All apricot or what?

Anita, would you like to take a pleasure trip to the Wachau? Elena von creativelena.com had been trying to lure me to her homeland for a long time. She was finally able to lure me with the pleasure trip, because “enjoying” is my favorite discipline. Whereby, Wachau? Where do I have to go?

I have to confess that I have never consciously noticed this landscape before. Only about an hour’s drive from Vienna is the Wachau cultural landscape between Melk and Krems an der Donau in Lower Austria. Since the year 2000, the cultural landscape has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Wachau is particularly known for two special features – on the one hand, Austria’s most famous wine-growing region is located here, which nestles along the hills on filigree stone terraces, and on the other hand, the sweet Wachau apricot grows here. Of course, the wine and fruits should be tried in all conceivable variations, but more on that later.

A pleasure trip also requires appropriate accommodation and that is why there are hotels, country houses, wineries and castles throughout Lower Austria that offer gourmet rooms. Gourmet rooms are rooms with personality – the local experience, the homely atmosphere and the hospitality are in the foreground.

My gourmet room was located in the baroque Landhof Burkhardt in Spitz (Kremserstrasse 19). The historic hotel is idyllically located in the middle of a spacious orchard in the centre of the old town of Spitz. The house has been family-owned since the 17th century. With the aim of combining tradition, sustainability and comfort, extensive renovation work was completed in 2012 and the hotel presents itself in new splendor. Each room has been dedicated to one of the fruits from the garden. So I spent the night in the “Nut Room”. As a fan of historic buildings, the hotel inspired me from A to Z. The great view of the vineyards and the sun terrace, where breakfast can be enjoyed, has contributed to this.

However, the gourmet room was “only” the perfect setting for our adventure tour through the Wachau and since we have experienced so much, here is now a culinary insight. If you feel hungry, please refrain from reading the following section.

All apricots – no question, but THE pleasure and culture festival in the city center of Krems. Even people from Vienna come to Krems especially for this festival. Culinarily, everything here revolves around the sweet apricot – be it in solid or liquid form and yes, I drank a drunken apricot before 10 o’clock in the morning. The highlight is the cutting of the 50 m long apricot cake. People are queuing up long before the cut to get hold of one of the 3 euro pieces of cake.

In addition to the apricots, of course, wine was not to be neglected. Unfortunately, I am a complete beginner when it comes to wine enjoyment and barely manage to distinguish red wine from white wine. The difference is that I like white wine as opposed to red wine ;).

The Prandtauerhof of the Holzapfel family (Prandtauerplatz 36, Joching) enchanted me with its unbelievably great building façade and a flower-filled courtyard. In addition to exquisite wines, which I unfortunately don’t appreciate enough (sorry!), there was a fantastic cake stand with a selection of regional appetizers followed by a delicious brook trout fillet for the main course. The meal was crowned with an apricot dumpling. Would you have expected anything else?

We dined just as exquisitely at the Nikolaihof. As one of the oldest wineries in Austria with a history that can be traced back 2000 years to Roman times, the Nikolaihof offers a perfect ambience for culinary highlights. The Saahs family operates according to the rules of the Demeter Association and so sustainability and naturalness are very important. “I love to cook” is the title of Christine Saah’s cookbook, and you can feel it in every fiber of the food that is served. I have rarely tasted such variously prepared salads as we were served at the “buffet at the table” (from 4 people). A perfect menu for a warm summer evening. The ambience in the inner courtyard of the Nikolaihof is unique. The tables are set up under the 100-year-old lime tree, and the gentle rustling of leaves accompanies you through the evening. We also learned that flowers not only look beautiful, but that they also taste quite delicious.

Thanks, Elena for baiting – it would have been a real shame if the Wachau had remained undiscovered (on my part, of course).

Note: I was invited to this trip by the destination Danube Lower Austria and the connoisseur rooms of Lower Austria – thank you very much for this. As always, my readers can be sure that I always represent my views and enthusiasm here.