Sometimes all I am looking for on holiday is nature. And yet, I still find art. Art of the kind I like a lot: contemporary abstract paintings. Wonderful colour combinations in bold, energetic brush strokes. Like the painting on the top of this page.
There were quite a few of these paintings exhibited in the lobby of the St. Martins Lodge in Burgenland, Austria. I liked them at first sight. Then I checked who the artist was. And to my utter amazement the artist was a donkey. Yes, you read correctly, a donkey. His name is Freddy and he is a beautiful, light-coated, blue eyed Baroque donkey. Although, when you think about it, if you are a “Baroque" donkey it comes as no surprise that you are artistically inclined.
In fact, Freddy, who resides at this lodge for purposes of animal assisted therapy with others of his breed, had been rescued from a circus. The story goes that he likes to play with sticks - it seems to be something donkeys do as I watched them in their enclosure chewing on and tossing about a few sticks. So his caretaker thought why not give him a paint brush instead of a stick - and that’s how Freddy started his career as a painter of abstract art.
Freddy, of course, is special. But so is his entire breed. They are called “Barockesel” (Esel is German for donkey) because they were first being bred in the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the Baroque period. At the time, animals with white fur were preferred as pets since they were considered “bringers of light” (and therefore luck). The breed was rediscovered in 1986 in both Austria and Hungary, upon which a breeding programme was developed in three different locations, one of which is the Nature Reserve of Lake Neusiedl. This reserve forms part of the Fertö/Lake Neusiedl Cultural Landscape which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
And that brings me back to the nature I was looking for. The area called “Seewinkel” in Austria (which literally means ‘corner of lake’ ) is a sanctuary for birds and other wildlife. Here you can spot the elusive water buffalo (if you are very lucky), the extremely timid herds of Hungarian grey cattle (from a safe distance) and the playful ground squirrels that can be watched dashing around a campsite. It also boasts unique continental salt pans where the salinity comes from layers in the Earth’s crust that date back to the last Ice Age. These extremely shallow saline pools attract thousands of birds like ducks, geese, egrets, herons, flamingos, storks, ospreys, eagles, bustards and many more as a feeding ground. Most of the area is a Nature reserve and the wildlife can be watched on expertly guided tours (also in English) and from purpose built photo hides. Here birds are shot purely with cameras and appreciated for the magnificent creatures that they are - when they are alive.
If you are still not convinced of Freddy’s talent, watch this video.
And if you are tempted to indulge in a holiday in Europe’s “first lodge” have a look at St. Martins Therme’s website. “Therme” denotes that it is also a spa with thermal springs and it is a mere 45 minutes from Vienna airport - how much more tempting can it get?
Click on the images to view them better and read the captions.