Awesome if you like ancient churches and monks. Pretty good if you're just coming for the wine. I…read morewas roped into a tour off of the Viking cruise - a lot of old people moving really slowly.

Nestled in the town of Durnstein in the Wachau Region, a valley formed by the Danube river, this…read morechapel rises over the river and blends with the landscape in an amazing way, when you approach the town by boat you see the blue church tower and the hills rising beyond, it is simply amazing. The building of this monastery and chapel dates back to the late 1300s. Make sure to climb the tower for an amazing view of the Danube river and the wachau valley.

Gorgeous church in the town of Dürnstein. It was first built on a rock cliff high above the Danube…read morein 1410 and then modified and baroquized in the first half of the 18th century. It was at this time that the wonderfully decorated interior of the abbey church with its warm colors came into being along with the regional landmark, the blue and white tower. It seems like an architectural signal in the landscape with its striking colors and the fine materials that make its surface look like ceramic. It costs €3.50 to go in and have a look around. The abbey itself is quite stunning and you can go into the balcony and look down on this amazing church. You can also walk around the terrace with wide expansive views of the Danube. Worth a visit when in town. It's located down a set of stairs from the main pedestrian area.

Our first stop on the Wachau Valley was Krems. This is part of the romantic side of the Valley…read more This is a college town with universities that are a huge part of the town. In addition, since Krems is located near the Danube, the city is protecting itself from potential flooding by building flood gates. We walked through cobblestones streets with fish markets, clothing stores, souvenirs shops. What I love about Europe is how quaint and charming the buildings are: beautiful flowers gracing iron window planters, menus written on restaurant windows in chalk. Also, all through the town and in Vienna now, is the Christmas markets and shops that are beginning to pop up. It was nice to see chocolate shoppes that had chocolates dressed in red and gold boxes. We also marveled at the huge Church that anchors this beautiful city.

Pretty little church in Melk you'll most likely pass by from the train station on you way to…read moreRathausplatz. It's not that large but it's worth a quick stop over on your way to the main square. Or, it's another one oft good for a photo opp and move on kind of places.

As part of our visit to Vienna, we were interested in taking a short Danube cruise. Via online…read moresearching, there seemed to be 3 options: 1 - A weeklong cruise on Viking 2 - A dinner cruise near Vienna (poor scenery along the river there) 3 - Travel a bit out of the city to see a scenic stretch of the river. We opted for this one. I'll preface the rest with this: it was VERY difficult for me to schedule this. I tried 2 different computers and 3 different browsers but could NOT get the cruise line's website to let me order tickets! I eventually called them and the lady who answered was very helpful. She reserved the cruise that I wanted and offered that I could either pay when we got to the dock or they could send a link now. I asked for the link and never got it. I did get an email confirming our booking, though. The other oddity was that the website showed the cruise going to the town of Krems, but the booking only let you book to the slightly closer town of Dürnstein. I eventually assumed that their docking facility at Krems was not available. I researched how to take a bus from Dürnstein to Krems. We took a train from Vienna to Melk the morning of the cruise. This took about an hour (plus travel time to the station itself). If you go early, you can check out Melk (a cute town) or the abbey there (I'll review it separately). It seemed like trains ran at least hourly. The cruise dock is about a 20-minute walk from the Melk train station. When we got to the cruise's ticket office, I wasn't sure if they'd still have our reservation, think we already paid, etc. It turned out they had the booking and did want us to pay, which was fine. We then waited for the boat. It showed up about 5 minutes before boarding. Tour buses disgorged a lot of passengers just before that. We boarded and found a table on the top deck (uncovered). There are two lower enclosed decks also. My daughter jokingly referred to this as a booze cruise, which wasn't wrong. Most people were getting beer or wine, it seemed. Also, there was a lot of smoking (cigars and cigarettes) so we relocated to another table upwind of most of that. We skipped the booze but did get a slice of apricot cake, which we split. That was good. The scenery along this part of the Danube was great. Large hills / mountains rise up from the shore, small castles and old churches were frequent, and there were a lot of vineyards. I'm glad we made the effort to do this. Towards the end, I got the impression that Dürnstein may not be the endpoint, so I asked the bartender if the boat went to Krems. He confirmed that it did. So, we opted to just stay onboard after Dürnstein for another 15 minutes and got off (with almost everyone else) at Krems. From the Krems dock, it was about a 25-minute walk along a bike / walking path to the railway station. It again took about an hour to get back to Vienna from there. Trains seemed frequent. Other than the booking process, we enjoyed this. The scenery merited the extra 2-hour round trip on trains to get to and from the cruise.

