Austria – Kroatisch Geresdorf

Kroatisch Geresdorf

Impossible to miss as we drove through this southern region of Austria were the flowers. Fields of bright yellow. So of course we wanted to know what they were.

After asking a local who said they didn’t know, we went to the trusty Google. Have you ever heard of Rapeseed? A plant that is widely grown in Europe. And did you know that Rapeseed is cultivated primarily for its oil-rich seed and provides more than 13% of the world’s supply of vegetable oil? Just loved our walks through the yellow fields.

Well, enough on that cos we arrived here to look after Karli while Mum and Dad went off to play for a couple of weeks.

Kroatisch Geresdorf has historical links to Croatia and is directly south of Vienna on the Hungarian-Austrian border. We spent two weeks in this small farming town with Karli the cat, and could easily have stayed longer. Nothing to do with the cuddles and company He must have liked us too. We were gifted two half-eaten mice.

And luckily there was a car dealership where we could get our car serviced and a few days of sunshine for us to do a cleanup on the caravan.

Vienna

Vienna, is the capital city of Austria, but why should we visit Vienna? Ummm, you’ve heard of Wiener Schnitzel of course! Served up with tomato cheese sauce (my fav, sometimes confused with Parmigiana) or Fabian’s fav with a creamy spinach sauce, and the ubiquitous potatoes (a nod to my Irish roots) yum yum, and washed down with local vino. And on the subject of schnitzel… did you know… there’s a LED display in one of the major metro stations listing the number of schnitzels eaten each year in 2022 it was 7 million.

Our campsite was close to the train station right beside the famous River Danube and only a fifteen-minute ride to the centre of the city (Camping Neue Donau, 99euros for four nights).

Vienna is loaded with grand cathedrals and churches and purely by accident our first stop was the white church or the Votivkirche a Catholic neo-Gothic church built in 1879. Nearby was the Town Hall or Rathaus der Stadt Wien where where all the local cultural events take place. While we were there it was hosting the Vienna Marathon and totally ruining my chance of a spectacular photo

We had a weekly public transport pass and hopped on a tram to the impressive political palace or Seat of Government. Austria is a democratic republic headed by a federal chancellor and a federal president.

Before that, from 1282 until 1918 it was ruled by the Habsburg dynasty – a German Royal family who were one of the chief dynasties of Europe from the 15th to the 20th century. Their old crown jewels are kept in the centrally located 13th Century (and periodically expanded) Imperial Palace of the Habsburgs which is now a museum.

The last emperor of Austria was Karl I. After WW1 he tried several times to regain his throne and then he, his wife, and seven children were shipped off into exile by the British. Out of money, and with his health already damaged in the flu pandemic of 1918, he died of pneumonia in 1922 aged just 34.

We rounded our visit by passing the Stallburg imperial stables providing a home for the famous Lipizzaner horses, all white and frisky, and a walk through the designer label shopping precinct at the end of which we found St. Stephen’s Cathedral.

Lots more to see than we managed and a good reason to go back!!!

Wolfgangsee Lake

Our travels in the first half of this year have taken us from Tirana in Albania, up through Montenegro, Croatia, Slovakia, and now into Austria. We are on a mission to meet up with family in France so no meandering… OK just a bit. As always we planned our road trip and base camp carefully. We chose this one solely because of its name, “Romantic Camping”, and nothing to do with the amazing location, but you would have to agree after looking at the pictures it is a lot of both.

Only a short bike ride away is the town of St. Gilgen where Mozart’s mum was born. There is a small statue of Mozart playing the violin in the main square.

It was said that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was deaf in his latter years, which some claim is true, although passing at 35 or 36 he could hardly have been said to have even had ‘latter’ years. It is also said that he died penniless and that could be true. He did earn lots of money during this lifetime, but he apparently liked spending it.

On the other side of the lake is the market town of St Wolfgang named after the Saint. According to legend, St Wolfgang threw an axe down the mountain to find the site of his new church and even persuaded the Devil to contribute to the building by promising him the soul of the first living being ever to enter the church. However, Satan was disappointed as a wolf was the first creature over the doorstep.

Campsite Sulmsee, Leibnitz

Oops, I’ve been so busy selling books I missed one of our best and prettiest campsites. This was after leaving Ljubljana in Slovenia. Another lakeside park just outside Leibnitz in the Austrian state of Styria, we found Campsite Sulmsee. Although a little expensive this place was very comfortable with newly renovated hotel style and heated bathroom facilities. All (or most) the pitches were lakeside and came with power, water and internet.

Austria is very kind to cyclists with lots of cycleways through the countryside and Leibnitz is only ten minutes away by bike. Unfortunately for me, a stick in my spokes put an end to my use of them while there (and for a bit of time afterwards).

The first documented version of the name Leibnitz can be found in a scroll issued by Emperor Otto the Great dated 7 March 970.

In the 18th and early 19th century, when Leibnitz had about 1,000 occupants, the town burned to the ground twice, on 29 May 1709 and again on 8–9 September 1829. By 1883 the population had risen to 2,471 and on 27 April 1913 Austro-Hungarian emperor Franz Josef I of Austria formally elevated Leibnitz to city rank.