Moravia-Lower Austria Border Region

I have certainly been enjoying our outings from our base in Poysdorf in the Weinviertel. Like the Waldviertel, the landscape here is wonderful. But whereas the Oldies were waiting for the poppies to flower in the Waldviertel, the crop they were waiting to burst into colour here was the sunflower. Once again they were in luck and the flowers complied. Beautiful!

I had expected Lower Austria to be positively flat – in comparison at least to the Alpine regions – and it is. But the beauty of it is, well, its beauty, of course, and the fact that from even the slightest elevated point the views are phenomenal. Buschberg, for example, is at the same altitude of the Oldies’ home town on the foothills of the Alps in Styria – about 480m. At home, the best views are when we look up at the mountain range towering above us. From Buschberg, we were able to look down and across at fantastic panoramic views of Vienna, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

Falkenstein Castle, perched atop one of the few hills in the area was another case in point. I could have stayed up there all day, drinking in those views. If it hadn’t been for all those scary falcons… It certainly isn’t called Falkenstein for nothing! I did venture a peek or two at them from the safety of the castle wall, sitting on ledges below us.

One of them spotted me though and gave me the evil eye, enough to send a shiver through my feathers!

The Wingless Wonders also paid a visit to Laa. With its spa. Once I realised that it’s a silent spa, I knew immediately that it would be no go for Herself. And sure enough, the Oldies decided to just stroll around, admiring the gorgeous old town hall, castle, old brewery, parks and sunflower fields. A lovely spot! Once again, we were very close to the Czech border and of course the Oldies were not going to pass up the opportunity to hop across for to do a bit of exploring.

Our first trip was to Mikulov, a beautiful town in a wine growing area. The Oldies – I didn’t doubt them – still managed to sniff out some great Czech beer there. After all the castle ruins we had seen in the Weinviertel, it was quite a different kettle of fish in Moravia. Mikoluv Castle has been immaculately restored, as indeed, has most of the town. Her Ladyship was pottering around town happily until His Lordship decided to drag her up the Holy Hill.

I think that the idea of climbing up a hill with stations of the cross is supposed to be some kind of penance. It most certainly was for Himself and myself that day, with Her Ladyship whinging about the heat and insect bites all the way up. The views of the town from the top though were worth all our suffering en-route.

Valtice Castle, also in the Mikulov wine region, was quite an eyeful. The aristocracy certainly knew how to live in days of yore! I thought that was a pretty cool property, but boy, Lednice Castle, further up the road, was on a different scale altogether. Apparently it is neo-gothic. It certainly is a very large and ornate pad with loads of twiddly bits.

The grounds alone are over 200 hectares and the Wingless Wonders clocked up a good 10 km just walking through the beautiful gardens and around the lake.

I was fascinated by this 60 metre high minaret in the castle grounds. The architect, Josef Hardtmuth, who was also an entrepreneur and inventor, was quite a talent and he supposedly designed the building overnight. I was just musing on that fact that the minaret looked to me like a giant pencil, when I heard that it was Hardtmuth who invented the pencil (and founded the famous Hardtmuth KOH-I-NOOR pencil factory in Budweis). Now that’s what I call a sharp mind!