Steyr by Night

I’m all about trusting the locals. When someone who lives in the area suggests it might be a good idea to [verb] at [place name], well, what the hell, right? They’re the local, they know better. In general this serves the good natured traveler well and you’ll end up [verbing] the [superlative adjective] [object] you’ve ever [verbed] in your life.

Unless you end up freezing your ass off after dark in the streets of Steyr when it is in the low 20s. Then you may wish you’d bailed when the same sensible local says, “Let’s get outta here and go eat Italian food. Now.”

The nightwatch tours of Steyr leave from the town hall at 6pm. They retrace the steps of the halberd bearing citizens who lit the laterns, called out, “11 o clock and all’s well!” and kept an eye out for fires. The tour takes visitors through the streets of the beautifully restored medeival/baroque city. You get to hear all kinds of interesting tales about the history of Steyr. About how one of the biggest winter fires in the city was quenched with wine becasue the water supply was frozen. About a nasty duke who placed his victim’s head on a spike where it stared open-eyed at the home of the victim’s family. About the tragic depression of the early 30s before WWII when lots of kids didn’t go to school because they’d burned their clothes for heating. There’s some saucy stuff about the Steyr dress code and how you could tell a “woman of business” because she’d wear yellow. All in all, the city offers a pretty rousing history, not surprising from a place that’s been thriving as a center of commerce for over 1000 years. (Note to potential participants – the tours are in German only, though if I was going to Steyr, I wouldn’t hestitate to drop in and request a tour in English.)

Luckily, we were fortified for the tour with coffee and Kardinalschnitte, a confection as baroque as Steyr itself, made from sponge cake, meringue, and a fluffy mocha mousse that will set your heart pounding. I’m quite sure I burned off the entire slice in the first 10 minutes of the tour just trying to keep my body temperature up to normal. My hands hurt. My feet hurt. My nose felt like it might break off if anyone brushed up against it. Did I mention it was cold? Dressed in my giant down coat, the silly hat with the fleece lined ear flaps, the long underwear and wool socks, I shuffled around the cobblestoned streets and tried to pay close attention to the guide so’s to keep my mind off the cold. Every now and then I would have Julius translate some bit I hadn’t understood, but mostly it was a ploy to get him to stand really close. I tried to sympathize with the average citizens of historic Steyr, who wore mainly cotton, I learned, but those people had the good sense to not go wandering about at night when it was well below freezing.

At the river crossing that leads to the Italian restaurant, Sabine suggested we call it quits. But I’m a sucker for a view and for a big old gothic church and this tour finished with a climb up the 280 steps that lead to the top of the clock tower. It was worth it, but mostly because a narrow interior stair climb warms you up enough to restore your sense of humor and the feeling in your toes.

After the tour we bundled into the car and headed to Franz Ferdinand, a cool little bistro in Steyrdorf, just across the river from the center of town. I shared pumpkin risotto with J., Christian and Sabine both had good looking plates of pasta. Then we headed up to the cafe at Schloss Lamberg, the castle on the top of the hill. “People do this. They have dinner, then they go for a drink somewhere, right?” said Sabine. (Their girls were at the grandparents for the night.)

There are a handful of places to go out here in Aigen and surrounds and I’ve been to all of them worth visiting, I think, and some that aren’t. The bars are intolerable for their smokiness, so heading out for a beer in winter is near impossible. (Getting out in the summer is another story because you can sit outside.) So in spite of the freezing weather, it was really great to be out and about. Plus, it was fun to go on the tour. Sabine has wanted to give it a try since she first read about it and was psyched to get us all together to go.

Admittedly, there was some swearing when I told them I was planning to be in Austria until March. Spring comes early to Steyr.

The entire set of Steyr photos is here.