Autumn-walk to another Austrian highpoint
Geschriebenstein (879m) is the difficult-to-pronounce name of the highpoint of the Burgenland county, our sixth of the “Seven Summits of Austria”. Since it is only a four km walk with an altitude difference of 84m, we had to make an interesting program around the summit attempt, such as:
- Staying at Burg Lockenhaus, a castle from the 12th century;
- Visiting the St. Margarethen sculpture park;
- Having some tasty wine at Rust, a charming village on the west shore of the Neusiedler See;
- Checking out the county capital Eisenstadt;
- An excursion to the Széchenyi Spa in Budapest;
- Visiting the Fisherman’s Bastion and admiring the view across the Danube river;
- Hanging out at some underground pubs and having street-food in the Budapest city.
It was such an interesting program that we almost forgot to visit the highpoint…
Nobody knows for sure where the name “Geschriebenstein” comes from. There is a milestone in the basement of the summit tower indicating the border between Austria and Hungary, which could be an explanation. The iron curtain divided the summit until 1989, when tourists from both counties tore the fence down. Today both countries are members of the Schengen-area, everybody can move freely, so it is almost like in the good old days of the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy.
After a typical Austrian breakfast we remembered the task of conquering the highpoint after all, and the 25-minutes walk through autumn-colored woods was a refreshing start of the day. Up from the tower the views were great, but a strong wind limited out stay to a few minutes only. Spa next!
