Our Travel Adventures: 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.