Section 05

We made this two days' trip in July.
It is the fifth section of our long distance hiking tour through Austria.

We walked from Rabenstein/Pielach to Scheibbs/Erlauf, through a wonderful landscape called
"Alpenvorland", the Northern Pre-Alps,
with gently rolling hills, old oak and beech forests, farmland with endless meadows, and a lonely farmhouse now and then.


Please take your time to enlarge the pictures. It was such a beautiful summer day, the landscape is like paradise, so it is worth while!

Our tour starts in Rabenstein/Pielach, 344 m above sea level.

On a long and tiring road we walk up to Bramböckkapelle, 530 m above sea level.

A first rest in the cool shade of old oak trees.

Now our hiking trail follows an old Roman road.
It leads along ridges with little differences in altitude and with beautiful views over the country.

Our dog is so happy, she seems to fly through the air!

After a 10 km's walk, we reach Gasthaus Luft, 628 m above sea level.
It is closed - on vacation!

This is "Schwabeckkreuz",
a local place of pilgrimage with a pieta.
720 m above sea level.

Grüntalkogelhütte (886 m above sea level)

Here we enjoy a phantastic view over Alpenvorland, the Northern Pre-Alps,
towards the basin of the river Danube.

We want to spend the night in a village named Plankenstein, but the hostel is closed.

We are already very tired, after walking a distance of 24 km.

With the help of locals we finally we find accommodation in Texing.

The next day - it's raining cats and dogs!

Finally we reach Scheibbs/Erlauf where our journey ends.

My father was here in Scheibbs on summer receation when he was a boy.
Summer 1941.
He was hosted by family Schwarz, the local photographer.
He asked me to find out if the shop still exists.
Voilà, here it is:

We are wet to the bones,

even the things inside our rucksacks...

Despite the bad weather on our second day, we covered a distance of 13 km!

***

Fairies and goblins all around!

Vienna Woods/04

Ähm, we already made the tour but I still have to post it...

Vienna Woods/03

Sunday, 27 April 2008

This is the third day trip on our 625 miles hiking tour through Austria from East to West.

We take the bus to Gasthaus Rieger, Heinratsberg,
where our second trip had ended.

Here we go!

An elderly couple sitting under a tree
welcomes us on a wonderful day in Spring.

Our path leads us through endless woods
and vast meadows with isolated farms.

The apple trees are in full blossom. What a delight!

There seem to be organic farmers,
this farmer keeps his pigs in the open.
Lucky pigs!

Our next destination is the hill "Jochgrabenberg" (645 m above sea level) , and on our way we will pass hills with funny names like "Hinterer Steinberg" and "Großer Stiefelberg".

Again lonely farm houses

and romantic woods

and the woods suddenly opening into meadows.

Here we meet a lady who tells us that she is retired now and so she has enough time to enjoy long and relaxing rides through the countryside.

We take a little rest, have a picknick and study the map....

The next three pictures are the panorama view we enjoy here:

Then we walk on

When I see this farmhouse, I think of the retired lady.
I sigh and dream of living in the country, raising poultry, and hares and chickens and....
and having two horses, one for me and one for my darling husband.... ;-)

We find a natural pond full of water lilies.

In a week or so, the lilies will have yellow blossoms!

We leave the woods and come to the small village Rekawinkel with its villas built around 1900 as retreat for Vienna's wealthy inhabitants.

We cross the railway running from Vienna to the West of Austria,
Westbahn.

Then we enter the woods again and walk along a little creek coming down a hill.

We cross the motorway A1 Westautobahn,
disturbing the stillness of the woods.

Soon we reach the hill Jochgrabenberg.

The top of the hill is rather smooth.
That's the sandstone of the Vienna Woods...

On top we have a beautiful view over the little villages nearby.

We step down the hill to the village Schwabendörfl and try to find a path leading to the railway station Eichgraben-Altlengbach.

On our way, spring flowers display their cheerful colours.

And also the trees!

Here we take a last rest (the dog is really tired!) and walk the last miles to the railway station where good old Westbahn takes us home to Vienna.

Ah - what a beautiful Sunday!

If you are interested in the first parts of our trip, please click here!

