Dürnstein

On our trip down the Danube, we had a morning stop in Dürnstein, Austria. Dürnstein is a charming little town, named after Castle Dürnstein on the hill (now in ruins). The castle was built in the late 11^th century, and Richard the Lionheart (Richard I of England) was kept prisoner there in 1192. The castle was destroyed in the 1600’s.

Durnstein Castle ruins

We took a hike through town and up the hill to the castle ruins.

Cheryl at Castle Durnstein

Can you spot Larry in the photo below?

Castle Durnstein ruins

We had beautiful views from the top of the hill.

View of the Danube from Castle Durnstein

View from Castle Durnstein

Durnstein is a charming little town with narrow streets and cute homes.

Durnstein

House in Durnstein

Not to be missed is their beautiful cemetery.

Cemetery in Durnstein

We were lucky with our timing, since we were there when Sturm was available.

Cheryl drinking Sturm

Sturm is a lightly fermented beverage made from freshly pressed grapes. It’s also known as “new wine”. It’s only available for a few weeks when they’re harvesting the grapes. It was quite tasty, but didn’t taste at all like grapes. Instead, it tasted sort of like hard lemonade.

The Wachau region also produces a lot of apricot products. We had chocolate with apricot brittle in it, and delicious Marillenlikor (apricot liqueur). We even had a taste of some unfiltered apricot liqueur made by one of the town residents.

More photos of Durnstein here.

All posts for this vacation can be found with this tag: Europe2013