Wednesday, January 11, 2017

A three part day! Sunday, June 5, 2016 - Day 11!

We were settling into life on board our river cruise quite nicely! Alex and I really were enjoying the fast pace of the touring during the days, the leisurely dining at night and the staff on board had already gotten to know us and were treating us as if we'd known them for years! Today was a three part day. After breakfast, our first stop was a little town called Durnstein, in Austria. 

Durnstein is know as the "Pearl of the Wachau" and it's one of the best known villages in the wine-growing valley. It was a drizzly morning, and quite gray, but the town was easy to spot as we approached because up on the hill was the ruins of the Kuenringerburg Castle. It was in this Castle that Richard the Lionheart was held prisoner for over a year for insulting Duke Leopold V! 









Alex patiently waiting for our little group to head out into the drizzle!


This is a good example, although a little difficult to see, of how the river boats dock next to one another. You can sort of see how we had to cross over one of the other boats to disembark. The tops of each of the boats are level with one another. So we just walk from our top deck to the next top deck and then on down through their boat and out.
















We walked along the river and into town, deciding what we'd do.  This morning we decided to go out on our own and not do any "official" tours. 








Alex and I had plans to head up to the castle. Alycen and Katie were going to walk around the town. 























Alex and I walked along the trail towards the castle, and it was still pretty far away....and it was drizzling, and we didn't have very much time until we had to be back to the ship. We were only docked here until lunch time. I had my doubts that I could make it up there in the rain, in sandals....I totally didn't plan right for this type of hike today!  So I gave Alex my camera, told him he had 20 minutes to get up there and back, and I waited for him on the trail, in the rain!  Off he went!  He loves this kind of thing!





He made it up there, and just look at some of the amazing views he had as he went to the top of the mountain!  As well as the cool ruins he saw!





























































































And then he made it back...spotting me on the trail, apparently on my phone!



We then went into town, and had a bit of time to check out some of the little shops. Durnstein is a charming town, filled with shops that have products made with apricots and wine!































Maypoles are very big in this region!





After our time shopping we made our way back to the ship and had lunch.....we still had quite a lot happening today!