Out in the country

Update (12 July): running through my blogger posts from my computer at home, I found the original of this post.  For some reason, it was filed on June 4th, instead of July 7th.  I adjusted the date, so if you look now you'll see this post again.  I don't feel like deleting either of them, though, because it took a bit of effort to type them.  So now there is a bit of redundancy in my journal.  Oh well....

Reposting the events of Wednesday, 7 July, since the original post was lost while uploading from my phone. Annoying, especially considering it took me at least an hour to write it! Anyway, here we go. Again.

We spent Wednesday away from Vienna. Our Professors got a tour bus, and we all piled in a bit before 0900. The destinations: a high-end Austrian cosmetics company that sells all over the world, the Melk Abbey, the village of Durnstein with its ruined castle and a great chocolate store, and a great Austrian winery for dinner.

The Styx corporation is based in a little town in the Austrian countryside (I forget the town name). It's small (only 35 employees), but ships its products, high end cosmetics, soaps, and stuff to buyers all over the world.




Their head of exports met us and toured us through their village, then showed us their store where we could try samples and buy some product if we wanted.




I was surprised at the apparent lack of business going on; their buildings were quiet and there wasn't much hustle and bustle. Folks were working, just not many that I saw. However, it is holiday time. The CEO is off for a month (the average Austrian gets 5 or 6 weeks of vacation, if memory serves). Probably a lot of others followed his lead. Regardless, their products are supposed to be top notch. They use all natural ingredients: rose petals from Hungary, lavender from Provence in France, cream from goat's mill, things like that. I hope their stuff is as good as it's supposed to be because got the Admiral a little something from their shop. :)

The next stop was Melk Abbey, a monastery located a full day's travel by horse from Wien (Vienna). Its location made it a common place to stop for the night, whether coming or going from the city. There are many guest rooms set up for that purpose, including a full wing to support it Imperial court, should he decide to stop in (and he did, regularly). There are still monks there these days, 30 of them, doing what monks do, including running a private school. About 900 kids ages 10 - 18 go to school there, for 84 Euro/month. Not a bad tuition considering the location! Here's the entrance courtyard:




And the ballroom in the imperial guest wing:
















The view off the rear of the abbey doesn't suck.




Neither does the library.








They didn't use enough gold in the church, though. Ghetto! I mean geez guys, have some pride!

















So Melk is a cool place. I've been a lot of places and seen a few monasteries before, but never one like this. I was amazed!

After Melk, we drove down the bank of the Danube to Durnstein. It's a very quaint little town. Not too old: it just has buildings that date from 1453!




It's got vineyards and a nice church, restaurants and shops. It's also got ruins of an old castle in the hills above town.



We climbed up to check it out. It was a steep trail, but I made it up no problem. Great view from up there.









We spent an hour and a half or so in Durnstein, then hit the road again. We crossed the Danube into the town of Maurten and stopped at the Nicolaihoff Winery. It's built on the site of an ancient roman chapel and then an early medieval monastery. The wine cellar itself dates back over 1500 years!

Turns out the place is owned by Gertraud's sister (Gertraud is one of our professors, if I hadnt mentioned it before; the other is David, her husband) and her husband, though their son Nicholas runs it now. I asked her how long their family had owned it (it came from her husband's side); she replied "Not long, just 114 years". I had long been told about the difference in thinking between Europeans and Americans when it comes to history and age, but it never really hit home until this trip. Gertraud repeatedly pointed out buildings, saying this one is new, just 150 years old. Her sister, when she showed us the wine cellar, said the walls were brand new, just redone 350 years ago! Now, any of those timeframes are long to American ears, but they take it as routine, a matter of course. That's the effect of 2000+ years of continuous history, I guess. We're just working on 400 or so. 234 if you just count from Independence. It's just interesting to think about.

Getting back to it, they greeted us properly, with some really good wine!





After a couple glasses, we got the tour. Unfortunately, my camera battery died shortly after getting there, so I only have a few shots.

















Their winepress room is great. The family was strapped for cash after WWII, so instead of buying modern press equipment to replace what they lost during the war, they obtained a millenium-old winepress and decided to do it old-school! It works by using the weight of a huge beam of wood, balanced on a fulcrum, to press grapes, which are loaded into the drum and then covered. The juice squeezes out the bottom of the drum, along grooves in the wood floor, and through a drain to their casks in the wine cellar. It apparently works really well.

She went into detail about how they grow and produce their wine. They proudly follow bio-dynamic farming practices, which are more than a little kooky and superstitious if you ask me, but it doesn't hurt anything, so whatever floats their boat. I was appalled, when she proudly proclaimed that they never used modern medicine while raising their kids: no medication, no vaccination, just herbals and homeopathy. I mean.....seriously???? You seriously didn't vaccinate your kids???? That is gross negligence and irresponsibility. You can fool yourself with homeopathy to your heart's delight, but reducing the herd immunity to all these horrible diseases that were once wiped out puts others at risk. Uncool.

But that's not the focus of this trip.

Their wine casks are cool. They have a special cask named after each child in the family, carved with the birthday, the child's name, and an image that relates to him/her somehow. That is sweet, actually.

Tour compete, we had a great dinner, bought some wine, and piled in for Vienna. We got back just as Germany lost in the semi-final match of the World Cup. There were a number of disappointed people in town that night! We didn't stay out too late, but we did go get a couple beers to commemorate our final night in Wien.

Overall, the stay in Vienna was very satisfying. Ridiculous heat the first couple nights aside, it was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot.

Definitely need to get back there someday. Even if I didn't like it, I promised the Admiral, since she couldn't come on this visit, they I'd take her later. Can't break that promise.

:)