Where the apple bills and coos with the pear

It is quite possible that it was here that Adam bit into Eve's sweet apple. Of course, it could just as well have been a pear, which hangs so abundantly on the trees in the Mostlandl around the Vitalwelt. One thing is certain: The gently rolling landscape has something paradisiacal about it, especially in spring, when the trees don white and pink attire, accompanying every hike and every bike ride with their blossoms. In autumn - for the actual festival - they turn a rich reddish-yellow: now the harvest is brought in, apples and pears are turned into juice and later into most, the drink that stands for Upper Austria like no other.

Most shapes the landscape
Because not all most is the same. It is made from pears, apples or - and here we are at the typical most from the Hausruck region - from both together. Particularly popular are the Speckbirne and the Landlbirne, a native of Upper Austria with a centuries-old pedigree. Small, yellow and spherical, it is harvested late in the year and delights people passing by with its sight.

For it is the most fruit trees that characterise the area around the Vitalwelt towns of Bad Schallerbach, Gallspach, Geboltskirchen, Grieskirchen, Haag am Hausruck, Rottenbach and Wallern. Individually or in pairs, they form a trellis, line paths and roads, cover meadows and slopes. Young mingle with old, small with large.

Therefore, it is hardly surprising, that the longest avenue of fruit trees in Austria can also be found here. To be more precise, in Grieskirchen, where hundreds of trees flank a walkway about three kilometres long. The fact that you can walk under mighty crowns and enjoy the view here is thanks to a clergyman who had the divine idea for this special avenue a little more than a hundred years ago.

A beverage for gourmets

Finely bubbly, tangy, powerful and fruity-tart: most has long since become a delicacy and shed its rough-and-tumble image. This dates back to a time when there was a most barrel in almost every cellar and the production process was sometimes quite rustic. Since then, a lot of juice has run through the presses, but today there are still many meadow orchards, rural orchards and experienced most producers in the Vitalwelt holiday region who know their craft. They work in good tradition, but with modern cellar technology and the corresponding know-how.

The result can be tasted in many ways: on site at the most farmers, in most taverns and snack stations, in inns and award-winning establishments such as the "Waldschänke" in Grieskirchen. There, Elisabeth Grabmer and her son Clemens work together in the kitchen and conjure up delicacies like the "Mostschober", an Upper Austrian variation of the "Besoffener Kapuziner". When spring finally arrives, the most tastings are a lure - whimsical and uncomplicated festivals at which the producers present their mosts and the guests can enjoy tasting their way through the variety.

Sweating cure in the most barrel
The most museum in St. Marienkirchen an der Polsenz also deals with the history of most. "Samarein", as the locals call the village, has a long fruit-growing tradition and is located in the middle of the Obst-Hügel-Land nature park, which is not called that for nothing. In the museum, an old granary, you can delve deeply into the local most history. Why does the most bottle have a square bottom? What did the scholar Johannes Kepler have to do with the most barrel? You can find out in the museum - and much more besides.

But there is even more to discover in the Vitalwelt Bad Schallerbach: 55 signposted hiking trails and more than 300 kilometres of cycle paths. The largest most barrel in the world - another superlative - which serves as a cosy sauna chamber in the Eurotherme. Quiet moments away from the usual hotspots. Hospitable people with a down-to-earth attitude and love for their homeland.

Take a trip and stop fora bite to eat
Exploring the region on a short trip through the countryside and stopping for a bite to eat in the end - that's part of the cultural heritage in Upper Austria. Maybe you'll find yourself in Geboltskirchen, where the Trauner family bottles the treasures of their orchards. The fruit is turned into most, juice, cider and schnapps and later, at home, into a memory of a landscape full of beauty and pleasure, in short: the Mostlandl.