Trail Name: Korkenzieher Themenweg
Trail Type: Short distance; variable surfaces, i.e.: leaf and grass, hard-packed earth, and paved; mostly well maintained, but the route itself is not marked.
Length: total: 7 kilometers/ 4.4 miles
Convenient to: Traismauer, Sankt Polten, Austria
Marking: None
Two words to know if travelling to Vienna: Wien, the German name for the city, and Wein, the German word for wine. Although they look similar, a transposition of the vowels makes the two diphthongs sound very different, which imparts very different meanings – important to keep in mind when ordering some of Vienna’s delicious wines. Wine is everywhere in Vienna.
What I Learned
Vienna is the only European capital with vines grown within its city limits. While the Romans were here, definitive proof that vines were located inside the walls, in the current First District (the area around the Hofburg and the cathedral), dates only to the late Middle Ages.
Nowadays, there are three primary vineyard areas within the city, (and two other areas, by Sievering and Oberlaa). The Bisamberg, east of the Danube, centering around Stammersdorf and Strebersdorf. Wine growing in Stammersdorf, on the Bisamberg, began in the 12th century. The terroir here favors the Pinot family of grapes.
Trail Name: Stadtwanderweg 5
Trail Type: Mid-distance; almost exclusively paved with paving stone or tarmac, well maintained, and very well-marked.
Length: Total: 10.3 kilometers/ 6.3 miles
Convenient to: Vienna, Austria
Marking: (Mostly) Wooden signs with the words: Stadtwanderweg 5
Farming, believed to have arisen about 13,000 years ago, started with grains and vegetables. Later, vines were cultivated, and wine produced, about 7,000 years ago. Nowadays in Austria’s Carnuntum region, wind is being harvested in the same fields that made Pannonia famous for its grains in earlier times. Fortunately, there are a lot of vines as well. And the local district tourism office has developed a series of hiking and biking routes to show-case them.
What I Learned:
Carnuntum’s wine district, with its center around Hoeflein and Goettlesbrunn, is one of eight districts in the Niederoesterreich (Lower Austria) Wine Region, most of which lie along, or at least relatively close to the Danube. It is a district with a proud vine cultivation history pre-dating even the Romans, extending as far back in time as the Celts.
Carnuntum has three principle growing areas, the Leithagebirge, the Hainburger Berge and the Arbesthaler Huegelland. Soils throughout are mostly sandy and loamy. Small differences in the soil though make for different challenges and ultimately different wines. The area’s named vineyards, or Riede, are well-known by local vintners.
Trail Name: Weinwandern in Carnuntum: Hoeflein Variante
Trail Type: An easy, family-friendly/carriage-friendly, short distance circuit, with well-maintained trail surfaces that are tarmacked or otherwise hardpacked, and with specific trail markings that are mostly easy to follow and are fairly well-updated.
Length: total: 9.7 kilometers/ 6 miles
Convenient to: Vienna, Austria
Marking: Rectangles with a horizontal white bar across the middle, flanked by similar red bars above and below it; bearing the words: Weinwandern in Carnuntum
Continue reading Weinwandern in Carnuntum: Trail in a Nutshell
The Danube River brings to mind not only the Blue Danube Waltz, that compositional blend of romantic, gently swirling, rhythmic phrases – punctuated by the occasional dramatic phrase – it is also evocative of Lower Austria and Vienna, a graceful and refined area that includes great art in all forms, and wine, of course. Since wine country hiking here combines all these elements, it fell on the must-do list.
Continue reading The Wachau: Wine Experiences along Austria’s Danube
What I Learned:
Austria has 20 wine regions, one of which is the Wachau, situated along the banks of the Danube, upriver from Vienna.
Wine production in the Wachau region dates to at least the 1130s.
The geography helps to make grape-growing possible. The ancient Danube River helped created the loess soils, and now serves to moderate temperatures; the bowls formed by the steep hill slopes (called Ried), shelter vines from winds and capture the sun’s heat.
Trail Name: Panoramaweg Spitzer Graben (also advertised as Panoramawanderweg Spitzer Graben)
Trail Type: Long distance hiking trail, well maintained, and rather well-marked.
Length:
Total: 19.7 km/12.25 miles
Segment: @12 km/8 miles
Convenient to: Krems, Austria
Continue reading Panoramaweg Spitzer Graben: Trail in a Nutshell
