... not a lot escapes to the export market. So much was going on as we cruised - we then passed an unassuming village which is home to an incredible archeological discovery - the Venus of Willendorf - a tiny statue of a female form which dates to 22000 to 24000 BC - proof of habitation and a concept of art around 24000 BC. The final castle on the route was a mixture of castle (defence) and palace (residence) - magical. The afternoon port was Melk - cobbled streets, old towers and the massive baroque masterpiece of Stift Melk (or Melk Abbey). Apparently the rule in Austria is if it ain't Baroque, don't fix it. Melk Abbey was rebuilt in the 1700s and the church in particular is smothered in gold leaf and Baroque design. Leopold the III originally donated his castle to the Benedictine monks in the 11th century. Napoleon used it as a base during his campaign against Austria - fortunately he didn't destroy the 100,000+ books - but he and his troops drank their way through the wine cellars - 50,000 pints in four days. The story goes he was there during one season and loved the wine - came back 4 years later and complained that the vintage was not as good. Stunning frescoes and an beautiful church and organ recital finished our tour of Melk and though darkness had fallen we made our way down the stairs to walk the quiet streets of Melk by the light of multitudes of Christmas trees. Over the bridge and back to the ship we had a huge laugh - chatting to a mother and daughter - they asked "are you on the ship"? and we said - yes.... it was only as we walked together down the gangway the daughter said - Mom - that's not our ship! They were the next river ship down. Too funny. Great dinner (like a dinner party every night) and a sleep in tomorrow prior to Passau, Germany after lunch. Getting very used to this.