After departing Vienna the cruise ship sailed up the Danube overnight to Durnstein, Austria. Durnstein is in the heart of Austria’s best wine region, the Wachau Valley. This is the view as we departed the ship. Beautiful spot!
We had an excursion to go and visit the Weingut Nikolaihof winery in the nearby village of Mautern an der Donau. No, I can’t pronounce any of that! This is the oldest winery in Austria.
The winery site has almost 2000 years of history., with foundations of a Roman fort dating back to 63 AD. The winery has been owned by the Saahs family since 1894. Current owner Christine Saahs, together with her late husband, were some of the early pioneers of “biodynamic” wine growing in Austria, staring with the 1971 vintage.
Christine herself was on hand to give us the winery tour. She is a bundle of enthusiasm and energy…pretty obvious she loves her job! The walls of their wine cellar, seen behind her, date back to the times of the Romans, when this cellar was part of a Roman church.
Her son Martin is part of the winery team. When each of Christine’s 4 children were born they made a barrel-head for each of them, this one for Martin. The huge barrels are still used to age their wine, but they are too old to impart any flavor into the wine, which is their style. Martin created the wineries “Cosmetics” line, using grape seed oil extracts, and it has apparently done quite well for them!
Here are Christine and Martin showing off the largest wooden wine press in the world! It was first installed 350 years, and is still used for special wines.
This chapel in the courtyard can be used for weddings, and sits right over the historic Roman cellars.
We made our way back to the ship, and were disappointed we didn’t have time to actually visit the little town of Durnstein, as the spot looked just beautiful from the ship as we passed by.
Further up the Wachau Valley you could see the terraced vineyards running up the hillsides. Just a gorgeous sight for a wine lover to see!
We were up on deck for about 20 minutes taking in the sights but it got pretty damn cold and very windy, and it looked like a bit of a storm ahead, so we had to head below. It made for a cool photo though!
There are beautiful castles and churches around every bend of the Danube in the Wachau Valley.
The clouds starting parting as we made our way to our next destination of the day (yes, we crammed a lot into this day).
Yet another gorgeous castle along the edge of the Danube.
We arrived in Melk, Austria, that same afternoon.
Our excursion in Melk was to visit the famous and absolutely stunning Abbey! The Melk Abbey was founded in 1089, when the Babenbergs (a noble dynasty of Austrian Dukes) gave one of their castles to the Benedictine monks. The Abbey that exists today was built between 1702 and 1736. Napoleon himself visited this Abbey twice during his reign.
Ok, enough history. I just love the colors of the Abbey against this perfect sky! It almost looks fake!
The Babenbergs gifted the Abbey the Melk Cross, a reliquary which is supposed to hold a splinter from the “True Cross” that Jesus was crucified on. We have run across a lot of places that claim to have a splinter of the cross…there must have been a lot of people rubbing their hands on the thing to pick up all of these splinters!
This is not my photo, it’s from the internet. The reliquary that the guide indicated held the splinter looked nothing like this, so I think he might have just been confused.
He also showed us another reliquary that was supposed to have a piece of some dudes shoulder blade or jaw bone…I forget…but why do they need to have pieces of holy people spread all over the place? It’s damn morbid! I digress…below is the interior of the opulent (by monk standards) Abbey church. Bear in mind we weren’t supposed to take photos, but I didn’t hear that, so hopefully I won’t receive a “cease and desist” letter from the monks. Who am I kidding…nobody reads this!
Love the dome of the church!
We then made our way back to the cruise ship via the village of Melk. Here is the path from the Abbey on the way down. Makes for a picture perfect frame!
You can’t get lost, as there are blue tiles marking the path towards the Danube River.
The Abbey from below is just as impressive!
You cross the local river for another beautiful view.
We ran into some fellow cruisers and exchanged photo duties.
Up next, we cruise to Linz, Austria for a city tour and a Cider Farm visit in the countryside.