Vienna Woods/02

Sunday, 13 April 2008

A bus takes us to the end of our first tour in March, to St. Andrä Wördern.
Here, Weitwanderweg 04 follows the romantic path along a streamlet, "Hagenbachklamm".

Many Viennese take their families there for a Sunday afternoon walk.

But early in the morning, we are all alone!
Pleasant!

Wild garlic grows abundantly in the shade of trees.

We leave the streamlet behind and pass by a riding place.

We come to Unterkirchbach, a small village in the midst of the woods.

There are splendid old villas built around 1900, but also romantic little houses.

Many Viennese restore them and spend their weekends there.

And there are also local farms, this one with an old dovecote.

We are on the right way. The trail is well labelled.

My husband loses the dog' s leach. We walk back a mile but we can't find it.

After a walk of 9 km we reach Tulbinger Kogel, a hill of 494 m, with a lookout on its top, Leopold Figl Warte.

It is too misty to see Vienna today, but the view over the Tullnerfeld, a great plain formed by the river Danube, is good.

We step down Tulbinger Kogel in the direction of Riederberg.

Here we see the first blooming apple trees.

In the woods we find a memorial reminding of a massacre in 1529 when the inhabitants of the surrounding villages were killed by Turkish hords. Since then the region is called "Jammertal", valley of misery.

We take a rest in a local tavern with a sunny garden.

Really good!

Our next destination is the hill "Troppberg", but we lose the trail.

Maybe a labelled tree had been cut down.

We go a long way round, but our dog won't mind...

In the end we find the trail again.

The evening comes and we look over rolling hills with the first signs of spring.

We pass by a hidden farmhouse, inviting travellers to take a "Jause", a little snack between meals.

We do not stop because we have to reach Gasthaus Rieger in Strohzogl, Heinratsberg, from where a bus takes us to Vienna at 18:27, the only possibility to get back home.

Our second day trip was 23 km long and our feet are rather tired.... But we are full of sunshine, the green of the forest and of spring!

Austria's long distance hiking trail "Weitwanderweg 04"

THE PLAN: WALKING THROUGH AUSTRIA

The red line running from right to left is a long distance hiking trail, "Weitwanderweg 04", starting in Vienna, the capital of Austria, in the East and ending in Bregenz in the West. It covers a distance of 1,000 km - about 625 miles.

The first section of the trail between Vienna and St. Pölten leads us through the Vienna Woods (Wienerwald), an area of low wooded hills between 200 and 893 m above sea level, the northern part of the Alps.

Come and see our first day trip:


Sunday, 16 March 2008
Vienna Woods/01

We take the bus to Kahlenberg, a hill on the outskirts of Vienna with a beautiful view over the city and the river Danube.

The sky is cloudy, it is early Spring, and we enjoy the panorama. Although the weather is not bright, many people have come here to start their Sunday trips.

We feel that we are at the beginning of a great adventure!

But we are disappointed that we cannot find a sign indicating the starting point of a trail running 1,000 kilometers across the entire country! Nevertheless, we know the way to the neighbouring hill Leopoldsberg...

We step down and see the first sign:
ÖSTERR. WEITWANDERWEG 04
Wienerwald, Salzkammergut, Bregenzer Wald
Our destination is so far away and we are curious about what we will encounter!

Soon we reach Stift Klosterneuburg
with its beautiful Baroque monastery modelled after the Escorial. The Romans built a castell here, a monastery was founded in 1114, and the town received its charter in 1298.

http://www.stift-klosterneuburg.at/index.php?language=en

We stroll through the city with its Baroque City Hall



Baroque? The City Hall, but not the bus stop in front!

Then we pass by gardens with early blossoms.
The river Danube makes the climate mild.
Good for the wine!

When we leave Klosterneuburg behind, it begins to rain and we have to walk for miles on a street. Finally we reach the woods and our dog is happy to run without a leach!

We walk through endless woods, and once we pass a sign indicating that we are now on the track of a medieval pilgrim's trail,
Jakobsweg, "The Route of Saint James"
heading for Santiago de Compostela



Slowly the evening comes, we see the river Danube in the distance



We walk down into the plain which the river once formed



From the small village St. Andrä-Wördern, the train takes us back to Vienna.



We have walked a distance of 15 km - 10 miles - and we think that this is not bad for a first trip after a long and lazy winter...