Day Two - The Wachau Valley

We woke up to the rushing River outside our window, fast approaching Durnstein.  We ended up docking a few miles away (there were a couple of other River boats docked at Durnstein) and were met by the Crystal tour buses which follow the ship from one destination to the next. We toured Durnstein on foot (it can be walked from one end to the other in no more than 10 minutes) and visited the monastery and blue tower which are the town's biggest attractions.  But the town dates back to the twelfth century and the ruins of a fortress dominate from atop the village.  The most prevalent sight however, is of the vineyards on which the village economy is based, set upon the hills flanking the Danube. Made it back to the Mozart for another yummy lunch at The Blue from where we admired the sights along the Danube's banks.  Tons of River cruise traffic along the way, we saw various other River boats on our way to Melk.

The Wachau (Narrow) Valley is dotted with tiny villages and at 3 pm we set off for Melk.  We had chosen a tour of the Arstetten Castle (one of the many castles of the Hapsburgs) which is both a small museum and the current home of one of the descendants of Duke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie who were killed in Sarajevo in 1914, an event which marked the beginning of World War I.  The tour was ok but it was stifling hot inside the small rooms of the castle which was made even worse by the larger than planned tour groups (there were to be three small groups but the castle was one tour guide short so we ended up with two groups of approximately 30 people each). In hindsight the tour of the Monastery in Melk may have been a better choice as it is said to be quite magnificent.  We were in Melk for only three and a half hours and by the time we had come back from the castle there was no time left to explore the village.  For anyone on their first visit to Melk trying to decide which one of these tours to take, I would suggest consider doing the village and Monastery tour.

Just out of Melk we went under a bridge and into a lock. The pop-up bar on the Sun Deck was lowered completely under the deck, that was neat to see but we think it was completely unnecessary as we were never close to the bottom of the bridge. Views of the Monastery from the River were gorgeous. We spent a lot of time on the Sun Deck sipping Bellinis and finally made it to dinner at Waterside.  Dinner was simply amazing! After dinner we went to the Cove where Mark Farris was entertaining at the piano.  We had a blast, we singed, danced and laughed our heads off. Mark introduced Cathy to the crowd as our psychiatrist, Dr. Cathy Chris, it all went downhill from there :)