Is this heaven?

Mark Twain said, "Give every day the chance to be the most beautiful in your life." Well it is not hard at the moment for me. We are sailing through the Wachau Valley and it is just magic. There are fairly steep green hills rising from the river covered in vineyards and apricot trees, with the occasional church or village. I wish I could paste some photos.
We called in at a little village called Durnstein. It has a population of just 450 people but has 1.6 million visitors each year and I can see why. If it was in Australia I would come every weekend.
Richard the Lionheart was crowned King of England in 1189. Did you know he couldn't even speak English, but only French? He left in 1190 on a crusade to the Holy Land. On his way back to England he was captured by King Leopold V of Austria, (who he had quarreled with on the crusades) who imprisoned him in Durnstein in a castle up the top of the hill. This is where we were this morning. This was good for his brother John who took over as King and refused to pay his ransom. But his Mum, who loved him, bailed him out, (as Mums do)and paid 70 000 pounds of silver.
It is such a beautiful town. You can recognise it by a Baroque Church with a blue and white tower called St Augustine Convent. They have a pillar in the middle of the town where they punish the bad girls and nagging wives. They had to wear a silly mask and people would ridicule them. They thought that if they didn't punish them God would so the women were scapegoats.
The hangman's cottage was interesting. It was an inherited trade. He or she only got paid when they did a service which was either hanging or torturing. So they usually ran a bit of a brothel on the side. Children of hangmen were only allowed to marry other children of hangmen so you wouldn't get much choice. A daughter would have to do the job until she married when her husband could take over.
It is still sunny but a touch windy today. Still no rain which is amazing because the river is in flood because it is raining a lot in Germany. It was really flooded a week ago. If it floods too much, we can't fit under the bridges, so we may have to get off the boat and travel by coach. Hopefully that will not happen.