July 10-11: Kalladorf, Austria

After a short stay in the flat to do the washing I found myself in the car with my colleague Shaun  en route to meet good friends Lynn and Denis at a small winery in the village of  Kalladorf, which is about an hour's drive north of Vienna on the road to Prague.

Dwntown Kalladorf on a Saturday afternoon!

The location was a very quiet village and Denis and Lyn were waiting when we arrived - they had already cycled  about 70+ km from their house at Mitterarmsdorf in the Wachau. The location for the weekend itself was Weingut Burger http://www.weingut-burger.at/  run by a charming couple. The courtyard is very pretty.

 The Bed and Breakfast was very reasonable and dinner was good food and great value - and of course the wine was very good.
Before  dinner we went out to tour the 500 year old wine cellar  in the next village wher they store all the vintages. 

Lyn, Denis and Herr Burger at the cellar  entrance.

Wine lockers

Some of the cellar is rented out as small lockers for individuals to keep their own special collections; each locker rents at Euro 138/month and we counted over 200! The tour showeed us over all the cellars ans we  saw large qantities of wine but we also got to taste a few as well - the guides did all the driving!

The old main cellar

The tasting table

Some of the thousands of vintage wines in store

Dinner was taken in the ourtyard and was very good - plenty more wine to drink as well - really just tasting before we made decisions on what to buy on the next day.

The next morning was great day and the breakfast in the courtyard was super. We also found they had an old farm machinery museum  in a barn at the back and that was very inteeresting. They have several old fire pumps and at least two of them are still in working condition and are used  for displays at local shows and fetes.

One of the restored fire pumps and the uniforms they wear for the demonstrations.

A even older pump.

After the museum  visit Lyn and Denis set off................

...so Shaun and I finished off loading  all the wine that everyone had bought into my car and we set off for the easy drive back to Vienna on what had become a lovely sunny morning. Apart from the usual chaos of Sunday roadworks on the motorways in and around Vienna  it  trouble free drive.  The weekend had been a very nice way to relax after the week of working away in Africa, and the wine was cheap as well as good quality.