Spending the day roaming the Wachau Valley today so up nice and early and ready to leave to pick up our hire car for the day. Hmmmm that turned out to be trickier than expected. No office at the street address. Plenty of Avis signs on the raised stairwell entrances to an underground parking garage below a park. Sounds easy right? Well no because all of the doors were locked. Eventually managed to get buzzed in, finally found the office and on the road by 10am. Man, it shouldn't have been that difficult!

Out of the city within about 20mins and now driving through endless greenery . Cute little towns appear and disappear along the way. Houses painted in bright yellow pop against the green checkerboard fields. Admiring all the pretty scenery out the window when we see a lady standing next to her car on the side of the road. What's she doing we wonder? Oh, she's just taken a whizz and is hitching up her knickers! Right there on the verge in plain site of everyone on the highway! That's something you don't see every day.

Drove straight to Melk and visited the Monastery. Bev seemed to enjoy it and it was interesting to see it in Spring instead of covered in snow like last time we were here. Had lunch at the Monastery cafe (not part of the same chain - we broke the cycle!) sitting at the outdoor terrace in the sunshine. Very pleasant and the food was surprisingly nice for such a tourist hot spot. Even the waiter was friendly. A big thumbs up for Melk Monastery from the Robsons.

Next we drove down to the actual Melk village and had a stroll around the very cute old town centre. Cobblestones, flowers and icecream shops everywhere! We lost Jeff for awhile and when we found him he was half through munching a piece of cake. Of course.

Next we headed back towards Durnstein to catch a river ferry for a short cruise on the Danube. Four seasons in one day going on today, with it alternating between beautiful sunshine and dark broody clouds every few minutes . Lucky for us the weather gods smiled on us and we had good weather for the whole 60min trip. It was even nice enough to sit on the outdoor deck and enjoy some more Aperol Spritz's. 

Our cruise ended in Spitz, another cute little Wachau valley village where almost nothing was open. Found the bus stop near the train station (as had been told no trains running today), then looked around a bit more. Really quite a cute village with the terraced vines starting right at the edge, and quite a few ancient looking vines right in the centre too. The stone terraces are necessary because the vines are planted up the sides of hills, but they also help to keep the vines warm. 

According to the cruise commentary the Wachau enjoys a mild climate anyway. Hmmm, it didn't seem too mild last time we were here in winter and it was 1 degree C!

Waiting for the bus when a train turned up so we hopped on that instead after making sure it would stop at Durnstein and confirming with the conductor that yes, we expected we had to pay to ride the train . Not just any train by the way, but a "golden weasel" train. Makes sense seeing they call their town halls rat houses. (Rathaus).

Very pleasant riding the train higher up the valley slope in amongst the vineyards and past people's back yards and it means we get to tick off another form of transportation.

We arrived in Durnstein after only about 20mins. By comparison the cruise takes an hour to travel the same distance upstream, or only 30mins downstream. Yes, there's quite a fast current in the Danube!

Had a quick look around the charming backstreets of Durnstein for a little while, found the high flood level for the 2002 and 2013 floods. Wow... a LOT of water must have been flowing down the river for it to rise so high.

Strolled along the banks of the Danube back to our hire car and headed back into Vienna. No ladies whizzing on the side of the road this time.

After dropping the car off we met up with Michelle and finally, finally had our Figlmueller schnitzels. And yes, they were worth the wait.

After this we went for coffee and cake at an Italian restaurant and had a true Austrian "Fawlty Towers" episode. No menus, non-existent waiters, waiters that decide to walk off half way though taking your order and the cherry on top, a cup of tea with a tea bag that had no leaves in it. Naturally we had all been making silly comments during all this (where is Basil, is Manuel about to appear??) and Bev just lost it at this point and dissolved into the hugest giggle fit I've ever seen her have. Made a fiasco into a funny memory.

So tired by now and still had to pack for my train trip to Venice in the morning so off home to the apartment.