Filling in the gaps

This week on the blog, photos from another lazy spring hike! Although I have owned my trusty round Vienna hiking guide for over three years, I still haven't been to every place listed in it. Some of that is public transport related, but the rest is a combination of lack of imagination and not quite being able to connect the maps in the book to their location in the wider world. I realised recently that a section of the Wienerwald southwest of Vienna but behind the leading edge of hills bordering the Vienna basin had been left out of my hike planning, despite requiring only a bus from the edge of the city to get to!

Thus it was that the village of Sittendorf became the start point for the hike depicted here. The walk was a beautiful one, taking in all kinds of classic Wienerwald scenery like meadows, beech woods, and views of the ranks upon ranks of hills in the Wienerwald and Alps proper beyond. Especially wonderful were the flowering wild garlic plants, whose white flowers carpeted the forest completely in a manner similar to bluebells in the UK.

Perhaps by chance and perhaps due to its location relatively near Vienna, this walk passed 6 or more (!!) Gasthaeuse and two separate lookout towers. The second of these (by the Kammersteinerhuette) was particularly brilliant, the skeletal metal construction affording fantastic views from over 500m up, taking in the Lainzer Tiergarten, Vienna, the Hoher Lindkogel, the Anninger, Bad Voeslau, and many other past hiking haunts. The tower pokes out through the canopy and the hummocky nature of the surrounding limestone Wienerwald gives the view a dramatic quality that put me in mind of a very rough sea. The lowering darkness of a raincloud directly above the tower combined with the brisk wind and the sunshine from the further hills to create a magical view that I spent probably about half an hour gazing at, while everyone else went to look for cake and drinks in the hut...

All in all a lovely route, made all the better by ending at the boundary of Vienna, so you can just hop into the tram number 60 and be on your way home! The final part of the hike led us over the former grazing meadow of the Perchtoldsdorfer Haide, the scrubby grassland of which is more reminiscent of the chilterns than Austria and which provided the perfect place to sit around in the sun instead of going straight home.

Hope you enjoy the photos, the gallery is right here!

Bis bald,
Der Tom

Moedling to Baden: the Wasserleitungsweg in the sun

Look, it's not always sunny in Austria. But frankly it is sunny often enough that it sometimes feels that way to me. One of the most enjoyable things about spring in a country with a summer is that every beautiful day can be taken as a promise of more to come, not just a teaser for something that will never actually come to pass. Of course, one can see it that way however many sunny days one expects in the next several months, but in Britain, let's face it, we don't. In fact, often every sunny day is taken as an opportunity to complain about how it is never sunny! I was once told that there is a Swedish word/phrase for 'feeling sad in early Summer because you are reminded it will all too soon be over', which just goes to show that it isn't just the British who aren't very good at the whole positive outlook thing.

Anyway, todays photos are from a very leisurely hike purposefully designed to be inclusive to all (me as well after a night of dancing) by starting after 11am and avoiding any big hills. It was a fantastic and very warm spring day, with temperatures over 20 degrees. Due to aformentioned leisureliness and the fact that big high mountains do still actually have snow on them, this walk was along the local branch of the Wiener Wasserleitungsweg. Despite a lovely walk between Gumpoldskirchen and Moedling at sunset a couple of summers ago, I realised I had never actually gone further than Gumpoldskirchen, and made that the goal for the day (along with wine and food consumption, this is a VERY good walk for that as there are many many small wine stands along the way).

The whole walk takes place in vineyards on the slopes at the edge of the Vienna basin, offering sweeping views, misty ranks of hills, and the ever-present dramatic flourish of row upon row of vines receding into the distance. These factors combine together to give a great impression of perspective in the landscape, which nicely carries through into photos and makes it a pretty easy place to get some nice shots, especially with the addition of picturesque architecture and fruit trees loaded down with blossom. On our way we also saw a whole bunch of hunting kestrels and heard a cuckoo! Welcome, Spring.

Hope you enjoy the pictures, you will find them here.

Bis bald,

Der Tom