Mahvish and Nate's Anniversary Party in Austria's Wachau Valley

One time we went to a party at an abandoned castle overlooking the Danube river:

This picture checks off about a dozen bucket-list items.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Paul met his friends Mahvish and Nate way back in 2002 on study abroad in Cairo. He's seen them a few times over the years in Chicago, DC, and Atlanta. When we were invited to their 10th wedding anniversary party in a castle on the Danube, we jumped at the chance and made a vacation out of it. Flying to Europe from Atlanta can be pretty expensive in the summer, but luckily we found a good flight deal to Munich and spent a day there before exploring Vienna for a few more days.

Saturday morning, the day of the anniversary party, we got up early and went to the airport to pick up a rental car for the next two days. We usually don't travel through Europe via car, but the location of the party in the UNESCO Wachau Valley made travel by car an easier option. It also gave us the ability to travel more slowly through some towns and see some sights along the Danube River and further south. We met Nate and Mahvish's friend Philippe and his sister at the airport at 9AM to pick up the rental car, and set off for the valley.

Our first stop was Krems an der Donau, a town of 24,000 people 43 miles west of Vienna. Once we figured out how to pay for parking, we walked through the town for a few hours. It's a cute historic city, with a bustling main tourist street through the center of town. We visited a couple of churches and sampled some local marillenshnaps (apricot brandy). Its a great city to just meander around the small central historic district. Just watch out for the busloads of tourists!

View of Krems.



All of the towns along the Danube have hilly adorable cobblestone streets.

Inside the Piaristinkirche, the church perched above the city. 

The facade of the catholic church in the center of town.

The opulent Baroque interior of the catholic church.

One of the main streets in the center of Krems.

The steiner tor, a 15th century gate to the city.

Our next stop was a short drive west along the Danube: the little town of Dürnstein. It's an adorable village situated on a hillside on a bend in the river, surrounded by vinyards and forests and watched over by castle ruins perched high above. We walked through the town then hiked uphill to Burgruine Dürnstein, a 12th century castle where Richard the Lionheart was held prisoner in 1192 on his way home from the crusades. It was a steep 20 minute climb up the hill, and we were rewarded with commanding views and an amazing breeze on a hot day.

Vineyards and hills on the edge of Dürnstein.

The Danube is a really pretty blue-green. Not like Georgia's orange muddy rivers.

Narrow historic streets through the center of town.

Did we mention this town is adorable?

Looking across the river toward the town of Rossatz, on our climb up to the castle.

Very rewarding views after the short hike up to the castle.

The view of the beautiful Wachau valley from the castle.

We made it to the castle! Only a little sweaty...

Vineyards and a castle on a beautiful Saturday.

After walking back down to the village we had lunch before continuing west in our car. We dropped off Philippe and his sister at their hotel in Melk, and got ready for the party at our hotel, the Residenz Wachau. It was a charming hotel, but unfortunately we didn't have too much time there. We picked up Philippe again and our new Swedish friends and drove to the party.

The anniversary party was in another historic castle. Yes, we went to two castles in one day, deal with it! This castle was Burgruine Aggstein, a 12th century castle high on a hill over the Danube. It was a beautiful location, and the party was in a restored banquet hall. We enjoyed seasonal food and drinks (yay apricot champagne and late night schnitzel!) and spent the night drinking, talking and enjoying the beautiful evening.

View of the Danube from our room.

The banquet hall in the castle.

Grrr!

Not a bad view!

We toured the castle before the party.

Amazing views up and down the Danube.

View the other direction.

Apricot champagne and a beautiful sunset on top of the castle.

Paul and Mahvish are ready to party.

Hanging out after the toast.

The weather was amazing.

The happy couple 16 years after meeting (10 of them married!)

We were at the Cairo table!

This guy wants a beer.

Time to cut the cake!

We had an amazing time at the party, and this will certainly be the travel highlight of our year. Congrats to Mahvish and Nate!

The next morning, before leaving the Wachau valley, we drove to Melk and toured the abbey. Melk only has about 5,000 people, but seems larger. It has a small cute historic downtown, but the highlight is a giant abbey and church overlooking the town. It's one of Austria's most famous religious structures, originally founded in the 11th century. The main building is from the 18th century. We couldn't take photos inside, but there was a beautiful library and a number of impressive baroque rooms and paintings. We also happened upon a traditional band and locals in costume in the courtyard, getting ready to parade through town.

