Hi!

In my opinion the best order to see these cities is Prague - Vienna - Budapest. You can take a flight to prague and then take a car hire, I think it's the most convenient and enjoyable way of travelling around Europe as there are also many other lovely cities worth to see. You can try to take a look in http://www.decodecarhire.co.uk/car-h...ic/prague.html , I have booked with them once and got quite a good price. Maybe the service is not really the best one as they confirmed my booking only 2 days before my trip, but the price was better then other companies offered.

Budapest-Vienna Hydrofoil Lines
Travel with the Budapest-Vienna hydrofoil lines on the Danube.
http://www.vienna-hydrofoil.hotels-i...t-hungary.com/ - Cached - Similar

Budapest-Vienna Hydrofoil Timetable
Timetable of the hydrofoil boats plying on the Danube between Vienna and ...
http://www.vienna-hydrofoil.hotels-i...timetable.html

bookmarking

If you do plan to go to the Melk Abbey from Vienna there is a combo ticket available at the train station - includes the train, the abbey and the boat ride from Melk to the town where you can catch the train back to Vienna - can't remember the name of the town at the moment. However, be sure the boat from Melk has a late afternoon departure.

We happened to buy our tickets the first day the 4:30 boat departure from Melk stopped for the season. The ticket agent did not tell us we would not have a 4:30 boat ride back.

We ended up having to buy a return train ticket to Vienna which wasn't a lot a lot of money. No refunds - so it was a big mistake on our part to purchase this combo ticket. It was also a mistake on the agent's part not to inform us of the change starting that day.

However you go to Melk, it is worth the visit. Absolutely beautiful.

on our trip to austria this year, our plans to visit Stift Melk on our way from Vienna to Salzburg were stymied by the floods - whichever way we went, we were met with signs reading "Strasse geschlossen" and the dreaded "Umleitung".

still the people whose houses were being pumped out were worse off than we were.

on the way back, we rearranged our plans partly to be able to fit it in.. and weren't disappointed. though it is MUCH more popular that i had realised and there were loads of coach parties.

the abbey itself was a good half day, and has an interesting garden [not so popular] and very good cafe. we were driving so can't help with train/boat options.

The thing i remember about Melk Abbey is the corpses of two knights, i believe, -skeletons in showcases -or maybe they were some kind of Saints?

don't remember that Pal - i do remember one of the tour groups demonstrating the worst manners I've seen in a long time.

I won't give the nationality in case it causes offence!

Defunct monks.

(St. Colomon's remains are in the church.)