Der Stift Klosterneuburgs

This post is a little backwards from the rest of them- to scroll down is proper. So this is the first picture of the Klosterneuburg excursion. First a little Hintergrund Information: Kloster Neuburg was founded by Leopold the III (Elected but declined candidacy for the King of the Holy Roman Empire and later because of a vision from Mary decided to build a Monastary. Leopold is also the Patron Saint of Austria. As the town and monastery simultaneously developed the location took on a certain Royal reputation because of Leopold and then the later Leopold the VI. The mansion, that was later built, was used for Leopold the VI (King of the Habsburg Dynasty) outside of Vienna and is now called the Kaiser apartments. The Monastery was taken over by the Augustinians where they both brew wine and worship!
This post could aptly be renamed Wine wine and more wine because they didn't let me take pictures of any of the historic things so be prepared to look at Wine and Wine tech photos.
We took three tours: A tour of the Abbey and religious life, a tour of the Royalty life, and then a tour of the wine culture. (I think the other two tours are offered so that one doesn't feel guilty about only coming for the third, the wine!)
This is the church. If you look closely you can see where the old and new come together. It took over 900 years to complete Klosterneuburg and even now it's not entirely finished because of needed renovations for the old stone. In addition, the plans for the grounds were never fully executed because of money and architecture problems. What was really neat is that some of the walls and stones have lasted from Roman times!
The Monastery and mansion overlook the Danube/Donau. "It's really nice here" is what I thought to myself before it started raining.
You can see the crown on top of the dome the represents the Royalty of the location and what part of the grounds they lived.
Another picture of the color difference.
Riesensaale! The hall of Giants! The statues one the walls are mythic Atlantis heroes and are still unfinished pieces.
Kleine Brauner! Little espresso shot with some whole milk to "wake me up before I go go" on the wine tour. Coffe in Vienna has the funniest and complicated names. There's a Einspaenner, a Maria Theresia, Melange, Pharisaer, Tuerkische and so on. And the menu never explains what exactly it is. The only reason I order a Kleine Brauner is because I heard read about it in a Thomas Bernhard play!
Start of the wine tour; a big code of arms barrel!
Tara getting a good shot of the wine barrels. She's my spring break buddy cause everybody else went to Italy. We're discovering Vienna and Wine, Wine, Wine.
Wine Wine Wine
And .... .... ....
This was right after our tour guide said we would be tasting some of the wine. Everyone ran up the stairs and in all of the commotion, the hustle and the bustle I was pushed to the ground. This was the only evidence I could get: Watching as every one else hurried up the stairs to leave me 40 m below the earth! Which reminds how crazy it was to see baroque architecture and arches in the basement! It was simply astounding to comprehend how someone could have built such a magnificent structure without modern Tech.
Empty : (
FULL!!! : )
Where the wine sits; wo es gereift wird! Passive voice! Germans love it!
Yep you guessed it- big barrels of wine! The kloster produces a ton of Red and White wine with vineyards all over Wien. In addition they also produce Green wines (robust, white peppery and manly wines), Riesling wines (the elegant, gentle wines!) and APPLE JUICE! I actually learned a lot about the processes and different types of wines for different meals- well actually I just kept asking the woman who was The Master of Wines because she was good looking and she kept giving me more wine... .... ... very educational if I do say so myself.
Our tour guide called this machine the actual Brew Meister. I as highly offended.
I couldn't help but think this was hilarious. If you look closely you can see behind the glass a test tube and some other measuring, tasting or otherwise official looking instruments. But all I could think about was the Monks sitting in the Gaer Kellar after mass saying "This one's ready! And it tastes great" and the other "Oh hush brother Thomas, you're just drunk!"

And that was the end of that. It was a great Palm Sunday and led into a good night for getting a good head start for St. Patrick's day.
Cheers!