Dürnstein
The village everyone photographs, with a genuinely dramatic ruin sitting above it.
The blue tower on every postcard
Dürnstein's blue-and-white Baroque church tower — part of the Stiftskirche, the former Augustinian monastery church — is probably the single most photographed building on the entire route. It sits directly above the village's cobbled main lane, a compact stretch of wine cellars, guesthouses, and shopfronts squeezed between the river and the rock the castle ruin sits on.
Small enough to see on foot
Dürnstein's village core is genuinely small — walkable end to end in a few minutes — which makes it an easy stop to underestimate on a map and then want more time for once you're actually there. Between the church, the lanes, and the wine cellars built into the hillside, it rewards parking the bike for longer than its size on the route profile suggests.
The castle above it
The ruin on the hill above the village is where Richard the Lionheart was held prisoner in the winter of 1192–93 — a separate 20–30 minute climb from the village itself. See the full history of the castle for the story and what the climb actually involves.