Day 2 - Vienna - Wachau Valley

The beautiful weather led us outdoors on a tour of the local wine-making region and UNESCO world heritage site.

The Wachau Valley lies about one hour west of Vienna. It's a wine region known for Grüner Veltliner and Rieseling, which we tasted at two wineries and one wine garden, known as a Heuriger.

Our Welsh guide, Iolo (pronounced Yolo), fascinated us with tons of stories about the capture of English King Richard the Lionheart, battles against Napoleon, Saint Florion - patron saint of fire fighters - and enemy entrails hung from a city gate to dissuade potential marauders.

Along a boat ride on the Danube we floated past many castles and ruins. Such a sultry late-summer afternoon brought out a bonus authentic Austrian exhibit, sunbathers. Let's just say, they seem to have an aversion to tan lines here. 😳

The towns here began in the middle ages. They are so full of stories and castles that tomorrow we intend to pick up where today's tour left off, in Melk. No, we are not joining the sunbathers. We're going to tour The Melk Abbey.