Touring Wachau: Train, Ship, Culture

Luckily Andrew has all US holidays off so we spent Memorial Day exploring Austria. I was in charge of planning this trip and (aside from getting lost at every step along the way) I think it was a success. We travelled through the Wachau Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage site for its historic architecture and agriculture. We left early in the morning and took the train to a town called Melk--the beginning of the Wachau. It was nice to get out of Vienna and see some of the beautiful Audstrian countryside that everyone talks about.

Melk is renowned for its 1,000 yr old abbey that is argued to be the most beautiful in the world. Here we are pointing to it from a distance. This was our first wrong turn of the day. We could see it up there but spent half an hour going in the wrong direction.
This was our first trip without the stroller. It would have been no use with all of the hills and cobblestones roads. So, it took a little longer than it would have otherwise to get everywhere, but the kids were pretty good sports (when I say "kids," I mean Eden, who was an angel and a trooper. Fox spent half the time screaming to be held and the other half running away from us).
Aren't they so cool in their shades? Cool clock!
Fox wandering the cobbles...

The ceilings inside the abbey were beautiful, as they are in most of these old castles and churches.
The library was my favorite. It was filled up to the ceiling with these beautifully bound old books.
View of the Danube
This was a cool art exhibit in one of the Abbey room--Eden was fascinated

The spiral staircase. I saw a priest walking up it to the chapel just before we got this picture.

The same priest literally shushed us out of the chapel because he thought Fox was being too loud.
Outside on the terrace overlooking Melk.


In one of the many gardens outside.



Melk also had a really cute town center with walking streets and shops. This was the perfect time of year to visit. There were so many flowers blooming (roses in particular) that you could literally smell the nectar in the air. But since we spent the first hour of our trip in Melk lost, we didn't get much time to wander around before catching the ship to Krems.
The ship ride was about 2 hrs long and took us down the Danube to another very old town called Krems. Along the way we saw several castle ruins from the deck.




We also passed Durnstein along the way- a town we hope to explore soon. Can you see the castle ruins up on the top of the hill?

Krems was perhaps even more beautiful than Melk. We didn't get to see a fraction of the sites there that we had wanted to but just walking in the city along these paths was breathtaking enough.
This church was amazing. Right as we walked in the organist began playing hyms. You can hear it on the video below. Despite my yawning, I was very impressed by this place.

Krems is about 1,000 yrs old. Here are some of the ancient ruins that have been built upon.

We ate dinner at a restaurant in this pretty square. I had the best Austrian meal here and haven't stopped thinking of it since. Afterwards, we hopped over to the cafe across the street for some ice cream.


We didn't leave until 8pm. We took one of the last trains home and after getting off at the wrong stop in Vienna and backtracking we finally arrived home at 10pm. It was quite an adventure.

The City Festival in Vienna

We also spent Saturday and Sunday afternoons at a festival at the Hofburg. We had a great time with the music, food, and lots of games for the kids.