Styria – what a beautiful and blissful place on this planet. Add fine weather and you’re set.
Our family members arrive one by one and by Thursday evening, even my youngest joins us for what has become a must-attend yearly event for our extended Austrian family.
There isn’t much to do. Eat Styrian specialties, drink local wines, talk & spend time together.
From an EV driver’s point of view, Styria has always been easy to travel – every winery has many red triple-phase plugs and know-how regarding how much energy can be consumed throughout a nightly charge was never a problem. Nowadays, more and more charging stations are popping up everywhere and charging using Type2-only is getting easier.
During my stay, I discovered a very interesting charging station which was 100% autonomous and solar – a battery stores the energy required for charging which is harvested using solar power only.
After a very satisfying charge and visit to an interesting activity park, we head to a restaurant we’ve not yet been in all these years (yes, they exist) – what follows are 20 minutes of driving though beautiful landscapes.
Local produce, old recipes, slow cooking, old building, beautiful landscapes & lots of sun – everything is perfect.
What has always striked me is the love for small things people have here. Just look at the decoration one of our tables had:
And another…
Also, food is just perfect here. I really like simple, wholesome food like a “Steirer Plattl” – a dish consisting of cold-cut meats, pickles and a lot of freshly grated horse-radish that will definitely clear your sinuses!
Our plans for the 4 days we’re together are as usual: visit local wine producers, local farmers, undertake some activities together, eat well and have lots of time for catching up with each others’ lives.
One of our first visits is a farm that produces very tasty cheeses, some similar to the Belper Knolle. During a walk around the farm my seasoned eyes spy some solar inverters for the farm’s many solar panels. (My batteries are still at 95% here and don’t really need a full charge yet. – otherwise I’d definitely ask, since a fully solar charge for an EV is among the best things you can experience as an EV driver – Energy, directly from the sun powering your ride! yum yum!)
As everywhere, larger installations receive subsidies from the European Union – this installation included. As much as I don’t like centralized state-directed economic models… this is something I completely agree with.
Every year, we decide on a special activity when everyone has arrived – this year we’ve decided to take an old steam-train complete with stops for Sturm and roasted chestnuts – yum!
We also walk a lot – the vineyards are just magical in this light and we as a family have lots to talk about.
As I wrote before, electric mobility is slowly arriving in Styria. Not only can one see the occasional EV or (official) charging station – many smaller places have started to embrace the idea to offer their guests sustainable mobility as a part of their stay – such as the Twizy’s below…adapted to be able to carry two to three boxes of wine 🙂
Speaking about boxes of wine… we have a few wineries we visit every year. Our current favourite is Weingut Brolli in Gamlitz
Even here, TW560 fits really well!
The views are stunning and you can taste the wine in the vineyards. I like the fact, that the owners – after all these years – know us and tell us how the specific wines did this year.
We try our favourites and then it’s time to decide which ones we buy and take back to Switzerland with us.
The next days consist of more of this very comfortable and agreeable routine – Good food, good wine, stunning sceneries, lots of fun – we’ll definitely be back next year!