Wir fahren fahren fahren auf der Autobahn...

Last weekend found us on a wine-tasting trip to Styria (Steiermark) in south east Austria.

We had a great couple of days with our friends Gerhard and Lotte who took us around and showed us the sights, smells and tastes of "the heart of Austria".

Here are some of them:

We visited woodland pigs (more of them later), a bear sanctuary on the Slovenian border (their penchant for carrots was remarkable) and a deer farm in near Graz.

During our trip we visited several Weingüter (vineyard) including

• Weingut Tement
  
• Weingut Birnstingl
• Weingut Erich & Walter Polz
  

We even found some wine varieties which neither of our jaded palettes had ever tasted! Imagine that if you can!

Morillon - which is a variety of Chardonnay and very tasty

Schilcher - very pink and VERY sharp (apparently, in murder cases in times gone by, it was taken into consideration when sentencing whether the defendant was intoxicated on Schilcher!)

Sämling - normally served colder than other white wines, and referred to by Gerhard as a "für die Frauen". We quite like it!

Einfach Raus!

This is the name of the ticket we have just discovered on the ÖBB (Austrian Railways).

This is a special ticket that is valid on all Austrian trains except the big fast inter-city trains. It is valid for between 2 - 5 people and costs 28Euro for a whole day's travel for all the people in the group.

We decided to investigate the possibilities over the weekend, starting on Saturday with a trip to Eisenstadt (the regional capital of Burgenland). Saturday was a really warm day and the town centre was uphill from the station (oh my aching shins and blistered feet) so we were a bit tuckered out by the time we arrived to saunter through the, rather deserted, town centre (anyone would think it was a bank holiday or something!).

We had a bit of lunch (Würstel with freshly grated horseradish all round) and made our way idly (we had to run at full pelt) back to the station to catch the next train to Neusiedel Am See, which we sort of missed as we got off at the wrong station. We could see the lake twinkling the distance but had just missed the train (well, we had got off it actually) into town, so we got on a different train and came back a different route into Vienna.

We arrived back in Vienna earlier than we originally expected, and decided to tootle off on another train/adventure to Mödling, an outlying small spa town, just because we could. The town centre was uphill, again, and looked really unpromising from the main road. We almost turned around and came back home but didn't, for some reason I can't remember, and ended up somewhere that was so dinky it looked like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang could have been filmed there (was it? I don't know, but if you do, then please tell me).

Then we headed home, via a Turkish-shop stop to pick up some provisions (delicious pistachio nuts,
aubergine dip and (a tin of!) humous).

Easter Sunday, and a new Einfach Raus ticket beckons, but not before finding the rather brilliant journey planner on the ÖBB website called Scotty, which allows us to plan our journey to the minute before we have actually left the house (I think Austrian public transport efficiency is second only that of Germany).

Today we're going to Melk.

Melk lies on a bend in the Danube, about 100km from Vienna. It's a pretty little town (this time downhill from the station!) which boasts the most jaw-dropping baroque "pile" (atop the hill in the town centre) that I have ever seen. It completely dominates the town.

This pile is a still functioning monastery, with a museum, and gallery, and fountains, and gardens, and church, and cherubs, and frescoes, and relics (!!!), and gold-leaf, and general pomp, and, in fact, so much visual pastel confection that at times, you may feel like you're having a sugar-rush.

Easter Monday we set forth again, this time with Payerbach-Riechenau as our destination of choice.

We were thwarted early on in the journey today however, as both of us were daydreaming and missed our first change (Ottakring). We eventually got back to Wien Meidling (our main departure station) and decided to head towards Wiener Neustadt (which is on the way to Payerbach-Riechenau) and review the situation later in the morning.

Wiener Neustadt (New City) is actually medieval, and not an overflow council estate (like Wythenshawe is to Manchester) as I had previously thought and in itself looked picturesque and probably held enough to keep us entertained for the afternoon, had it not been a Bank Holiday and had everything not been shut. So, after a cursory circuit of the old town we headed back to the station to venture forth, to our original destination.

We arrived in Payerbach-Riechenau and "siezed the day" yet again by jumping onto yet another train which was already in the station when we arrived which took us up the snow covered mountain to Semmering.

It snowed when we arrived and was really beautiful.

Snow pix to follow soon, when I have sorted them out!

Einfach Raus? Well, it gets you out of the house doesn't it?

A walk in the park

On Tuesday we went for a walk...

We walked down Michigan to the river,
Through Millennium Park,
past the Anish Kapor sculpture,
down to the lake,
along to the Museum Campus,
back into town to a fantastic acrhitecture/design bookshop called Prairie Avenue Books,
past the elevated train tracks,
through the square which houses the Mies van der Rohe federal buildings and a huge Calder sculpture
and along to the Rookery (I stood on the stairs and got told off by the security guard)
How our feet ached!

A week is a long time...

It seems amazing that this week has gone so fast. Last Thursday (Feb 14th) we met up with a friend who was leading a group of modern history students and other interested academics on a mini trip to Vienna. We met up with them to eat at the Waldviertlerhof (which I mentioned earlier, and the food was excellent by the way) shortly after they arrived and tagged along at various points throughout their trip.

