Sailing between Melk and Grein Austria

 Beautiful  scenery  along the Danube!  Flock of swans.

Lovely small towns.

We stopped at the small town of Grein.  

We walked up the rather steep hill to tour the Greinsburg Castle.  Lovely streets. 

Up the hill to the castle.

View back along the Danube. 

Original structure was built in the 1100's and is now owned by a Duke's family that has pledged to keep it available to the public.

Amazing mosaic room, the pattern is made by millions of tiny river stones!

Loads of original interior remains.

And a view of the Danube from the other side of the castle.

There was a scheduled cooking lesson to learn how to make apple strudel.....the chef is quite the comedian....asking for a volunteer assistant  from the cruisers. It was fun and lively for all the rather older attendees.....

And of course we were given a printed recipe and sample after the lesson....

More sights along the Danube....not sure why but these piles of cut timber are being irrigated.....

And a herd of sheep along the riverbank. 

That's about it for the day....we will tour the beautiful ornate Melk Abbey tomorrow. 

I haven't  really commented much, but the food served on board is just fabulous!   And WAY too much, too often!

"Sailing" from Vienna

 We set out after breakfast for our guided tour of Vienna. We passed the St Francis of Assisi Church, also called Mexico Church - in honor of Mexico being the only country to protest Austria being overtaken by the Nazis in WW2.

On to their very nice subway train. 

Walking out of the subway system,  very swanky mall-like feeling.

I'll include lots of photo of beautiful  buildings, squares and sculptures....sorry I didn't take notes to name them all! 

We were near the Lippizaner training stable.

A groom was cleaning the horses stall and gave the horse a pat and then a treat after he was finished. 

Moving along......so many sculptures!   Our guide gave us interpretations of each, mainly religious in nature.

This Church was open to the public.

Beautiful interior. 

Typical side street.

This clock is mechanical  - the parts move - it reads about 10:35.  The guide said it plays music and puts on a real show at noon.

St, Stephen's Cathedral did not disappoint!   Amazing structure. 

This was the end of the guided tour.  We went back to the ship for a yummy lunch, then back to tour on our own.

Pretty green spaces along the walk.

The Austrian Parliament Building. 

Gorgeous park with beautiful roses.

Vienna City Hall (some sort of construction going on that interfered with a good photo!

The Votivkirhe Church.

Amazing interior! 

Sorry, I got carried away a little with the church photos....

Walking back another view of the Parliament sculpture. 

A square with several museums.   We didn't  really have time to stop..

Mozart statue. 

Back to the ship for dinner.....they announced that we would be departing during dinner because river levels were changing and we would  be stuck in Vienna if we didn't leave. A little disappointed since we had plans to see the Shonbrunn Palace tomorrow....

On the move along with several other Viking boats. 

Into the first lock at abot 10:30pm....fun to watch with just a few other brave souls out on deck. 

In the lock with another Viking boat.

Top of the lock....out we go!

I'm sure we won't watch many more lock movements,  but was fun to see. There will be more than 50 by the end of the cruise!