I almost forgot how nice the Föhrenberge are. There was a time, almost 30 years ago, when I visited that part of Vienna Woods between Perchtoldsdorf and Mödling and stretching nearly 10km to Sulz im Wienerwald almost monthly, thanks to its convenient closeness to Vienna and the fact that it had so many small restaurants where I could get a beer. After a relatively easy walk uphill, one ends up in a coniferous forest, where one can walk for hours on wide paths with hardly any elevation and never be far away from a drink or a snack.
I don’t know if the huts of the Föhrenberge had Brettljausen at that time. In my immense stupidity, I managed to spend nearly 10 years in Austria without knowing how Brettljausen looked like, and then nearly 10 years without knowing how they were called. In any case, now it’s time to catch up, and today I found two Brettljause places, the Kammersteiner Hütte being one of them.
It’s a simple self-service hut with a simple supermarket Brettljause, but somehow one does not mind. First, with low initial expectations, anything positive becomes a pleasant surprise. Second, the Jause looked good: the lady preparing it did a great job at arranging the ingredients in an esthetically appealing manner. Third, the horseradish was so strong, it almost made me cry.
Best of all, though, was the location, which brought back good memories and was simply super-relaxing. I knew that Vienna was just an hour of leisurely walk away, and there was absolutely need to hurry. Should I get thirsty, the Heurige of nearby Perchtoldsdorf could provide a glass of wine and a roof if it would suddenly start raining (both the rain and the wine-drinking did take place eventually). And then there was the forest that smelled like forest – the slightly acidic smell that I had almost forgotten. For some reason, I always thought of it being the smell of ants, though it’s probably wet leaves or something. I certainly won’t wait 30 years more to be back.
Leave a Reply