We used this company for a Danube River tour from Melk to Krems. It was expensive, €45,70 per…read moreperson but it included train service from Vienna to Melk, admission to the Melk Abbey, the boat and train from Krems to Vienna. It was simply awesome and we had a terrific time. We passed by such amazing towns with too many fantastic monuments to name. It reminded me why I think Austria is one of the most beautiful countries. It was well worth the money and a lot of fun.

This review combines our recent experience at this church and the surrounding Mexikoplatz. Gayle…read moreand I walked all around both, and experienced a residential neighborhood vibe. We were unable to enter the church, but did find evidence of a mass schedule (at the side door) and a daycare operation. The main entrances were either a campground for homeless folks or were securely fenced off. Yet apparently, this church is home to the Vienna English Speaking Catholic Community. The St. Francis of Assisi Church is located along the Danube and sports a signature brick Basilica profile. We also used this landmark to to find our way back to our cruise ship. The surrounding Mexikoplatz (Mexico Square), formerly known as Erzherzog-Karl-Platz (Archduke-Karl-Square), commemorates the fact that Mexico was the only country outside the Soviet Union to protest against the Anschluss of Austria to Nazi Germany. The Church and Plaza are also located on the southwestern end of the Reichsbrücke (Empire Bridge). Gayle and I also noted that we were located in the Vienna's Second District, Leopoldstadt, which was also the name of a famous play of that name by Tom Stoppard. Not surprisingly, there was clearly a disconnect between the setting of this play and what we experienced in this District.

This church looks older than it really is. It was built to celebrate the anniversary of some…read moreruler's coronation, and was built to just look old. It's a nice lookin' church, situated right along the Danube, overlooking the banks. Behind this church is MexicoPlatz, which is named in honor of the fact that Mexico refused to go along with Germany's plans in WWII, and they dedicated this plaza after Mexico! It's honestly the least-Mexican "Mexican" plaza I've ever been in, but it's nice! They have a big stone plaque commemorating the plaza in Austrian and Spanish. There's a playground with outdoor ping pong tables, park benches, trash cans and places to hang out and throw a frisbee around! There's plenty of trees, and it's a nice spot to hang. It felt well lit and safe at night. The neighborhood isn't really Mexican. I couldn't find a taqueria anywhere around here, but there's plenty of Kabab places nearby. Overall, it's a nice place to come out and celebrate Mexican heritage. When going through, be sure to shout out a loud "Grito" to let everyone know- Viva Mexico!

This was the final stop of our Austria drive before we hit Vienna for our flight home. I made sure…read moreour travels included a stop at the abbey since it was a large UNESCO site, high above the Danube River and had some impressive rooms inside. The signage throughout the city of Melk was plenty and clearly directed us to the parking lot above the abbey. Remember to take your parking ticket for free validation at the ticket office. It was around a 10 minute walk from the parking lot to the main ticketing desk. Don't go to the garden ticket booth unless you have a ticket or only want to pay for the garden visit. Admission included access to the church (amazing detail), museum, library (open but under renovation), gardens (with a must see interior of the Pavilion main hall), bastion (panoramic views above Melk and Danube) and the Marble Room (beautiful ceiling paintings). We joined the English guided tour for 4 Euros per person (Skippable IMO) and ended in the library as the guides were not allowed into the final stop, the church. From the guided tour one of the most important highlight was the famous Melk Cross, with a splinter of the true cross, had been stolen twice and fought over (Vienna and Melk) but now was no longer on display due to its condition. Since this was an active abbey photos were not allowed once inside by policy. Sometime the docents would stop you but other times not (ie. adult chaperones overseeing a school field trip). Guided tour took almost one hour but by the time we wrapped up our visit a storm moved in. We missed taking photos from the city of Melk to show just how large this complex was. If you're visiting Vienna then take a side trip out here. It will be worth it.

Melk Abbey Visited…read morethe abbey on an all-day tour starting in Vienna, then heading to Hallstatt and Salzburg. We were only there for 45 minutes, so I just had time to run in and admire the beautiful church. That was more than enough to know I have to return to Austria to properly explore the abbey and the entire Wachau Valley. What a place!!!