Draws are here for the Villach 700.
Today, after a 10am practice with Shirley (my newly strung Volkl Vostra 4 is finally happy with its string tension!) and some shoulder exercises, I set off to visit Hochosterwitz Castle, about 50 minutes east of where I am staying in Villach, and about 25 minutes from Klagenfurt.
There is a tremendous amount of road construction going on in this area right now, both on the surface streets near where I am staying and on the motorway going towards Klagenfurt. But it did not delay me too much, the traffic wasn’t too bad, and here most drivers adhere to the speed limit more or less and there is no passing on the right.
After leaving the motorway, I was in the country and saw more horses, lots of farming (corn in particular), and all the rain they have in Austria equals lots of green grass and scenery, it’s really pretty.
I found the castle…from a distance it was impressive and I pulled over a few times for photos, then drove to the entrance.. It still looked like it was a looong walk to the top (there is a railway to the top which takes less than two minutes and holds eight people at a time, so those who cannot walk up or down can still see the castle for a price of 10 euros round trip). As it turned out, the walk was easy and beautiful, with a wide path that wasn’t too steep. There were views were everywhere of the surrounding countryside, the distant mountains, and the castle walls some of which are covered in moss and greenery. The path is only about 800 meters long and rises about 300-400 feet to a height of about 2100 feet.
The current ownership dates back to the 16th century and has been in the Khevenhuller family since 1571 when purchased by Baron George Khevenhuller. He built an armory and 14 gates between 1570 and 1586. I saw them all and they are dated with descriptions of the different methods of guarding the path. Local legend is that the castle has never been conquered and that none of the attacks managed to get beyond the fourth gate (source: Wikipedia). 1(Engelstor) gate.
Two of the important gates are the first one, Fähnrichtor, and the Khevenhüllertor, pictured below:
I play my first match tomorrow, in singles. Doubles starts on Friday…there are only four teams.