Greetings, Friends, from Central Europe.
One of the best parts of my trip involves… just floating by. Yesterday, we sailed past Spitz, a small Austrian town, with a great deal to notice as we moved down the river. The houses and churches surround a large hill with vineyards. That hill is called 1000 Buckets Mountain. In ancient times, it was a good year if the mountain produced 1000 buckets of wine. That is how it got is name.
Opposite 1000 Buckets Mountain lies the ruins of a castle from 1100s, known as Hinterhaus. It’s astounding to find structures in Europe that are so old.
So with a lingering glance from a river, I got to see these, and I thought, “There are thousands of unknown stories.” I love to ponder places because they contain communities across time, not only with big, heroic moments, but thousands of unknown stories with mundane experiences.
And some of them probably involve those buckets of wine.
— Renee Roederer
Smuggling Grace 