River Cruise Day 4, Melk and Durnstein

     I have to say there is never a dull moment here on the River Beatrice.  Every day is chuck full of activities.  After arriving in Melk late last night we awoke early and headed out to the Melk Abbey a Benedictine monastry that is still in use today.  I did not expect it to be so massive.

We first took a tour of the gardens that surrounds the Abbey.  We didn't see all of it otherwise we would have had no time to tour the inside

Once we visted the residence hall of the Abbey we headed into the beautiful Cathedral.  Another gorgeous and impressive site. All around the Cathedral were these tombs and remains of Saints that had no name so they renamed them.  I thought it was all very confusing but I guess the Monks know what they are doing.  Here is Clemens

Mother and I headed back onto the ship while the boys jumped on some bicycles.  We sailed through Austria's wine country, while the boys pedaled through it.  Personally I think that we had the better time but when we met up again they said they really liked their bike ride.

The picture above is of Devil's rock it was named this during the crusades all around is lush greenary.  The crusaders believed that the devil had pushed all these rocks here to prevent their passage.

We then arrived in the town on Durnstein and headed over to a winery and vineyard for a tour and wine tasting.

Above is one of the barrels they age the wine in. Below is the picture of the wooden press they use to press the grapes, and they still do it by hand, it takes 24hrs of constant wheel turning.  They have a party that day and all take turns on the wheel.  

Then we tried three different white wines that they made.  All were very good.

We returned to the center of town in Durnstein.  James and I headed out for some shopping while mother went back to the ship to rest up for dinner.  

James told me that we were climbing up to this castle tonight which is where Richard the Lion Heart was once held captive.  

Tomorrow we will be in Vienna.