You only see what you know (Goethe)
After a walk through the seven gardens of Klosterneuburg Monastery (Stift Klosterneuburg) near Vienna, I also visited the orangery of the monastery. Inside, an old world map surprised me. It showed an expedition route of the Austrian ship ‘SMS Novara’.
This exhibition room of Stift Klosterneuburg (Klosterneuburg Monastery) displays ancient Roman pieces. They are from an ancient predecessor settlement of today’s Klosterneuburg. The name of the Roman place is uncertain. Suggestions are Arrianis, Asturis, Cannabiaca or Quadriburgium.
While my visit to Stift Klosterneuburg (Klosterneuburg Monastery) I came across several examples of contemporary art which were well hidden in the structures of the monastery. For example, I discovered this red ‘thing’ in the cloistered courtyard by glimpsing through an open window.
This fun sculpture is placed next to a memorial plaque to the Austrian actor Hans Moser. Schulpture and plaque are located in Gumpoldskirchen, a centre of wineries south of Vienna. Besides his movies and plays Hans Moser became famous for singing a song about the ‘Reblaus’ (‘Pyhlloxera’).
A pretty special hiking trail in Austria is the 1. Wiener Wasserleitungsweg which leads along the water supply line from the mountains of Lower Austria down to Vienna. So one can learn about the sources of Vienna’s water just by following a path.
Visitors find this sundial, dating back to 1570, at St Leopold’s Courtyard (Leopoldihof) of Klosterneuburg Abbey (Stift Klosterneuburg).
The Genussmeile festival takes place in the Thermenregion Wienerwald every fall. At that event south of Vienna, wine enthusiasts love to walk along a wining and dining trail right in the vineyards between Mödling and Bad Vöslau.
This footbridge in Payerbach, Parksteg, was built in 1903. It combines concrete and a railing in the Jugendstil style. I was especially impressed by the idea of creating the ornaments using cast concrete.
The trail along the Mendlingtal is a path of about 3 kilometres. It leads from a theme park about logging up to a former Hammerherrenhaus (Home of the owner of a hammer mill). The scenery is changing several times. Sometimes one walk along a tame creek, sometimes one walk along footbridges high over a stream in full spate.
At the theme park Mendlingtal there is a chance to watch log drivers at work. In the photo above some workers are trying to put the logs through the last weir before the logs will arrive at the timber mill.
Everybody knows the scenery of American Old West. Can we see anything similar in good old Austria too? Sure! The photo shown above was taken at a theme park in Mendlingtal Valley in Mostviertel. The park is all about logging in earlier times. The building in the background is housing a Venetian saw dating back to 1907.
At the theme park Mendlingtal the former building for the young blacksmiths (Schmiedegesellen) serves as museum now. Inside one can learn about the life of the blacksmiths, woodcutters and the owners of the hammer mills named Hammerherren.