Wachau (The Danube Valley) & Vienna

Our first day in Dürnstein was wet for the first few hours, it wasn’t until mid afternoon that it stopped so we could go and explore. 
The Village itself is cute enough and a bit of a tourist trap but the ruined castle was worth the climb. 

If you know your English Kings and Queens—as I’m sure you do— then you will of course know who Richard the Lionheart is. He was king of England for 10 years between 1089-99. He didn’t really spend much of that time in England at all, he was usually fighting someone somewhere in Aquitaine or was on a crusade—as was de rigeur in those days. He also spent over a year imprisoned, and for three months in 1192 and into 1193, this was at Dürnstein Castle, because he pissed off Leopold V, Duke of Austria, whilst in the Holy Land , well to be more precise, he offended Leopold by casting down his standard from the walls at the Battle of Acre, and the duke suspected that King Richard ordered the murder of his cousin Conrad of Montferrat, so he had reason!
Anyway, there isn’t much of the castle left these days but it does offer splendid views of the valley.

The following day we drove south along the beautiful valley (or upstream of the Danube if you like). The valley is covered in vineyards, very much like the Mosel Valley but with far less motorhomes and much more cruise ships. 
We stoped at Spitz to visit the ruined castle of Hinterhaus—more interesting physically but didn’t have such an interesting story attached to it— and then to Melk which has a gigantic Monastery there (we only walked around the outside of it). 
For the night, we crossed back over the Danube and parked up for what would be a couple of nights at at a swimming lake, made by the Danube.
Really nice place and glorious weather, so we spent a lovely sunday with all the locals, just sun bathing and reading our books. We did actually jump in the lake, it was a little fresh to be honest so we didn’t stay in long. The cold showers were warmer. It was nice to have a shower after a few days…

We headed east after this—a nice drive through some mountains—towards Vienna. We camped up at a very busy campsite some 14Km north of the capital, in a place called Klosterneuburg, which has another huge monastery, but more importantly for us has a rail link into the heart of city.
We’ve always wanted to visit ‘ahhhh Viennaaaa’—thanks Ultravox.

We spent a couple of days, walking about and seeing the sights. It’s a compact enough city to be able to see most of it on foot. Except the Schönbrunn Palace, some 5km west of the city centre, so you have to take the metro for that.
Vienna is impressive and there are some magnificent buildings but not enough variety of architecture for our tastes. Most is; big, brash, tall, although splendid, Baroque, with plenty of Neo-classical thrown in, and very little or none at all of other styles.
But, we did enjoy ourselves and by the end of the second day, the place had grown on us, although it’s strange that one of our highlights was eating a wonderful chicken kebab filled with veg, spices, sauces and tahini, (not a dirty, what kind of meat is it, after 10 pints, english doner) sitting in a garden next to a statue of Mozart, just watching the world go by. Also, we did get to see the Musikverein building— where the New Year’s Day Concert is held every year—and that has always been on the list.

Dürnstein

Spot the Rock Clinber

Wachau Domain Chateau. White wine, very nice too

To commemorate one of the few times that the Austrians beat Napoleon

Spitz

Melk

We do like a Pilgrim

At the Lake

Vienna

Camino spotting

There were so many Roses around Vienna

The Hofburg

Magnificent detail on the columns at Karlskirche

The Musikverein

The Belvedere

Schönbrunn Palace

The Gloriette

Some Art Nouveau

Spanish Riding School

Staatsoper Opera House

Into Austria through South Moravia

We did spend a few days here at the lovely campsite, the weather was excellent and we enjoyed the peacefulness and the bird watching, Yellowhammer, Lapwing, Wheatear, Song Thrush and Marsh Harrier were all busy around here, to name a few.

Jindřichův Hradec has an impressively big castle, so we paid a visit to see some of the rooms. It was interesting to visit, although only a few of the rooms were ‘old’ as most were reconstructed after a fire in 1773. There were a couple of surprises; a bed that Napoleon once slept in, which he apparently said was “very comfortable”, and a Fortepiano that Mozart played on quite frequently—although this came from Vienna originally. We managed to sneak a few photos in before being told that we weren’t allowed to take any.

Aside from the castle and a couple of typical styled buildings from the region, the town is quite normal and has a sort of nice ‘place you would be happy to live in’ kind of vibe.

We spent the next day, heading south towards the Austrian border, stopping at a couple of places to break up the journey. 
First was Telč, another UNESCO place. You could see why, the plaza with it’s perfect houses was wonderful to look at, even better over lunch with a beer and a pizza.
After that, we stopped at another place that we have no real fighting chance to pronounce, Jaroměřice nad Rokytnou. An unimpressive small town really but with a monumental palace in the middle of it. A baroque building, built to impress back in the 1700s. We didn’t go in as we were to late for a tour—it’s a shame you can visit these places on your own—but the outside was enough to keep us happy.

We kept on going south and wild camped near the border in a small parking spot near a nature reserve, Podyjí National Park, and finally met some fellow wildcampers in a T4.
Freddy and Nanya from Sweden have just recently set of and are travelling across many parts of Europe too. It was nice to chat to them over a beer—in our van, to escape the rain.
They had also been backpacking in Asia, so we had many stories to share. Hopefully, we’ll see them again somewhere down the road.

On their recommendation, we walked around the nature reserve for a couple of hours the following day. There was some great views down to the valley below and over towards Znojmo. We got very sweaty as it was rather humid in there but were rewarded with some interesting fauna, including some pretty blue-headed lizards.

Not long after, we made our way south over the border and into Austria. After a couple of hours, we arrived at the Danube Valley and parked up for the night near Dürnstein, but more on that later…

Patriotic these Czechs, lots of these billboards on the roads

Great campsite, nearly had it all to ourselves

Jindřichův Hradec

Telč

Jaroměřice nad Rokytnou

Podyjí National Park