For me, vacation is all about having those “I can’t believe this is real” moments. Moments that happen just once when you visit a place for the first time. Today was full of those moments as I walked all over Dürnstein, Unterloiben, and Oberloiben. Technically, Unterloiben and Oberloiben are both part of Dürnstein, but they are separate villages a couple of miles away. I had a walking map for Dürnstein with a few suggested routes. Of course, I picked the longest route at 9km (5.5mi), but a wrong turn had me extend that a bit. And it’s about a half mile each way from my hotel into town. So I did a LOT of walking.
I started in town and hiked up to the remains of Dürnstein Castle, where Richard the Lionheart was once imprisoned. It was fun to walk around the ruins and reminded me of the castle ruins in Ireland. It was a steep walk up, but the views were well worth the effort. From the castle, you can see out over the whole valley, with villages and vineyards dotting the landscape.
From high up at the castle, I had a clear view of most of the walk I would be taking, and could see Unterloiben in the distance.
After leaving the castle, I followed the trails up into the hills, through forested areas and past beautiful terraced vineyards. From the castle to Unterloiben, the trail was a lot of up and down hill hiking. Coming back from Unterloiben, the trail was mostly flat through vineyards and along the Danube.
I stopped for a soda before making the final push back through town and on to my hotel. By that time, I was pooped and it was not even 1:30PM. I stopped to get an apricot and cheese pastry to bring back to my hotel and then settled on a lounge chair by the pool for the rest of the afternoon.
In a town the size of Dürnstein, the options for dinner food are pretty limited and one restaurant I tried was just closing while another didn’t have any shaded tables. I ended up ordering a “Wachauer” sandwich at Schnitzer’s, which had ham, bacon, brie, and apricot mustard, along with a sparkling apricot wine. The food was actually good, it’s just that I was hoping for a nice dinner and ended up with grilled ham and cheese. I’m tired tonight and heading to bed early in hopes of getting a good night’s sleep despite the very warm temperature in my hotel room.
Traveling with Laura 