Haystack romance in the straw room.
Image: Viennese guest room
In the “Viennese guest room” it smells of beer, straw and vinegar. Instead of the big city, you hear the cackling of the chickens, and after breakfast the host introduces you to the art of brewing.
An the northern edge of Vienna’s 10th district, where factory chimneys used to smoke and workers from the Crown Lands lived, is Erwin Gegenbauer’s childhood home. The 61-year-old is a culinary jack of all trades. On the ground floor and in the basement he brews vinegar and beer, presses oil and roasts coffee. His wife had the idea of converting the upper floor into guest rooms. Or, as they write: “guest room”. Anyone who stays with them is a guest in their home, the house in which Erwin Gegenbauer grew up and still lives today. They say they got their worst rating on Booking because of the location.
A few years ago, the nearby freight station gave way to the new main station. Newly built areas with extensive parks attract young families to the area, and the first artists are already there. And yet the 10th is still a working-class district and the main train station is usually the only thing that travelers to Vienna know about it.