Hiking the vineyards

As we know, the best way to experience a place is to walk it. Usefully, Vienna offers 11 circular walks dotted around the periphery of the city. Some involve more climbing than others, but all are doable for most people at around four hours in length. And luckily there is always a place to stop for a coffee and a cake.

To the north

North of Vienna, at the very end of the tramway number 31, is Stammersdorf, a village that grew up around its vineyards. During the warmer months, vintners open their cellars for the public to sample their wines. This is a right granted by Josef II in 1784, namely that everyone is permitted to sell their homemade wine and juice. Nowadays, a bunch of green leaves hanging outside the door indicates that a wine cellar is open for business.

The Stammersdorfer Kellergasse below is one of the oldest roads of wine cellars fronting on to a cobbled road.

To the south

To the very south of the city is a walk that takes in an area that produced the bricks for the grand buildings in Vienna. Dirt-poor immigrants from parts of the empire such as Bohemia and Moravia worked in terrible conditions to make the bricks. In their rare spare time, the workers took advantage of the Bohemian Prater, an amusement park with merry-go-rounds that have seen many a season.

Another part of the walk crosses a park that was laid out in 1974. Now fully established, this huge, well tended park sees its paths winding down the hill towards – what else – a cafe. In the Kurkonditorei Oberlaa I ate the best ever raspberry cake. Right next to it is the Therme Wien with everything a modern spa needs – 26 swimming pools, saunas and fitness studios, developed around the sulphurous Oberlaa natural spring .

And along the way the vineyards that accompany every walk on the outskirts of this city,

View towards Simmering and the Zentralfriedhof

5 Comments on "Hiking the vineyards"

  1. I did not. I was too busy visiting all these many sights you can choose from. I will have to return!

  2. I did not. I was too busy visiting all these many sights you can choose from. I will have to return!

  3. Looks an amazing place to visit with our walking group Ivor

  4. Did you swim at Therme Wien?

  5. John Turner | January 21, 2020 at 00:32 |

    Looks wonderful to us in Australia where many vineyards have been devastated by the recent bushfires.

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