When you think of visiting Austria, I imagine the top cities you want to see are Vienna, Innsbruck, and Salzburg. I’m right there with you, and I’ve happily seen a lot of Vienna with plenty more destinations just within that city to visit! But there are a lot of other wonderful places in Austria, such as Retz in Lower Austria.
You can visit this town in a day. Make sure to see the windmill and tour the wine cellars. And in between, check out one of the restaurants. I loved Elmer’s Cafe.
I started out the day at the windmill, which holds the claim of the only operational windmill in Austria.
The engineering of this thing is pretty awesome, not to mention it’s made mostly from wood.
The windmill tour included a lot of stairs, and I was thankful for the flashlight capacity on my phone. It gets dark on the third floor!
This building used to be a windmill, but it has been converted into a living space instead. And I find it very postcard-worthy!
If you follow this lovely little path, and take a right at the first opportunity, you will find a sweet little restaurant.
You’ll also find this incredible view of the town of Retz.
Not only do I enjoy seeing new places, but I also really like trying new things. Naturally, I ordered cow’s tongue for lunch while my friend ordered blood sausage. I also would like to helpfully point out that the stuff that looks like cheese is actually horseradish. Don’t shove it all in your mouth, people!
After this delicious lunch, my friends and I headed down to Retz for some coffee at Elmer’s Cafe to keep the afternoon sleepies at bay!
One thing I love about Austria is the way that even drinks are served. Such detail is involved.
Even at McDonald’s, you will be given a cup of water with your coffee. As long as you have water in your glass, you may sit at your table at the cafe, but once you’re done with the water, it’s time to move on. This was the Caramel Latte at Elmer’s Cafe, just in case you want to relive my day exactly.
The wine cellar tour began in the town square of Retz.
Retz has a week-long wine festival in June. The water in the fountains is colored to represent red wine and white wine, and during this festival, you can help yourself to free wine from nearby barrels.
The tour then headed down into the cellars. The thing about these wine cellars that just intrigued me was that they are dung in sand. Therefore, the dampness of the sand is important for keeping the tunnels in good shape. In some ways, I felt like I was walking through a giant sand castle.
The wine cellar was super dark, and along the way, we kept coming across London street names. Apparently, Jack the Ripper was being performed in the cellar. I’m not one for scary shows, but with such a unique place for the show, I think I should go. I may not sleep for weeks, though.
The wet sand walls allow for sand art to appear in some locations of the wine cellars. In a couple of places, a long horizontal line traveled the length of walls where many fingers have traced.
Oh, and there was definitely wine to be seen. The strange thing of these wine cellars was that the government did not require cellars to be registered so even today there is a lack of information as to how many wine cellars actually exist. Sometimes neighbors would accidentally dig into each other’s cellars. Depending on the neighbor, this could be a good or bad thing.
There were lots of interesting things down in the wine cellars, and I totally suggest visiting if you love good wine and interesting history. Along one tunnel, there were all these alcoves with different saints and protectors of wine and people. This particular statue is a dragon slayer. I guess dragons like wine, too?
And I leave you with this wine quote, allegedly from William Shakespeare.
What About You?
Have you ever toured a wine cellar? Is it a place I should visit?