Melk and the abbey.

The main courtyard of the impressive abbey.

We listened to this band play traditional songs. A lucky random cultural experience.

The view over Melk on a cloudy Sunday morning.

David outside the abbey.

It was pretty crowded - a popular tourist destination, especially on a weekend during apricot season.

The gardens surrounding the abbey.

It's pretty clear to see why the Wachau Valley is a UNESCO heritage site. The Danube between Krems and Melk is wide and there are numerous small farming villages dotting its banks. This area is very hilly, with the ruins of old castles, vineyards and some overall great scenery. If you happen to be in this neck of the woods, consider visiting the valley for some old world charm. We didn't visit Melk too long, after visiting the abbey we left Melk in the late morning and drove south toward the mountains. We had the rental car until later that night so we wanted to make the most of our rare European car rental to see more of the Austrian countryside and the alpine foothills.

Vienna - Palaces & Weingut

After our first day whirlwind tour of Vienna, our next two days were at a slower pace and were dedicated to exploring the city's museums and palaces before venturing to the Wachau Valley. Vienna is full of things to do and see - there are a lot of museums to choose from, tons of churches and several palaces and interesting monuments. This trip to Vienna isn't our first European rodeo, so we tried to seek out a few more unusual things and spent a bit less time looking at churches and art museums. The first stop of the day was the Hundertwasser House. This building, and a few more in the neighborhood, were designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser. It's colorful and odd - almost fairy-tale-like.

The Hunderwater House was followed by a stroll and tram ride to the Belvedere Palace. This is a multi-building complex with an upper palace, a lower palace and a modern art museum set with gardens between. We originally weren't going to visit the art museum but it was a very hot day in Vienna (over 90*F) and air conditioning sounded pretty great so we caved and spent about 45 minutes inside the Upper Belvedere. The museum was very nice with a collection of Middle Age to modern art, with several 19th and 20th century Klimt pieces, which were very popular because he was Austrian.

Hundertwasser House.

Front of the Upper Belvedere.

Medieval piece with a motley cast of characters.

Napoleon being not short on a horse. This one is in lots of history books.

Obviously the museum was very palatial.

View from the upper towards the lower Belvedere through the gardens.

David having a good time in front of the upper Belvedere.

The lower Belvedere - we didn't go into this museum which was mostly special exhibitions.

By now it was way past lunch time, so we jumped another tram to grab some lunch near a brew-house that we marked on our travel map. After getting some bad Italian food at Pizzeria La Gondola, we made it to 7 Stern Brau. The pub had a nice backyard beer garden with automatic misters, which helped in the heat. Despite it being hot, most things in Austria weren't air conditioned, so sitting inside most restaurants or bars wasn't ideal and we avoided it for nearly the entire trip.

After having a beer we found a little Mexican shop and peaked inside. We're always curious what Europeans think of Mexico. Our experience has generally been that they have no idea about Mexican food or goods. The shop had a few craft beers imported from Mexico, lots of imported Mexican food products, and tons of hard taco shells - because white people. Overall this trip, we'd say we saw more Mexican things than in any other European trip. Maybe Europe is finally catching on to the joys of Mexico? Or maybe it's something about Vienna - there were more cuisine types from around the world here than in other places we've visited in Europe except London. Oddly enough, the woman working in the Mexican shop was Colombian. We chatted with her for a bit, since we'll be visiting Bogota later this year.

Beer vending machine, because why not?

Halfway decent beers.

Paul enjoying some beer in the garden courtyard.

Clearly Paul is a polyglot.

Cute little Mexican store.

After lunch, beer and shopping we walked through the MuseumsQuartier to visit the Kunsthistorisches Museum. This must-see museum features art and artifacts from Europe and the near-east spanning from ancient Egypt, to Greece and Rome all the way to 20th century art and sculpture. We spent several hours there, as it's a pretty huge building.

After visiting the Kunsthistorisches Museum, we walked to the nearby Rathaus (city hall) past the Austrian parliament (which was heavily under renovation). The Rathaus hosts a summer film festival and there were dozens of food and drink vendors in the courtyard. The vendors varied from Austrian, Italian, Greek, Mexican and various Asian cuisines. A huge screen and lots of seating were set up in front of the Rathaus and movies were played at night. It was a great festive scene but since we visited in the afternoon we didn't have a chance to watch a movie or grab a bite this time around.

