Neusiedlersee

Monday afternoon we took off with our friend Margit for Neusiedlersee, about 50 kilometers from Vienna.

It's the second-largest steppe lake in central Europe and straddles the Austria-Hungary border, with most of the lake inside Austria.

Lots of grape vines in this part of Austria, and therefore lots of wineries...in fact, there's a TV show called Der Winzerkönig (The Vintner King) set in the town of Rust (pronounced "roost") and while in Rust walking around, we saw a lot of plaques on the walls of various establishments showing that such-and-such scene of such-and-such episode of Der Winzerkönig was shot at this location.

Lots of stork nests in Rust, usually built on top of chimneys (not sure how that works out for the storks when somebody lights a fire, but OK) and I saw a couple of storks in the nests.

I'd love to watch a stork build one of these giant nests.

We stopped at a place for a drink and a bowl of soup, then B sprung a little surprise on me: we were going to cross the lake on one of the big boats that ferry people back and forth, then catch a bus back to Rust.

Our boat was a double-decker. There was a bar on the main level if you wanted to drink during the 90 minutes or so it takes to cross the lake, but we spent all our time on the top of the boat, feeling the wind and sun. It was a nice day, temps in the high 70s I'd guess, but the wind was kind of strong and the waves were choppy----lots of sailboats and windsurfers out on the lake.

Through one of the many channels leading to the main body of the lake.

The lake is shallow and full of reeds along the shore. There are many channels leading out to the main lake and I assume they're kept clear by occasional mowing of the reeds---there are boats that do that kind of thing. 

Conditions on the lake make for challenging sailing; they occasionally have world championship events here...don't be fooled by the calm in the port. Enlarge pic and notice the head of a swimmer in the middle by the stern of one of the boats. A nude swimmer, as I saw when we cruised past his shiny white ass.

Relatively calm here, but out in the open the waves were choppy and it looked like some of these guys were hitting speeds of about 25 MPH or so.

There were several islands in the lake on the way to the opposite shore, near the Hungarian side.

Seagulls followed the boat but nobody threw them anything to eat, until I finally had mercy and broke up one of my Granola bars and tossed pieces into the air. The gulls didn't catch the pieces in mid-air but they had sharp eyes, diving for each piece as soon as they saw it hit the water.

This pic gives a better idea of the actual conditions on the lake.

My mind works in strange ways. Cruising along I wondered: How do they get these huge boats into the lake? They're too big to transport intact via the highway. I guess they transport the parts and build the boats right on the lake, is all I can figure out.

We docked on the Hungarian side of the lake then took another brief ferry ride back the same direction, but just to a nearby town (back in Austria) where we disembarked and then caught a bus back to Rust. The towns are close together and you can drive the perimeter of the lake, coming to a new town every few minutes or so but if you cross the lake by boat, it's a long trip. 

We found a heurige in a small town near Rust and had a couple of glasses of wine and some sandwiches (at a fraction of the price you'd pay in Vienna.) 

It started getting cloudy on the way home; Margit stopped the car so I could shoot this vista, with the Alps in the background.

A great place for a road trip, or biking, or hiking.
Suck factor: extremely low.

We got back about 8 PM. It was raining slightly. I walked to the heurige in the rain and brought back a couple of bottles of white wine. Good end to a great day.