The drive from Lake Simssee to the Vienna Woods is quite short, about four hours. We make a good stop at a Landzeit service area for lunch. The quality is superb, and we reflect on the sorry state of particularly the UK motorway service stations that seem to have sunk to extraordinary lows. The Landzeit stops offer top quality food, service and surroundings for very reasonable prices.
We are excited, it’s the 3rd of August and we are now in our third month of our “gap summer” and are looking forward to returning to Cork at the end of the month and our new home hopefully a month later. However, we still have three weeks in the Vienna Woods and this area is a favourite. The woods are a huge area of forest surrounding the west and south of the city providing a highly accessible recreational facility for city dwellers and tourists alike. The woods are at the end of the Alpine chain that dominates Austria and are relatively low-level hills. We are staying in a 200+ year old forester’s house right beside the huge forest area, at about 450m above sea level, with lots of walks right from the house or nearby. We are also about 60 minutes from Vienna, maybe 90 minutes from Bratislava (Slovakia), 60 minutes from Soprom (Hungary), so we have lots to do. The first few days are with family and friends which is lovely.

We walk in the woods and note with interest the differences from our own West Cork. There are pines, but many woods are deciduous. Because it’s so much drier here the Pines are cut after around 80 – 100 years, compared with Cork’s 30 – 40. The quality is clearly much higher, and the wood is used for different purposes. However, the woods have been devastated by snow and ice some two years ago and there are many bare areas or new plantings. With the mixed woodland the flora and fauna are much in evidence, with Alpine flowers and lots of beautiful butterflies.
SACREWEG Pics
The Klein Mariazell monastery is quite close by and a Via Sacra winds through the woodlands and over the hills. Religious icons are seen frequently in the woods in beautiful condition. The Sacred Way circuit takes about 3 ½ hours; wonderful walking with some serious climbs and descents. The larger Heiligenkreuz Cistercian Abbey nearby is connected with Klein Mariazell via the linear sacred way. We also visit Heurige events which are very popular – offering good food washed down by some wines from last year’s harvest. The village of Sooss is one of many doing this for wines and in the nearby village of Hafnerberg we sampled the (apple based) Most.

We revisited Baden, the famous spa town where a Love Africa Festival in progress. With our deep interest in all things African, we plan to return and spend serious time there. We also visited Beethoven’s house in the town centre which is a very thoughtful museum and then had a simple lunch in the covered market. This latter facility is amazing; a permanent structure for stall holders all year round. We wondered why Skibbereen couldn’t do similar on the Fairfield. We are conveniently situated for Vienna; a drive to the outskirts of the city, park and ride using the U-Bahn takes about 60 minutes door to door. Lots of museums and galleries to explore. We have booked for the Lipizzaner horse show event. Sadly, the only live classical musical events are canned performances for tourists at extortionate prices. Regular live classical music events don’t happen in August as Vienna goes on holiday.

We are doing a lot of walking. Being right on the edge of the forest is incredibly useful and there are excellent trails right from the door. Hocheck – the highest point for miles around at 1037m, is a very good climb; not quite high Alpine steepness but still a good workout at 3.5 hours excluding stops. There is a guest house on the top and there is welcome cold beer and good Austrian food with Apfel Strudel and Goulash. Lots of local trails to explore which, fortunately with the intense heat, are mostly under tree cover. Stopfl at 893 provides a great circuit of 2.5 hours from 589, with amazing views to the north, again with a good restaurant at the top. The walking is either on trails or forest tracks. Occasionally on roads, but most of the time we can keep this to the absolute minimum. Trail signing is excellent and reliable. On occasions we go off trail and follow the map or our noses and the sun and haven’t got lost yet. We realize the quality of the trails has much to do with the level of usage – not just the popularity of summer hiking but also year-round usage because skiing is probably even more popular than hiking.

Being on the edge of the forest we are in a perfect location to spot wildlife. Unusually the deer are grazing in the meadow right in front of the house, and we often make a point of being in position 30 minutes before dusk. Even more unusual, one morning they made an appearance around 7am. However, the number of hides and hunters in jeeps are frequent reminders of the commercial reality.