December 4, 2012

Today we are in the small town of Melk. Our included tour was to the Local Abby, which was a very worthwhile tour. It’s a really nice tour that lasts about 1.5 hours. After the tour, you have the option to ride the bus back to the ship or walk down the hill through town, and then back to the ship. I recommend you take the walk. The town, while small, has a really nice pedestrian area with several small shops worthy of stopping in at. Their pricing for the same or similar items found at the larger Christmas Markets is cheaper.

We left Melk about 2:15pm and rode up the river to Durnstein. There are a couple of castles to see along the way, and with a good zoom lens you can get some pretty good pictures. We arrived around 4pm, and were told via loudspeaker announcement that the shops were closed and basically discouraged us from going in to town. We stayed on board and found out later that there were a handful of shops open, and that those that did go in anyway, felt it was worthwhile to see the town.

Tomorrow we are in Vienna and we are looking forward to seeing the city.