Saturday 12th October 2024.
Day 29
Today we only drove 25 miles and it took us approximately 4.5 hours as we were travelling alongside the Danube and experiencing wonderful views.
SPITZ.
This town on the Danube was our first stop.
Spitz is a market town in the midst of the UNESCO World Heritage area of Wachau.
The Hinterhaus ( Spitz Castle) is a ruin perched atop a hill overlooking Spitz and the Danube, it’s free and open to the public, there are several paths leading to the top I think we took the steepest one but at least it gave us magnificent views, even if it made us puff.
The path was rocky and exposed in places but we made it.
You couldn’t say the castle was fascinating as it would need to be restored a little to achieve that but it was all about the views.
We took a much longer descent path which wasn’t quite so steep but it allowed us a view of people harvesting the grapes., which were growing in terraces high up the hills.
WEISSENKIRCHEN.
This was our next stop just a few kilometres further on.
Wiessenkirchen is surrounded by vineyards and the town is dominated by the mighty Gothic Church of Wiessenkirchen, together with other local villages it forms the largest wine growing community in the Wacheau.
Wiessenkirchen means white church the church was built in the 14c as a defence tower and is interesting because they built a larger church around the smaller white tower.
The access to the church is via a wooden covered staircase where tributes to it’s wine growing are on display.
The streets were steep and narrow and residents had developed their own way of getting around.
Another interesting item is the ferry which crosses the river here ferrying people, cycles and small cars, it has no engine and is powered solely by the current of the Danube. There is a steel cable spanning the river, another cable is attached to the ferry and the pilot moves the rudder one way or the other to propel it across the river.
Whilst walking Layla this morning it became evident that at some time in the recent months the whole of the stellplatz would have been approx 1 metre under water. As we drove along the Danube there were numerous large diggers moving silt and reconstructing the banks of the river, they are also installing flood barriers that can be erected as the water rises.
We had intended to stop at another interesting village of Durnstein, they had recently built a large car park but sadly motorhomes were denied access even to park for a short time.☹️
So we drove onto Krems where we are staying for 2 nights at Donaupark Camping with a pitch overlooking the Danube where we have been entertained by large barges powering their way along. We are using this stop to catch up on a few domestics, using the mains electricity to charge up items and take advantage of the laundry facilities.
taraabit 