Durnstein

Painted sky blue and white, the tower is the first thing visible from the river. No record of the original colour survived, so flakes of old paint were analysed to settle it.

A steep path of 20 minutes leads to a site where only broken walls stand. The story attached to it says Richard the Lionheart was held here in 1192.

One narrow lane runs from gate to gate and there is no second route. The houses keep wine cellars underneath, so air vents open beside their doors.

On the slope a lane holds nothing but cellar doors with no houses at all. Each door carries a wooden board cut with the owner's name and the year of building.

Dry stone terraces climb in steps from the water toward the cliff. Heat soaked up by day comes back out of the walls after dark, so the grapes ripen late into the season.

A balcony opens toward the river and the bend of the water lies directly below. The figures set in the wall niches each face a different way.

A boat with no engine crosses to the village opposite on the force of the current alone. It hangs from a cable strung over the river and moves by turning the bow.

Halfway up to the ruin a flat rock offers a place to stop. The river bends both ways at this point, so a boat turning can be watched from above.

A board in front of the orchard holds tubs of apricots with nobody watching. The price is written up and the money goes into a box, a habit spread along the whole valley.

This is the eastern of the two surviving gates, with a single room built above the arch. The lane turns immediately inside it, so nothing within is visible from outside.

The old town gate of Krems downriver, a Baroque tower flanked by two round corner turrets. Beyond it a car-free street leads dead ahead across the whole old quarter. Buses and bikes from Durnstein take little time, making it a comfortable half-day trip.

A Benedictine abbey crowning a hill across from Krems, visible from all over the valley. Paul Troger's fresco spreads over the ceiling of the Imperial Staircase. From the abbey restaurant's terrace the Danube and the Wachau vineyards lie below.

A wine village upstream of Durnstein, its parish church on a rise behind walls like a fort. The church was ringed with defences against Turkish raids. Climb its steps and beyond the roofs lie the Danube and terraced vines.

A trail up the rocky hill behind Durnstein, with stretches climbed by steel cables and ladders. From the crags the village, the blue tower and the river's bend all come into sight. The rock gets slippery, so skip it the day after rain.

A gallery on the Krems riverside, opened in 2019, its building twisting as it rises. Scale-like metal panels clad the outside and shift colour with the light. Several museums line the same street, so tickets can be bought together.