Durnstein, Austria

We had a bit of a struggle trying to get out of Vienna because we wanted to take the scenic route and not the autobahn. The car rental places don't have great maps to give out either and the google maps leave a lot to be desired - I highly suggest a GOOD map of the area - the investment would be worth it!

Our first scenic stop was Durnstein. This was one of our FAVORITE places and I'm so glad that we took the time to tour this almost deserted town.

This is the ruins of the castle of Durnstein where King Richard I Lionheart of England was held captive in 1192 by Duke Leopold V of Austria after a dispute during the 3rd crusade. No one knew where he was being held do his minstral, Blondel, went from castle to castle playing the king's favorite songs on his lute. When he got to this castle, the King sang back. The negotiations could then start for the safe return of King Richard to England.

This valley was soooo beautiful. If I had it to do over again, I would have gotten started much earlier and done a bike tour along the Danube on the paved bike trails. That was our original plan, but timing was not in our favor.

The town of Durnstein - we met a few river boat tour groups - we realized that we were definately not old enough to be on these tours!

We climbed up to the ruins and had the entire castle to ourselves (a definate plus to the "older" tour groups being in town)

King of the world!!!!

The Baroque church tower in town can be seen through the window. I just can't get over how beautiful this was!

The Wachau valley and the Danube. We were surrounded by terraced wineries.

It was wonderful to be able to have full reign of the castle - we could explore and climb anywhere we wanted. I'm sure at some point there will be fences and guards.

What can be more romantic than a kiss under an arch in a medival castle??

The ruins - how spectacular.

This is the town below with the Danube in the background - still very much a rural setting.

We loved this area and it was quite a bit off the beaten path despite what the tour books say.

Vienna

I have to admit that in all my research and preparation for this trip - I thought that our magnificent site seeing would BEGIN in Vienna. I was a bit afraid of wasting too much time in the big city and then missing out on some other things. When we arrived, I was honestly a bit let down after Budapest. Budapest seemed more like the real city and Vienna seemed more like the upscale, country club version. I saw one petite older lady walking down the street with white hair done perfectly, her strait gray skirt and black shirt (designer, I'm sure) her string of pearls, her black pumps and a little clutch bag. She reminded me so much of Brad's grandmother who was very socially connected and very prim and proper her entire life. This to me embodied Vienna. It was nice, not quite as architectually compact as Budapest but a bit more upscale.

St. Stephan's Cathedral

The tile Mosaic roof with the Hapsburg seal on the roof.

One of the things that I kept reading about was the Sacher torte. Apparently, this recipe has been famous for centuries - it was the favorite of Sisi - the beloved Queen of the Hungarian/Austrian Empire. So, I insisted that we visit the cafe and have THE torte. Well, it wasn't as fantastic as I had envisioned (my sister in law makes a killer chocolate torte so I've been spoiled). This is Chocolate cake with a layer of apricot jam type filling and then topped with a dark chocolate Ganache. The experience was fun though!

We then wandered the streets to find our car rental place - that was quite an adventure. The logo of our company was no where to be seen so we stopped to ask at a different place that was somewhat near the address we were looking for and they said we had found the place. We filled out the paper work and then they turned us loose - "Go down the street to the parking garage and your car will be down there." We asked if there would be anyone in the garage to show us where the car was and she said, "Maybe, just press your key and you'll find your car." Several streets and allies later we found the garage and there was no attendant and no beeping noise for the car location. We finally spotted the briefly flashing lights and started our grand adventure.