Southern Styria's Gorgeous Wine Country

Also known as die Südsteirische Weinstraße, this is the kinda landscape you probably think of when you think of Austria...thanks to The Sound of Music. (Did you know that most Austrians have never seen The Sound of Music and find it funny (and maybe annoying) that this is what we always associate with Austria? At least I did. I wanted to come here and sing:

"So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, adieu..
to joo and joo and joo and joo and joooo"

Well, here you have it, folks. Beauty. It was worth renting a car (they only had stick shifts), doing some screechin' and peelin' out on the hills in front of horrified hikers, possibly rolling back a couple of times and getting lost often to experience this vast land of love.




We hit up three Buschenschanks (Ausgezeichnet ones at that (the cream of the crop)), drank wine and nibbled on classic Austrian desserts.




People live their regular lives surrounded by this..they operate Buschenschanks out of their homes, grow some grapes on the steep vineyards they call a backyard, make some wine, try to keep the canty chickens quiet, wear some dirndls, sit back and relax..and enjoy the show. (Thank you for comin' to Loews)



This is all just a 40 minute drive from Graz. 5 more minutes and you'd be in Slovenia. Ich ♥ Europa.