Sep 10, 2026 - Thursday - Krems, Austria to Melk, Austria

Some time last night the boat made its way from Vienna to Krems. Looks like it was going to be cooler today, which was welcome, and a little drizzly this morning. It did sprinkle a bit but not enough to trouble us.

Breakfast as usual with our table mates. They assign you to the same table every morning and evening (probably for lunch as well but we were never on board for lunch). We grabbed a couple of sandwiches for today and packed up some fruit and veggies as well.

We docked last night in Krems, which is a small town on the Danube. We had the briefing at 9 am (no briefing last night because lots of folks were off to concerts in Vienna) and it looks like this morning we will bike through small villages with interesting things to look for, as well as vineyards and apricot trees along the way. We got pleasantly turned around in Krems and finally made it out and went up river on the bike path.

We stopped in the town of Durnstein where Claudia had instructed us to stop for an apricot pastry famous around here. We did and it was. Durnstein had quite a few other tourists so it was kind of busy. And when 100+ bicycles leave a boat and all head in the same direction there is a big slug of us at the same place at the same time. Not as bad as Vienna..

Apricots are a big deal here. There are all kinds of apricot based things to eat and things to drink. We saw them all day.

We rode through beautiful vineyards with grapes ripe and ready to pick. We did see small tractors with one meter square containers transporting grapes. Not sure when the full harvest happens but it should be soon. We stopped and bought a bag of fresh grapes for 1 euro. Very sweet but not seedless. Nice addition to our lunch.

At the town of Spitz we crossed to the other side of the river on a unique ferry. It’s a cable ferry but uses no energy other than the current of the river. Very clever indeed. They can’t carry cars since the river is so low, so it was just us bicycles crossing.

On the other side of the ferry we sat on some stones and ate our lunch. It never really got sunny today but it was very comfortable with the lower temperature, in the 70’s.

The other side of the river did not have any traffic to speak of and it had very few towns so it was quick and quiet. We have gotten to know quite a few of the other bikers and today we ran into the two California guys and the mid-western folks.

We pulled into Melk around 4:00, found the boat and managed to just catch the coffee and cake setup in the lounge. The four of us walked into Melk and walked around the old town. A very small tourist town with old cobblestone streets and alleys. It’s great how they combine the modern world with the century old cities. And they have a huge abbey on a hill just behind the city. Spectacular!

We returned to the ship, showered and went to dinner at 7:00. After dinner we had to pay the diesel up-charge ($45) and then we sat with Teri, Ralph, Dana and Nancy while the “Flower Power” music and dancing took place in the lounge. Called it a night and off to bed.