After a long time I have some free time again, so I finally got around to sorting through the photos from the summer. And thanks to that, I can also share with you our summer trip to the Austrian village of Marchegg, which is located approximately between Bratislava and Vienna. In addition to car and train, you can get to Marchegg by bicycle - thanks to the recently built bicycle bridge, even directly from the Slovak side across the Morava River.

At the first glance, there is nothing particularly interesting here, a village like any other. However, when you go to its northern edge, you will discover the beautiful castle Schloss Marchegg with a large park, where you can relax under the trees in the summer heat, or stop at a typical restaurant, which is right in the park.

However, the greatest treasure is hidden behind the castle, or on its roofs. In the WWF nature reserve, a huge colony of storks nest here. They will constantly fly over your head from approximately May to mid-August. It is probably the largest colony of tree-nesting white storks in (at least Central) Europe. They thrive here thanks to the suitable environment, which provides them with many options for nesting, as well as a lot of available food.

It doesn't look like it, but those storks are pretty big, so when one of them flies right over your head, it's quite impressive... if you're ever in the area, make sure not to miss it.

I should note that for photography you will need a decent camera with a good zoom. Unfortunately, I only had my mobile phone with me, so I apologize for the quality of the photos. Hopefully it will be enough to get at least a rough idea of how it looks like.

Po veľmi dlhej dobe mám znova chvíľu čas, takže som sa konečne dostal k tomu, aby som roztriedil fotky ešte z leta. No a vďaka tomu sa s vami môžem podeliť aj o náš letný výlet do rakúskej dedinky Marchegg, ktorá sa nachádza zhruba medzi Bratislavou a Viedňou. Do Marcheggu sa dá okrem auta a vlaku dostať po cyklotrase aj na bicykli, vďaka nedávno postavenému cyklomostu dokoca aj priamo zo slovenskej strany cez rieku Moravu.

Na prvý pohľad tu nie je nič špeciálne zaujímavé, dedinka ako každá iná. Keď však prejdete na jej severný okraj, objavíte krásny zámok Schloss Marchegg s veľkým parkom, kde si môžte v letnej horúčave oddýchuť pod stromami, prípadne sa zastaviť v typickej reštaurácii, ktorá je priamo v parku.

Najväčší poklad sa však skrýva za zámkom, prípadne na jeho strechách. V prírodnej rezervácii WWF tu totiž hniezdi obrovská kolónia bocianov, ktorí vám budú približne od mája do polovice augusta neustále prelietavať nad hlavou. Vraj je to najväčšia kolónia bocianov bielych hniezdiacich na stromoch v (minimálne strednej) Európe. Darí sa im tu vďaka vhodnému prostrediu, ktoré im poskytuje jednak veľa možností na hniezdenie, ale aj veľa dostupnej potravy.

Ono sa to nezdá, ale tie bociany sú dosť veľké, takže keď vám niektorý z nich preletí tesne nad hlavou, je to impozantné... ak niekedy pôdete okolo, určite si to nenechajte újsť.

Na fotenie ale odporúčam zobrať si poriadny fotoaparát s dobrým zoomom. Ja som mal so sebou bohužiaľ iba mobil, takže za kvalitu fotiek sa ospravedlňujem. Na to aby ste získali aspoň hrubú predstavu o tom ako to tam vyzerá to ale snáď bude stačiť.