June 7 Vienna

Here we go again. Woke at 5 am, up at 6 and into it. Bags had to be out by 7 in anticipation of moving to our hotel in Vienna for the night. On the bus the tour director came around and gave us 120 euros to cover lunch for the next 2 days. Avalon have really tried hard to make up for the change to the itinerary forced on them. That will cover a few beers and strudel.
We drove through the village of Melk and on to Durnstein which is a very small photogenic village in a valley that produces grapes, apricots, wine and schnapps. All good stuff. The valley is called the Wahou Valley. The Danube flows through here and some of the river boat companies were taking their passengers through the valley on river boats and then back on to buses. The river is still in flood so they were very slow going up river and frightening fast down river and turning to get back into the dock.
We had a nice walk around the village and cake and beer for lunch. The lunch of champions. I thought I might walk part of the way up the hill towards the old ruins of the fort to get a photo. Gaye said to meet her in 10 minutes. After 4 minutes I was halfway up and their were no photo opportunities so I doubled my pace to redline and burnt off the calories from the cake and beer to get to the fort in 7 minutes. Took a few photos and ran back down the track leaping from step to rock and rock to step. I arrived at the bottom 4 minutes late and Gaye was busy talking to one of the tour guides and didn't even notice I was late. I then had to have a recovery beer before getting back on the bus for the final leg to Vienna.
Our hotel in Vienna had just reopened after renovation and was very nice with a beautiful bathroom and Nespresso machine. YEAH BABY. I have missed my Nespresso machine. After changing we headed down to a buffet dinner. We were first out to get on the vus for the trip to the concert but got told to wait. In the end their weren't enough buses and after waiting half an hour we had had enough and wandered into the bar for a wine and then off to bed.Les mer