Steiermark's Weinstrasse
Austria
Thursday, May 17, 2001
In the afternoon, we loaded ourselves into two cars and headed out to Steiermark's Weinstrasse, a road which winds through the hilly vineyards of lower Austria.
At some points in the road, Austria is on one side and Slovenia is on the other.
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Shortly after leaving Flamberg, we saw a stork's nest on top of an old factory tower.
Onkel Karl told us about storks. Here's what I understood about storks:
Storks mate for life and have two babies a year.
If a stork's mate dies, it does not re-mate.
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We lost the other car as we were leaving Leibnitz, so we stopped at the next town and viewed an old church while waiting for the others to pass by.
Our other car never did pass by, so we continued on our tour of the Weinstrasse.
Beyond this gate is Slovenia
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Slovenia
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Walli, with Austria in the background
Tante Rili and Onkel Karl
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Margit and Tim
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The hilly landscape containing the vineyards was beautiful.
We stopped at Weinhof Prettner, a quaint, old Buschenschank.
A Buschenschank is a place where you can buy wine to drink and is traditionally identified by the hanging of branches at the door.
At Weinhof Prettner, we drank non-alcoholic grape drinks and ate sweet bread with apricot-like jam filling.
When we complained of being full, Tante Rili told us the following saying:
Mann solte nicht zu Hungrig sein
dass Er kann nicht warten,
und
Mann solte nicht zu voll sein
dass Er kann nicht essen..
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Man should not be so hungry
that he cannot wait,
and
Man should not be so full
that he cannot eat.
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Walli Tante Rili, Onkel Karl, and Tim
We met up with our second car at Weingut Broili, another Buschenschank.
As we sampled the wine, we ate platters rich with regional bread, meats, cheeses, and flavors.
I learned that grape vines are grown to a thick stem for 3 to 5 years before grapes are formed.
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Walli and birdhouses
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We watched the birds fly in and out of their tree of birdhouses and the drainspout.
The wind was so strong it blew our shade umbella into the air, leaving a scratch on the gold paint of the Buschenshank.
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Tante Pepi, Onkel Pepi, and Onkel Karl
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Somewhere out there on the horizon is a church.
Half of it is in Austria and the other half is in Slovenia.
The boundary line runs between the front door of the church, splitting the church in half lengthwise.
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There is a story in the history of Weingut Broili.
Before the barn was renovated, the old barn stored wine barrels above a floor containing three cows.
One day, there was a leak in a barrel and one of the cows got so drunk that it died.
The moral of the story is that you can die if you drink too much.
I believe reference to this story is noted above the new barn door.
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Each year on July 20, the Klappenstetz in the region are unlocked, allowing the wind to turn the windmill, which, in turn, causes a loud noise to be made.
The noise scares away the birds, which feed on the maturing grapes at this time of the year.
While driving along the Weinstrasse, we saw fields of hops.
The hops were tall and were in full harvest bloom.
The blooms turn into fruit, which falls to the ground.
A machine picks the fruit up, which is then dried and made into beer.
We also saw big, furry cows from Nepal in some of the pastures along the Weinstrasse.
This is a grape sculpture by Antone Trojan.
There are 365 pearls of grapes representing the days of the year.
Other elements of the sculpture represent the seven days of the week, the 12 months in a year, and the 52 weeks in a year.
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Margit, Angie, and Walli
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Leaving the Weinstrasse region, we went through towns with names like Gross-Klein (Big-Small) and Klein-Klein.
We stopped in Kitzeck, the highest vineyard in the region.
Church in Kitzeck
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Todd and Angie
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180 degree view from Kitzeck.
(Click on image for large picture. It may take a couple minutes to download, but it's worth the time.)
Exhausted after a busy day, we left Kitzeck and returned to Flamberg for our last evening in Austria.
Click here to go continue to the last evening in Flamberg.
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Last updated: May 25, 2002
