Trip to the Wachau

The YSSP students took a day trip to the Wachau (pronounced Va-kau) region of Austria, which is a wine grape and fruit growing around, stradling the Danube River, about an hour west of Vienna. I actually lived here for 6 months when I was 13 while my dad taught in the town of Krems. So it was to go see the area again!








We firsh visited Stift Melk, a Benedictine monestary with beautiful Baroque architecture. We enjoyed a nice tour and caught the end of a mass in the heavily decorated church.

We had lunch in the very cute town of Melk before taking our bus down the Danube River to some little villages. We swam in the Danube (colder than I thought it would be but very nice and refreshing as it was a HOT day), tried the famous apricot schnappes, and then bused to the village of Durnstein.

This village has a beautiful church, narrow, winding streets, great hueringers (wine taverns), and is especially famous for its castle ruins, perched above the town. Richard the Lionhearted was rumored to have been held for ransome in this castle as he was returning from the Crusades (he decided to take a shortcut through the area, which could have cut 2-3 months off his journey--pretty amazing!). It has a fantastic view and is really a beautiful area.

The Wachau region is a World Heritages site due to its great history and scenery.