road trip!

At this point... after 7 weeks in big cities, I was craving something different. A reputable source led us to Johann, a driver you could hire for the day for 130 euros, for an 8 hour driving tour of the Wachau Valley outside of Vienna. We decided to go for it. What a great splurge this was... as he also came with us to all of the locations and was our personal tour guide, describing everything we were seeing, telling us key places to go, joking with us all the way. :)


First stop: the Abbey at Melk.














Walking toward the abbey entrance (with all of the other tourists)




























Overlooking the town of Melk.














the abbey library













The library globe, showing my home state separated off into the ocean. :)
















The church itself. So much to take in...




















































The countryside view from the back of the abbey













Small town and wine terraces across the Danube













We took this same car ferry across to the other side of the river. It took 5 minutes to get to the other side; it was not motorized, only used the current of the river as its force. Ropes were used as guides.










One of the cute towns we drove through.














The town of Durnstein, where we walked around for a while. We also bought a small bottle of a local apricot liqueur (region is known for apricots). Said bottle caused me to check my bag on the way back home, bag was delayed at point of US entry (DC) for additional TSA inspection, and didn't make it onto our flight -- got home the next day. This apricot liqueur had better be as good as I remember! :D











Next, we hiked up to a castle ruins up on a hill high behind the town. We encountered this flower on the way up there.












We hiked pretty far up in a very short amount of time (steep paths)...













And some among us felt the need to climb to the tippy-top....
















Looking down from the top level of the castle

































We didn't do anything wrong, though! What happened???












Johann eventually bailed us out, and we made it back down the hill into town.
















or... 80.2 mph, taking the unit conversion into consideration...













None of this would have happened without our fabulous guide Johann -- friendly, hilarious, a wealth of knowledge about the area. I highly recommend a day with him if you are in the area!