One location is Durnstein (pronounced dur-n-stein). The fortress overlooking the town and valley once held King Richard the Lionhearted of England as a prisoner after he was captured during a raid. He was held for 18 months before Queen Elizabeth of Austria returned him to England for the ransom price of 20 tons of silver (todays cost is several billion dollars). It was a win-win for both countries.
A tunnel runs under the town to keep traffic off the narrow city streets. A nunnery is now a granary, we walked the old city wall and walked to a nice vineyard .
Our next stop was in the city of Melk, the former capital of Austria one thousand years ago. The Melk Abby, once a Benedictine monastery, is 935 years old and was once the home for over 100 monks. Today only 21monks live in the Abby that claims 500 rooms. The Prelate courtyard, the largest of seven in the complex, is surrounded by buildings that were used like a hotel by royalty.
We were not allowed to take any pictures of the inside of the Abby nor of the Cathedral but John did manage to sneak one in secret. The rooms we toured were more like a modern museum until we entered the library which holds a collection of 100,000 books including two Gutenberg bibles.
The last stop of the day was in Greinburg, the summer home of the Sachaen-Coburg-Saalfeld dynasty. Or in modern language the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha family. We were invited to walk through the private quarters as we learned about the history of the family. The palace is over 500 years old and was purchased by the current family in 1923. The 3 most interesting rooms were the Chapel with a Christmas Altar, a solarium made from pebbles collected from the Danube and a room called the diamond vault. No one is sure of its purpose but it has a unique three dimensional diamond ceiling.
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