Outdoor space in an old bus parking area in the MuseumsQuartier.

Kunsthistorisches Museum - a mirror image of the Natural History Museum we visited the day before.

Great collection of Egyptian artifacts in a more traditional setting than the Munich Egyptian Museum.

Tons of Roman and Greek statues.

A piece of art by Klimt to celebrate the Kunsthistorisches Museum.

Tower of Babel by Bruegel 

Seating and vendors near the Rathaus for the Vienna summer film festival.

After heading back to the AirBnB for a bit of a break, we ventured out to find some dinner. We took a tram to a neighborhood north and west of the city center to a restaurant called Am Nordpol 3 (weird name, we know). The menu here was all in handwritten German and gave David a bit of a panic attack. After the waiter realized we were somewhat clueless she ran back with some printed English menus (phew). The restaurant is near a large park and has a huge outdoor seating area, good food and lots of drinks. We'd recommend this place if you're eager to get out of the tourist areas and try some Viennese cuisine with the locals.

After dinner we took the tram back to the innere stadt, got some gelato and took an evening stroll. Vienna is a very picturesque city and the innere stadt is especially walkable and delightful. Make sure if you visit you dedicate lots of time to just exploring!

In Austria potato is the only vegetable you'll find easily.

Of course there was gelato before bed. We're not savages!

A lot of the buildings are dramatically lit at night, including the main cathedral.

St. Peter's church.

Lots of plazas and shopping areas in the innere stadt.

A beautiful Vienna alley at night.

Friday was our last full day in Vienna. There were still a ton of things we wanted to see, but knew we didn't have the time. We also knew we'd be back for a few hours toward the end of the trip, so we decided to focus on one big thing and then attend a party for Nate and Mavish the evening before their anniversary shindig.

We started the day at Schönbrunn Palace, a UNESCO site on the south side of town. This impressive 1,400 room palace was the Hapsburg's summer home and was essentially Vienna's Versailles. Our audioguide tour was excellent and included 40 rooms - which was very manageable. The tour included access to some special sections of the massive gardens, which are otherwise free to enter as a city park. It was a rainy day so we didn't spend too much time exploring the gardens or the nearby neighborhoods. Overall, if you can only visit one palace in Vienna, we'd recommend you visit Schönbrunn. It doesn't take too long to see (unless you spend a lot of time in the sprawling gardens) and you can get a real sense of how the Austrian royalty lived. It was very crowded - make sure you book a time-slot at least a day ahead.

Hazelnut cake and a cappuccino in front of Schönbrunn.

One of the palace's side gardens. 

Paul in front of the Gloriette.

Schönbrunn Palace and gardens from atop the Gloriette - worth the climb.

Avocado toast. I.E the reason older adults think millennials are poor.

After visiting Schönbrunn, we went to the Roman Museum, which was pretty close to our AirBnB. David loves Roman history, so we knew we had to give it a visit. The museum was small but included some exhibits on the Roman foundation of Vienna as a military base on the Danube (which was the far border of the empire). It also included some ruins from the fort under the city streets.

Part of the old Roman fort that evolved over time into Vienna.

Street scene near our AirBnB.

After heading back to the AirBnB for a bit of a break, we ventured out to meet Nate and Mahvish at Heuriger Feuerwehr Wagner Weingut Grinzing Wien. This place is a heuriger - which means they a tavern that makes their own wine. All along the northern edge of Vienna are lots of small vineyards. These vineyards mostly produce small amounts of wine that they sell in heuriger on the edge of Vienna. Weinguts are similar to beer gardens in that they have large outdoor spaces with seating and lots of trees and flowers. We spent most of the evening here drinking wine, eating tons of schnitzel and watching a world cup match under an awning when it started to thunderstorm after sunset. Most evenings in Vienna featured some thunderstorms and this night was the worst - with a few hours of rain and lightning.

Cobblestone entry to the weingut.

One of the house wines.

A feast of schnitzel and potatoes!

We wrapped up our final full day in Vienna, and prepared to head off to the Wachau Valley in a rental car the next morning.