Wanderings 2014/15: Wachau

Day two: After a fretful night for me, the three of us rose at 5:00am and got a cab to the airport for our flight to Vienna. Jim and Heike's friend, Christian, met us at the airport and we drove into the center, had breakfast at a chi chi cafe and had a leisurely walk to the train station. Not much of a tour of Vienna but better than nothing. What I saw certainly intrigued me and reinforced the pictures in my mind of an old, elegant city, spotlessly clean, gorgeous architecture, the Danube flowing through.

Then the hour train trip along the Danube to Krems, a largeish city in the middle of wine country.

This was the beginning of our three day orgy of luscious white whine and hearty Austrian food. And much arduous hiking. Jim and Heike had arranged this little wine tour with their old friend, Markus, with whom they'd done it in the past.

Jim and Heike

Markus

Markus met us at the train and we drove out of Krems following the Danube through incredibly gorgeous countryside, steep, terraced hillsides rising on either side covered with vineyards, postcard little villages, castles on the hilltops.

One curiosity that we passed as we climbed up to a plateau with farms and fields of agricultural crops, was a large field of marijuana. Yes, really! Actually, we passed it, did a double take, "was that what I think it was?" did a u turn and, sure enough, a field of five foot pot plants. I doubt very much that it was the psychotropic kind but remarkable nonetheless.

The road wound down to a little river, we turned off, parked and set off on a path following the river. I had heard stories from Jim and Heike about Markus' propensity for somewhat extreme adventures so was relieved at the ease of the walk. Well, he was to live up to his reputation as we soon turned off on to a small, muddy, steep trail that went up and up and up. At one point there were cables to grab on to to pull yourself up by, that's how steep it was. My energy wasn't high with about three hours of sleep in the last 48 and I struggled painfully up. But at the top, called Teuffels Rast (Devil's Rest, even the devil has to rest here) we were rewarded by a nice view over the mountains and down to the river.

Then a long walk through the fields and finally back down to the car for the drive to the little town of Weissenkirchen and our residence, Manghof, owned and operated by Hilde and Heinrich Mang. This place was built in the late 15th century and has been in the Mang family since the 1800s. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005DH6RQ6?pc_redir=1406681222&robot_redir=1#immersive-view_1412442380839 (google: Manghof Weissenkirchen for more images)

Hilde, Heike and Markus

Our humble suite

After being greeted by the irrepressibly effusive Hilde and settled into our humble room, we visited the first of our wine tasting venues, Family Trautsamwieser.

Now to give you some background, much of it gleaned from Markus who is immensely knowledgable about this stuff (and much more, I was to learn). A measure of his dedication to fine wine at its best, he had a wine cooler in the back of his car to keep the wine that he purchased at the correct seven degrees, not six, not eight, seven! The wine from this region is distinct to it, like champagne.

Only wine grown in the Wachau can be named as such. The vineyards in this region are all family owned and the families are allowed to open their homes for wine tasting three months out of the year. They are set up like restaurants but not allowed to serve warm food so they have a vast array of appetizers to serve with their wines. The setting at Trautsamwieser itself was worth the price of admission. Tables set under grape arbors overlooking the town and valley. http://www.trautsamwieser.at/

There we commenced to sample a variety of white wines from the family's vineyards and gorge on a variety of sliced meats, cheeses, spreads and breads. Fully satiated we returned to out gasthaus for a little rest and a small taste of the Mang family's wine. Rough afternoon. And so it might be easy to understand that I don't remember a lot about the rest of the afternoon until we went for dinner to Familia Noibinger, another of the family wine tasting "homes" where we repeated the afternoon's indulgence.

After the usual sort of German/Austrian breakfast of meats, cheeses, bread, musili, yogurt, etc we set off up the valley to the beginning of the day's walk, aka death march. I didn't believe that I was still capable of a hike like that, long and hard but interspersed with more indulgence, history and beautiful scenery.

The trail went up through vineyards and forests, down to another village where we had coffee at a bakery museum where baking equipment from the past was exhibited and where there was a very quaint and elegant tea room also loaded with baking relics.

Fortified with caffeine, we headed up again for our lunch stop in yet another cute little town. Like most of them, this lunch would have nourished me for several days at home: pork tenderloin medallions with spatzle, lots of bland sauce, a little salad and, you guesse it,great flagons of beer. Thoroughly bloated, we huffed up the hill through apple orchards to the local castle, now hotel. As it had been at least a half hour since we'd last indulged, it was again time for coffee and cake.

Now time for the return hike, just a few kilometres up hill and down dale. I really didn't think I had it in me to do much more strenuous hiking but, though it was quite a struggle, I managed to do it albeit with aching hips, legs and feet. The car was a welcome sight followed by the bliss of a hot shower back at Gasthaus Mang. But that wasn't the end: back to Noibinger for a few appies, wine and schnapps. And so the day ended. All very surreal to me, transported overnight to "the sound of music" with a different sort of wine sodden Trapp family. http://www.trautsamwieser.at/

The next day was a bit lighter starting with a visit to a little historical town on the Danube with a castle where Richard the Lionhearted was imprisoned on his way back from the Crusades. The place was mobbed with tourists and full of gift shops and, while being a cute town, could have been missed.

Bike tourists

We returned to our little town to make a wine purchase then headed back to Krems. On the way we stopped for lunch at another of the stereotypical cute little towns where a funeral was in progress complete with marching band and most of the town's residents.

So we hustled in to the restaurant before the funeral crowd descended on it for another big heavy lunch of duck, wild boar and venison and, of course, BEER.

Markus knows all these little places. In fact he seemed to know his way around the area like he was born there, all the trails and places to eat and drink. Finally a stop at the Caricature Museum in Krems full of iconic Austrian caricature artist works, most of it beyond me.