October 15, 2023

Dateline – Wachau Valley, Austria –

I was right. The melancholia was gone this morning when I got up. Perhaps it was the boat sailing out of Vienna in the night. Perhaps it was the metabolism of last night’s overindugences. Perhaps it was just my brain chemistry going through its normal cycles. Suffice it to say that I arose to greet the day cheerful and back in my usual frame of mind. Overnight we had ascended the Danube from Vienna into what is known as Lower Austria and were docked in the riverside down of Krems. Actually, we were docked in Stein,the town next door but the two have grown together over the years into a single metropolitan area. It’s an Austrian college town of about 25,000 people and 15,000 students at the University of Krems (which seems to be an Ag school specializing in enology). Krems is the downstream end of what is know as the Wachau Valley, the place where the Danube cuts through the Bohemian massif on its way to the Black Sea. (The Alps are in its way to the South preventing it from flowing towards the Mediterranean.

The Wachau valley has been inhabited for about 35,000 years (the Neolithic peoples having been chased down there from the Alps by the various Ice Ages). There were Roman border forts on the South side of the Danube 2,000 years ago to hold back the Germanic tribes (ultimately a failure by the 5th century). The Germans marched through on their way South to despoil the Roman Empire but future generations started to settle more permanently founding the current river towns starting around 900. Krems is one of these. It was never bombed and the only significant battle in the area was one from the Napoleonic wars in the early 1800s and it was out in the countryside. The city therefore is in pretty much the same shape it was in when it became an important river port around 1200 with buildings and streets all higgledy-piggledy as they were more or less thrown up where anyone thought about putting one. It reached it’s zenith in the 17th and 18th centuries so most of the medieval buildings, still standing, acquired baroque facades.

I had a pleasant walking tour through the historical quarter followed by lunch. There was a stop at the city museum but the highlight for me was just wandering the crooked streets and looking up at the equally crooked buildings and feeling connected to folk who had been doing something similar for a millennium. After lunch, it was time for a bit of exercise. Those of us on the tour under 75 (about 1/4 of the total) took to bicycles and cycled up the Wachau Valley on the handy bike paths. As they are paralleling the river, they’re fairly flat. Europe, like America, is creating more and more paved bike/hike trails. Supposedly it’s now possible to bike from the North Sea to the Black Sea. That sounds like something my brother and his family might do some day. I’ll stick with river cruising.

It was about a two hour trip from Krems up through the town of Durnstein (site of Durnstein castle, now a ruin hovering above the town). This is where Richard the Lionhearted was imprisoned for ransom by Duke Leopold of Austria on his way back from the second crusade. (The cost of the ransom and the burden it caused to the ordinary folk of England is what gave rise to the Robin Hood legend). It’s while he was imprisoned here that his faithful minstrel Blondel sang the call and got the response from the castle that let the English know where the Austrians had hidden Richard. Many years ago, I saw a not very good musical in London about Blondel with lyrics by Tim Rice. The best thing about it was a quartet of monks singing in close harmony and acting as a narrator/Greek chorus. I still have the album somewhere. My biggest issue with all of the Richard I legends is how they leave out the most important figure in them, Eleanor of Aquitaine, his mother. She was the real power in the kingdom at the time of his absence, not Prince John. Damned patriarchy.

From Durnstein, more biking up the valley through the vineyards for which the region is known and eventually into the town of Weissenkirke where we said goodbye to our touring bikes and rejoined the ship. I will admit I sang some of ‘Doe a Deer’ while biking through Austria but, alas, I was not wearing the curtains while doing it. The next organized activity was a wine tasting but, as I have been drinking wine all week, I did not participate. I read and took a nap instead until dinner. (Barbecued ribs – let us just say that Austrian chefs need a trip to Alabama to learn a bit more about how to do those…). Then cherries jubilee, complete with flambé.

Heading up towards the Alps tomorrow. It was significantly cooler today. Low 60s rather than high 70s which was comfortable for the bike ride. I hope that continues and that it doesn’t rain.