DRT Day 6: Involving bicycles and wine

Today we broke the cardinal rule for holidays and set an alarm. Our only fully day activity planned for this trip, we needed to be on the other side of the city centre by 8.30 to start our trip to the Wachau Valley to do some wine tasting.

Our group of 7 led by Miguel, the Spanish guide, traveled by subway and train to Krems, the largest town in the Wachau valley. Joining us on this adventure was a couple from Chicago who were here for a week before heading on a mission trip to Tel Aviv and a mother and two daughters from outside Dublin getting a few days away from wedding planning for one of the daughters. Excellent company for the excursion.

We got fitted for bikes and helmets and then started our cycling along the Danube. The day was clear and warm with a lovely breeze as we pedalled along the bike path by the river, with vineyards and hills on the other side to complete the picture.

We made various stops along the way for Miguel to explain some of the history of the place, the growing conditions and geology of the valley and lots of other fun facts about the wineries and vineyards we’ve been passing. Then to our first winery: Domäne Wachau – the biggest winery in the valley and a cooperative venture between hundreds of small growers in the valley.

We had a wonderful tasting where we learned about the different grapes (mostly Grüner and Reisling) as well as the classes of wines based on alcohol content: Steinfeder (up to 11.5%), Federspiel (11.5 – 12.5%) and Smaragd (12.5% and up). Delicious!

Then more cycling to the historic village of Dürnstein where we had lunch – goulash and more wine! – and some time to wander and explore. We opted to visit the abbey one of only two blue Catholic churches in the world. It was absolutely fascinating with over the top Baroque styling and a beautiful view over the river. There are even two sets of remains in class coffins from the 17th century. We assumed that they were local saints but the docent explained that during the counter reformation, they helped to relieve the lack of burial space in the larger churches by shipping skeletons to smaller churches to be put on display. Most of the time, the bones weren’t even from the same person! Makes a lot of sense given our recent visit to the bone church.

Then it was time for more cycling, a short distance continuing up river before catching a ferry across the Danube to start our down river trip. And guess what? There was another winery! We stopped at a small family run winery that also has a restaurant – a heurigen which means they can only serve cold food. The Rehrl-Fischer winery is run by a mom and two brothers. She is the boss and chef, on brother does the wine side (vineyards and winemaking) and the other is in charge of the restaurant and business side. The wines were very good and we opted to purchase a bottle of Grüner Frizzante (a Steinfeder wine if you are interested) which was a particular favourite.

Finally it was time to pedal back to the shop and reverse our trip to Vienna. We finally arrived back in the city centre about 19.30 and decided we needed some food. A trattoria down a side street off the square was just the ticket: Veal Saltimbocca for Frank and a pork chop smothered in cheese for me. Add a lovely Toscana to get some red wine in the diet and the day was complete. We returned to our apartment exhausted but content.

Data for today: