Greetings from Dürnstein

Never heard of it?

"Dürnstein?" You might well ask, as it is probably not on your radar unless you are a medieval history buff, or are highly interested in all things arcane about the royal lineage of Britain. We're in this small village on the Danube River, near Vienna in the Wachau region of Austria. The area is known for its wine. But the town is also a tourist hotspot because of the fact that Richard the Lionheart was imprisoned in Dürnstein Castle in December of 1192 after returning to Europe from the Crusades. This is what is still standing today ...

All that is left of Dürnstein Castle

... and a few glimpses of what it's like moseying around the ruins ...

View over Dürnstein and the Danube

Few features like this remain

Archer's position

A cell near the top of the castle remains

Although it's just a small village there is still a fairly representation medieval architecture surviving. The most significant of these would be the Dürnstein Abbey, which still stands intact and is now owned by the Augustinians. Here's a view of what the abbey looks like outside nowadays ...

Dürnstein Abbey (note the castle on the hill behind)

... and inside ...

Very ornate, isn't it?

We've had a rest day (sort of) so that people who were interested in sightseeing in Vienna could do so.  Most of chose to take it easy and poke around the village and have a look at the castle.

Getting here

We spent five days riding our bikes to get here from Lienz, where we rejoined the Lionheart tour after abandoning last year due to Di's accident. Our route to get here looks roughly like this ...

Lienz to Durnstein

(If you want to get a clearer, customisable view you can click on this link.)

The riding and company have both been great along the way. Here are a couple of shots of Di that one of our guides took during the journey ...

... and here's one of me that one of our fellow riders took as I dragged my butt up to the summit where he had paused ...

It's been an amazing journey so far, from riding up the fearsome Grossglockner to yesterday's sedate pedal down from the hills onto the banks of the Danube. We've stayed in castles the last few nights, including our memorable night at Burg Plankenstein ...

Burg Plankenstein

...where we dressed up in medieval garb and feasted according to the style of the day.

While Di was dressed as a lady in waiting, I opted for the jester's costume - which could just have easily been a dunce's outfit - due to my route following error getting to the castle ...

The lady and her joker

It's been a great adventure so far and I look forward to (hopefully) reporting back in a few days' time when we have another rest scheduled near Salzburg. If you want more details of our travels you can visit my blog on the Bike Odyssey website. (To see previous posts look at the column on the right.)