Day 233: Wachau Cultural Landscape

Day trip time! Just to the west of Vienna is a world heritage site known as the Wachau Cultural Landscape which runs along a long narrow valley of the Danube. Without a car the only way to visit was a long day-trip, so off we went (without poor Schnitzel who spent the day at home on his own).

Up to the Westbahnhof where we bought our tickets and hopped on a train to St Polten about an hour west of Vienna, then another train northwest to the small town of Melk. Here is a huge monastery, one of the largest in central Europe, known as Melk Abbey. It sits on a tall hill above the town, very imposing, so we walked over and checked it out. Nice museum exhibition here where I wasn't allowed to film of course, followed by a church where I also wasn't allowed to film. I still don't know why they don't allow it in all these places!

Wandered around the gardens for a little while then headed back into the town and grabbed some lunch at a restaurant. Decent food though a little overpriced for what it was - tourist town fare I guess. Next up we walked over to the wharf on the Danube where hundreds of grey-haired people were waiting for river cruises. We elbowed our way to a separate wharf and boarded, managing to snag a nice spot on the upper deck in the sun. Lucky for us they had table service too so we could enjoy a couple of drinks watching the river roll by!

This stretch of the river is characterised by vineyards up steep hills, a couple of ruined castles, and some nice little old hamlets as well, though our boat didn't stop at any of them, just cruised past. We were on board for probably about 90 minutes and quite enjoyed it, though I'm generally not a big fan of wine-growing world heritage sites. I find them a bit same-y and not even that unique I guess? Wine is grown in a lot of areas.

Finally arrived in Krems by around 3:30pm, a much larger town this time. After a quick skim of the literature we decided to just film a little bit and then head off, as nothing in town seemed that appealing. It was OK, just a bit bland I guess!

Hustled to the station where we just made it in time for a train to St Polten where we caught the next train back to Vienna, arriving back around 5:30pm. Given that we'd left around 8:30am, it had been a long day! Microwaved dinners again as neither of us felt like heading out!Read more