YQBBS / DURNSTEIN

Two stops today. Ybbs, pronounced Ips, then Durnstein. In Ybbs we did an excursion by bus to the small village of Melk to visit the Melk Benedictine Abbey. Over 900yrs old, it now has only 21 monks. The oldest is 93 the youngest 35. They have bee hives, and their bees make very good honey which is sold to help fund the abbey. The abbey is enormous and of course the monks use very little space so a school is there too and some of the monks are teachers. We were only allowed to take photographs outside. We were taken on a tour of some of the abbey, including the library, church, and museum and saw the beautiful frescoes ceilings. The Abbeys vibrant colour makes great photos as you'll see. While we were away the boat moved along the river a wee way and so we didn't have as far to drive to get back on after the tour. We were back at the boat by lunch time and soon after lunch we sailed though the Wachau Valley past vineyards and castles and docked at Durnstein. These towns suffered greatly when the Germans invaded Austria during the 2nd world war and from the abbey terrace we could see a big building where the prisoners doing forced labour were kept. I wonder how the abbey escaped bombing 🤔 Leah and I chose not do do an afternoon tour but rather took ourselves for a walk through Durnsteins charming wee town . You'll see by the photoes how gorgeous it is. I'm enjoying buying a small Christmas tree decoration from each stop as there are Christmas markets everywhere and I thought that would be a nice alternative to the usual souvenir. We are looking forward to being in Vienna when we open the blinds in the morning. We are expecting a nice warm 4 degree welcome and even a bit of sun 🌞 it's so annoying that I can't move the photoes around. The row 19 20 21 are the monestry. 9 and 10 are castles we passed on the river. All the rest are Durnstein. The boat with the Christmas lights isn't ours.Read more