— These cats love the bends in steep roads; they move with grace – but they’re not racing.

They hiss, sometimes loudly, sometimes softly;

Each in her own special way —

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On 16 May, the time had finally come to get together for the long-awaited spring trip, under the motto ‘Over hill and dale…’.

From 8.30 am, everyone gathered for coffee and light snacks at the Reb Lounge in Pfaffstätten. A total of 14 cars were ready to set off on the planned stages.

The first stage led to the local history museum in Weissenbach. There, we marvelled at all sorts of technical artefacts from days gone by and talked shop. There were many interesting insights into past achievements that were state-of-the-art in their day. We continued on to the second stage via beautiful mountain roads to Puchberg am Schneeberg for a short lunch break at “Marie am Schneeberg”. Over a light snack, the first positive assessments of the thoroughly challenging route were already being made. The third stage then led to the Hermannshöhle cave in Ofenbach. Here we were able to go deep underground, in the truest sense of the word, for a tour of the cave. The fourth and final stage (for the cats) of the mountain and valley journey led to Neunkirchen, where some of the passengers checked into the hotel before the fifth stage began at the “Casa del Vino”. We sat together comfortably during a very successful culinary evening, with wonderful food and wine tasting.

Overall, the planning of the ride – and in particular the route chosen, which took us along many lovely little side roads and winding lanes – was praised on numerous occasions. The route truly lived up to the ride’s title, ‘Over hill and dale…’, and was a great success. Even if the sun didn’t quite spoil us as much as we’d have liked that day. A big thank you once again to Brigitta and Alberto for the fantastic planning.