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!