VIENNA-DAY 7

This trip took place June 2026.

We had originally booked this as an extra activity through the conference but it was cancelled due to low ticket sales. But that didn’t stop us.

I have a dear friend Deann who is like a sister to me because our families grew up together. She’s also a travel agent and gave us a few suggestions for our free time as well as a link to book a day trip to Melk Abbey so that we wouldn’t be missing out on anything .

We started the day off with another great breakfast spread at our hotel before heading out to meet up with our group at the Vienna Opera House where we would catch a bus to take us up to our first stop in the historic town of Dürnstein.

The Vienna State Opera House (originally the Vienna Court Opera) was built between 1861 and 1869. Designed by architects August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Nüll in the Neo-Renaissance style, it opened on May 25, 1869, with a performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni.

The buildings and architecture here is just stunning. So of course I needed to take some portico pictures as this is what is the inspiration for our story.

We got to spend about an hour here to walk around and take in the sights before getting back on the bus and heading up the road a short bit to catch our boat ride that would take us up to our final destination, Melk Abbey.

Dürnstein is a historic town in Austria’s Wachau Valley, famous for its medieval castle ruins and baroque architecture. It is globally renowned as the 1192 prison of English King Richard the Lionheart and as a UNESCO World Heritage Site celebrated for its winemaking and Danube River landscape.

It was a little bit touristy for our liking but still a cool old town with lots of rich history to walk around in. I kind of wish we have an extra hour but we had a boat to catch about a 15 minute ride by bus up the road.

Even though the weather was rainy at the start of the morning, it ended up being being a beautiful day to be out on the water and soaking it all in.

The boat ride up the Wachau Valley was magical.

We boarded our boat in a small little town called Spitz, which was about a 20 min ride by bus from Dürnstein.

I can’t imagine doing this in the heat of summer and we were really blessed and lucky to have had such great weather that day.

If memory serves me, I feel like the highs were 80 degrees with a great breeze that day. We sat out on the upper deck, ordered some fries and a beverage as we planned to have lunch up at the ABBEY.

The Danube was dotted with quaint little towns along the way as we headed to our final destination.

Here are pix from the river boat as we head up the Danube River to Melk Abbey.

HISTORY: Melk Abbey is a historic Benedictine monastery in Lower Austria, overlooking the Danube River. Founded in 1089 when Margrave Leopold II gifted his castle to monks, it served as a spiritual powerhouse, preserving ancient manuscripts and surviving centuries of fire, Turkish invasions, and imperial reforms.

Nothing could have prepared us for how massive this monastery is.

We had time to walk around the gardens and grab a bite to eat at the restaurant that is on the grounds up there before our private tour of the abbey.

We were not allowed to take pictures inside any of the rooms we toured so that was a bummer but I will say, I highly suggest adding this to your itinerary. It does not disappoint.

So that left me with only exterior shots but it was still fascinating and spiritual. There are plenty of pictures online of the interiors if you google them. It really impressive.

Glad I took a lot of pictures.

And in typical fashion, we ended the afternoon back at the little ice cream and gelato stand right next to out hotel. I’ll be sad to leave, but also very inspired to visit again soon.

Thanks again to Deann Ayer Rios who helped with day trip options as well as suggestions on what to do and see while in Vienna.

And that’s a wrap on VIENNA, AUSTRIA 2026. Thanks to anyone who we met along the way who made this a great trip. I hope we can visit again soon.