The Wachau Valley

We took a day trip on Saturday to the Wachau Valley, Austria's wine region, visiting the cities of Melk, Spitz, Durnstein, and Krems. The day started very early, but not early enough. I hoped to catch the end of World Series game 7, but I was too late. It didn't last into the early morning US time like game 6. Unfortunately, I didn't have Micah to call me to wake me up to watch as he did for game 6. I did catch some of the celebration though on ESPN's coverage, which was cool.

We met Caitlin and Mackenzie (who also works for Dell and just moved to Bratislava) at the tram stop a little after 7 and headed to the train station, where we set off for Vienna. The Wachau is not so simple to get to without a car, so we had to switch train stations in Vienna, take a train to St Polten, and then switch again for the train to Melk. The whole journey took about 3 hours.


Caitlin had promised "mostly sunny" weather and though she tried to convince us all day that the sun was coming, it never really made it through the clouds. It wasn't bad at all though. It was a little chilly, in the low 50's probably, but overall, it was a perfect autumn day for a bike ride. We used this service that has bike racks throughout the region and all you have to do is call and they give you the lock combination. When we were finished at the end of the day, we dropped it off at a different bike rack (in a different city) and called to let them know. At 1 EUR per bike, I have no idea how they make money (or if they make money), but I love the idea.

We got a quick glimpse of the Melk Abbey before we got going on our bicycles for the 17km ride to Spitz. The ride along the Danube with the backdrop of hills and trees filled with leaves of all colors was beautiful. I say this every time we ride bikes, but I like the idea of riding bikes so much more than the reality of it. It turns out a kilometer on a bike takes much longer than I would have expected. We eventually made it to Durnstein where we did some wine tastings and walked through the small town. We bagged the bikes there, after roughly 30km and took the bus to Krems where we boarded the train to Vienna. We were exhausted by the time we got there, but thought a Mexican dinner at Los Mexikas sounded good. We hadn't eaten anything all day besides a few snacks. The Yeagers happened to be in Vienna also, so they met us there.


The food at Los Mexikas is good, but not great. It's enough to satisfy Mexican food cravings, but not to make one forget about the Tex-Mex food back in Austin.

We definitely want to try and go back to the Wachau. It was a great day trip for the Fall, but would probably be excellent in the Springtime.