The weather turned on Friday and the temperature dropped by several degrees. We had a smattering of snow, but the worse thing was the wind. It certainly wasn't the kind of day I would have chosen to stand about in the town Centre.

Unfortunately, we were booked onto the Third Man tour, so this was exactly what we had to do! I Had known about this particular tour for a long time and it had almost worked its way into my folk memory. I was sure that a friend of a friend had been on it and had been taken down into the storm drains that run under Vienna to see the setting of the final scenes where Orson Welles tries to escape the clutches of the authorities. He didn't escape (sorry for the spoiler if you haven't seen it), and we didn't get to see the storm drains as the scene was apparently shot in the Shepperton Studios in London. We left early, feeling a little disappointed and later found out that the tour didn't even take in the Riesenrad (the big wheel) on the Prater which seemed a little odd as it is the most recognisable landmark in the whole film. Hey ho. Photo below is the doorway of Harry Lime's kitty (unacknowledged) accompanied first appearance in the film.

A tip! If you are ever really cold and happen to pass a street vendor selling roasted chestnuts, buy some, give some to your friends, put them in your gloves to warm your hands then eat them. It works a treat. Well done Jill for this inspired bit of improvisation!

Later that evening, we visited the Zwölf Apostelkeller in the centre of town to eat drink and make merry, helped along by a particularly boisterous performance from the resident violinist and accordianist who, when they found out the group was from Wales gave a rousing rendition of Tom Jones' "Why, why, why, Delilah?". All very jolly though secretly I was hoping for "Big Spender"!
Saturday was more sedate (though still freezing cold) as we ambled up and down the Naschmarkt and wandered through the accompanying Saturday Flohmarkt (Flea Market) eyeing the acres of assembled bric a brac, antiques, books, old cutlery, postcards, records and CDs, statues, furniture and general tat (you get the picture) and eventually ended up, via the mulled wine stall, at the Kunsthistorisches Museum to see the newly opened Arcimboldo exhibition.

You probably do know who he is even if you think you don't. He's the man who made portraits out of vegetables, fruit and flowers. They were actually portraits of the court of Rudolf the second (16th century) and very interesting too.

We saw the lovely snowy Breughels too.

Sunday found us at the top the Kahlenberg again, surveying the land with the whole group from on high and actually managing to spot the Riesenrad this time. We descended to the village at the bottom (Kahlenbergerdorf) down a stepped path through a vineyard which was cordoned off due to glaciated steps near the bottom. Naturally we only realised this when we were at the ice, at the bottom of the steps; we suffered no casualties, though it was a tad hairy descending at times.
When at the bottom we decamped to a pre-booked local Heuriger called Steinschaden for a delicious feast of local specialities (even featuring vegetarian options!) and lots and lots of wine. Note to self, I really must find out what Schwarz Wurzel are, because the Schwarz Wurzel salad was delicious. It tasted quite like asparagus but without the side effects. I'd quite like to try to grow some when I get home.

I had a brilliant time last weekend and met some really lovely people. Thank you :)

A walk in the Vienna Woods

After walking blisters on my blisters on Saturday, we decided it would be a good idea, it being such a glorious day, to go for walk on the Kahlenberg (the mountain near where we live).

The Viennese are so polite in some ways (greeting you when you enter and leave a shop, and even in lifts!), when they are not, it seems completely out of proportion. For example, the journey to the top of the Kahlenberg from where we live is taken part on the tram and the latter part of the journey, from Grinzing up the mountain is on a bus which winds up the snaking road, flanked by green pasture and and the densely planted and oddly named Krapfen Wald - doughnut woods (don't ask me why, as I have no idea! but if I find out, I'll let you know).

Because the weather was so miserable on Saturday and so glorious on Sunday, the bus is packed with people who've had the same idea as us and we have to squash together to get on. Lots of the passengers generally get off half way up when the bus stops a the carpark. There are refreshment stands and a (new) petting zoo and some make the rest of the journey on foot.

The journey up the mountain is very twisty-turny and people have become used to physical contact with the people around them in the tightly packed confined space. As the bus stops and before the door opens, there is the usual kind of movement of people beginning to make it known they want to disembark and working their way towards the exit. I became aware of increasing pressure from the old man stood next to me. My initial thought is that he has unbalanced as the bus came to a halt and I turn round to help steady him. He isn't falling or unsteady at all he is actually pushing me, leaning and pushing me out of his way off the bus before the doors have even opened without a word of excuse me.

From the viewing platform at the top you can see for miles over Vienna and across the flat plains towards Slovakia. The hills in the distance are blue and dreamy... The wind is however, rather unforgiving so we retire to the coffee shop for a coffee, a grosse Brauner (a Viennese coffee closest resemblance to a macchiato, with capuccino froth) and a sausage, which here meant two each! Yum.

I thought you might like to share these little fellows too, from the gift shop.