For my next hike, I didn’t have to travel far. It was just in the neighbouring district, in the beautiful river valley, Wachau. Therefore, I could start later than usual. My sister decided to join me because she wanted to visit an exhibition at the Schallerburg later.
Continuously driving along the Danube, we arrived shortly before 9 o’clock at the little village Sankt Lorenz. You can’t call it even a village. It’s just a church and a few houses. It’s connected through a ferry with the village Weißenkirchen which lays opposite on the Northern riverbank of the Danube. The ferry can carry cars too, an important task because the river valley has no bridges which could connect the villages north and south of the Danube.
Sleeping Beauty#
Right on from Sankt Lorenz, our hike followed a medium steep path through rich mixed forest. We gained elevation fast and through the trees could see glimpses of the valley and Weißenkirchen. The path was lined with stone structures. Reminding us on how the Danube forced her way through the Bohemian Massif. Annoyingly, the higher we got, the more we encountered blackberry bushes. We had to be careful of their thorns. It almost felt like I was the prince who was looking for sleeping beauty.
On the Seekopf#
When vegetation is less lush, like in Fall, Winter or early Spring, the path would be certainly more enjoyable. So we had to fight through them. But we soon reached or highpoint of the hike, the Seekopf (671 m). On top of the hill stands a newly built observation deck. We walked up four staircases and then were above the trees. This gave us a gorgeous view over the valley. We could see as far as Göttweig and Krems.
The next section of the hike was rather uneventful. We followed a broad forest road with a steady decline. We tried to cover this stretch as quickly as we could.
Biritor#
The Biritor, a stone wall gate that was built to protect against Turkish warriors, marked the end of the forest and the start of our hike through the vineyards. The villages of Rossatz are entirely surrounded by vineyards and apricot trees. The path hugged the forest line and to our left lay the vineyards. Across the Danube we spotted Dürnstein with its famous, blue-coloured Stift and the ruin Dürnstein where Richard Lionheart, an English king, was possibly imprisoned. According to the legend his bard, going from castle to castle, singing Richard’s favourite songs, helped Richard to escape.
Rossatz#
Walking through the vineyards was soothing. The grapes nearly ripe for harvest which usually starts at the end of September. Little signs mentioned the grape sort of each plot and what kind of wine they will produce: Grüner Veltliner, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, … From afar, we could already spot the Church of Weißenkirchen, and soon we were back at our start point.