Visit to Piber Stud Farm and the City of Graz

We saw the the Spanish Riding School Lippizaner Stallion show, in Vienna a few years back and were extremely impressed! We found out the Stud Farm is fairly close to Vienna and decided to visit to see the foals, mares and stallions who have worked the show, now used as stud. Graz is second largest city to Vienna so stayed there and trained to Koeflach (umlaut over the o), taxied to the farm.

The two and a half hour train trip to Graz was beautiful! Through mountains and valleys, sunflower fields and small villages. Majestic rock formations and views of valleys.

I had read somewhere sit left on the way and right on the way back and it was true. There were homes made of stone, all the way to the roof with small windows in a row across them, two or three stories high. They were numbered and mostly unoccupied, I think they may have been housing for when the railroad was built.

It was a scenic ride both ways and we both really enjoyed it.

A castle!

Graz train station and the lift to take us to where we are to meet our driver is out of commission. Seem to be having trouble with lifts these days, (the one at the flat in Vienna broke down three times in the last week, major problem, hopefully now fixed for good) so Bruce goes in the opposite direction to the one that works and comes out probably about a kilometre from the main entrance. Well what choice do we have really? I walk back to the main station and summon the driver with van to pick us up. I’m sorry, but he’s not the brightest marble in the bag, but long story short and we find Bruce after circling the block.

Restorative time in the room which is roomy, light, with lovely rugs, planned bonus, air-conditioning. Then off to do a small shop and dinner at where you can order to your liking of salad, pizza, spaetsle/pasta, burger or breakfast by marking what ingredients you want added. Cheap but pretty good, more of a student hangout I think, but we’ve done well with them in other cities. They served a glass of tap water with the wine,  as they typically do with coffee, never had that before but it was welcome.

Outside wall of hotel.

Detail, they are scenes of farming activities

In both cities of Vienna and Graz and I expect the rest of Austria they are very proud of their tap water. It comes from the mountains and is very pure. As you know, I like sparkly water but did drink tap while in Cornwall last year so may revert again. Rather silly really, to haul home, recycle bottles just for a bit of sparkle which I can still order in a restaurant.

Partial day of touring around neighbourhoods, in Graz, getting a bit lost but able to recover by asking folk. People are kind here, if they don’t know they’ll hail someone going by to ask. We didn’t go to the tourist area, just wanted to see where people live. Encountered a couple of large parks and missed the Schloss park which has a castle on top of the hill.

Went to the farmer’s market first thing which is just around the block from the hotel and it was typical, lovely and quite large. Saw bunches of baby carrots I haven’t seen since we picked our own on the farm and really wished I could have bought and cooked up, a forgotten memory. Lots of flowers including sunflowers from those fields we passed. I had an early lunch/breakfast at a fish stall. Their potato salad was a delight, used a flavoured vinegar, a bit like German but more vinegar, read swimming in it, with chives and onions. Bruce bought apple juice in a 100 ml bottle for 1.80 Euro and it’s home made I think and tastes almost as good as wine.

Hot day but there was a breeze so if you could catch it made the day bearable. So I walked my little legs off, Bruce rolled along and would scout ahead to help determine where we were or not supposed to be. So we’ve seen some of Graz but not it’s tourist highlights, fine by me.

Dinner was at a Greek restaurant called Athen across the road from the hotel.  You can smoke inside there, still amazes me and feels weird besides. Food was done expertly, lamb chops and large shrimps, it’s been a long while since we’ve had Greek food so was a treat. Out of the tourist area it seemed to be a locals bar, people were playing cards in the back room, a TV was on for news, I would guess following what’s happening there now.

On to the reason for our visit to the area, the Piber Stud farm is where they birth, grow, train the horses. It is a business operation really that has gone on for hundreds of years. That doesn’t take away from the cuteness of the foals for us though. It is  a real measure of training of the horse and rider. The horse gets years of careful stewardship, the rider less so.

Foals are born brown, black, grey but change colour to white in about ten years, it takes that long. The white is astounding and another reason they are special. Here is a website to explain the history etc. and just go with what we saw. www.piber.com

We arrived during the rest time for the horses, probably from tourists who are snapping pictures of them, they rest from noon to 13:00 so we lunched at the Cafe Caballero on site. I had pumpkin oil on my salad, explanation in a bit.

Once rest time was over we got audio equipment and a map, the tour was in German and there were quite a few people on it so it was nice to wander ourselves. We loosely followed the tour and went through the various barns housing various aged stallions, grouped by age. One wasn’t too happy and he kept snorting and banging around his stall but the rest were pretty placid. They have a majesty and dignified aura about them.

Then we saw the mares and foals in a large loose paddock. Being “children” they chased, nipped and generally romped along with their mothers like kids do, a beautiful sight.

I took many, many more pictures of horses as you can imagine. Okay one more.

In pasture

Spanish Riding School coats

The acreage has a castle which is now used for events and office space, a 950 year old church, a carriage museum, blacksmith barn, and an interactive children’s learning area where they can be taught how to mount a horse or make horseshoes and such, didn’t see it. The visit was worth every bit of effort it took to get there!

Horse statues made from horseshoes

Kuerbis (umlaut over the u) or pumpkin is a very large crop in Styria, Austria where Piber, Koeflach and Graz are located. Oil is large for salads which tasted nutty and very good, they put seeds into everything, and they are tasty! In North America we tend to use pumpkin for Halloween as decoration and discard. Here it is like every other vegetable and used for soups, creams, added to almost anything. It’s a bigger deal than spargel/asparagus in Germany I think.

Back again to the Greek place in Graz and the entire first floor is filled with kids, balloons, parents, grandparents and strollers. How they fit everyone in was amazing but they did and noise level was at the top. Luckily the smoking allowed tables were quite a far way away from the party so we could still enjoy a meal. They served shots of Ouzo to everyone, which for me was welcomed, liquorice in flavour and not a drink I buy so it was a treat, especially in small quantity. We were trying to figure out when we’d last had Greek food and it has to be about four years now. No wonder we went back for a second night. Plus we’d been in Piber all day for three hours of walking and an hour each way by train so were tired, this place is right across the street from the hotel so it has the triple whammy of being close, tasty and smoking inside since they don’t have a patio.

On the train going by one of the many villages and I saw a naked child no tan lines just enjoying running around in the sun. Did I mention the backyard swimming pools so many homes have, it seemed every second or third house had one.

Ride home to Vienna was good, extremely hot day but the train was air conditioned so the two and a half hour ride was comfortable. We were on a train headed to Prague so three languages were spoken, written. We’ve been to Prague and learning that language is or would be almost as bad as an Oriental language I think. Don’t remember having any problem in Prague, most spoke English, or maybe my pantomiming worked once again.

“Home” now in Vienna to a thankfully cool flat, it is seriously HOT today, just about melted into a puddle on the brief wait for the cab driver at the train station.

Cheers, Bev, Bruce and Lexi Cat