On the road again - by car: September

SEPTEMBER 10

For the past few weeks I have been sharing my office with an intern from Australia, Michelle Bush. M works usually for the same government mob I used to, the Supervising Scientist. Anyway she has been helping us out and and doing a good job. So as a sort of thank you I offered to take M and her Mum and her Mum's mate out for the day  to the Wachau, the Danube gorge area.
Now those of you who read this blog will recall I have been to this area before a few times and have a sort of regular trip. And this was no different - during the day.  We drove out to Durnstein, made famous for being the castle where Richard the Lionheart was imprisoned on his way back from the Crusades. The village is very quanit but also full of tourists all summer. Still we had a walk around and photographed M  at the same spot I had photgraphed her bosses when they visited in January 2009.

Michelle at Durnstein

Then we did the ferry across the Danube at Spitz.................



........................The castle at Aggstein.................................

 After a late lunch at a riverside gasthaus at the foot of the castle's hill we passed through Melk with its great abbey and -at this time of year-  the traditional stalls selling pumpkins, some of which are pre-decorated for Haloween.

The final part of the day was a twilight dash back down the valley to Graffinegg, a big estate in the country near Krems. We had tickets for a concert by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra which was  suppposed to be in the open air auditorium.  Sadly the weather was too cold and windy so we were moved into the concert hall. The concert was great and a fitting end to their Europen tour. The drive home was easy and a great day had been enjoyed by all.