Schneeberg Things to Do

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Semmering is just 15km from Schneeberg and it is a great area for hikings in great natural surroundings. Zauberberg (Magic mountain) is the name of a peak in the village of Semmering, where you can go up in a cablecar in summer and in winter. the skiing-slopes are rather for good skiers, beeing able to race down over steep and narrow slopes. There is a seperate track for tobaggoning as well and at certain times the slopes will be lighted in wintertime, so you can go skiing also at night.
Snow-cannons make sure you will have enough snow for skiing, even when the rest of the mountain is without any snow !
In summertime plenty of people go up there for the view or for a hike downwards. You can also rent a "Monster"-scooter in order to drive down or take the mountainbike - track downwards.

Holders of the NÖ-Card can go this cablecar
up and down 1x free of charge each year !
In my personal opinion you dont miss a lot, when you skip this mountain and the cablecar in summer !
Semmeringbahn, thats the old trainline over the Semmering is a UNESCO Worldheritage and you will find a Ghega-memorial at the station there. Carl Ritter von Ghega (1802-1860) from Venice made the plans for of the trainline between Vienna and Triest (that used to be part of Austria then) over the Semmering. It was quite an adventure and the Semmering-Bahn used to be very first regular trainline over a pass-road in the world at that time, built between 1848 and 1854. The direct way from Gloggnitz to Muerzzuschlag is just 21 km, but the train needs 42 km over several viaducts and lots of tunnels and on the highest point it is 898 meters above sea-level,while the diffrence in hight is 439 meters.

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Schneeberghaus
dates back to the end of the 19th century and it still got that great furniture and architecture of that time. Its a restaurant and hotel nowadays, although it partly looks rather like a museum. Even the last austrian emperor, Kaiser Franz Joseph stayed there over nightand it seems like the time stood still there since.
In my other photos here in this tip you will also see a traditional tiles-oven.

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There is a newly built Schneeberghaus nowadays, but I am sure that they did not remove the historical Schneeberghaus there, where i could see some phantastic works of art, made of sugar and marzipan.
Berghaus Hochschneeberg is a sort of "panopticum" of all sorts of things collected over the last 150 years and some of my favorite things that I saw there are real works of art, made of sugar and chocolate showing the hotel Berghaus, Sisi-chapel and the old steam-train. It needs special people to manage such a special place, so you might be not surprised to learn that the hotel & restaurant are under the management of a couple holding university-degrees, but the summer on Schneeberg is their hobby and they are proud to show you around.
This is a link for all of you who understand german :

Essen am Hochschneeberg

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Remains of the steam-age of the Schneebergbahn
While waiting for your Salamandertrain you might take a little walk to the backside of the station of the modern Salamander-train and in the open air you will see some great remains of the steam-age of the Schneebergbahn.
Untill 1969 all trains to Schneeberg used to be steam-trains and still today some of them will take you uphill at special dates and for an additional-fare of 6 euros p.P extra to the ordinary ticket. In my last photo you can see one of the old wagons of Schneebergbahn.

When you come on a weekend to Puchberg am Schneeberg, you can also visit the small museum in the back of the station, in a distance of 150 meters.
This exhibition about 110 years of steam-trains at Semmering
is open every saturday + sunday & holyday
between july 7th and september 23rd
FREE entrance !!
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Steam-trains will be operated each sunday
from July 4th till September 5th, 2010
at 10.15a.m. uphill an 02.45 downhill
for a ride with the old steam-train the fee is 6 euros extra !

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In such hights like on Schneeberg you will see lots of butterflies on a warm summerday and they obviously are waiting for tourists.
This is a series of photos that I had made at Rax some time ago: Butterflies obviously enjoy licking the salt from human bodies or pants, the older and more dirty, the even better and more tasty for them. Something similar happened to me in Brienz, on top of Rothorn in a hight of 2900 meters above sea-level.
The butterfly was searching for the best places on my trousers and obviously found some sort of taste that it could not find otherwise in the alpine region of Rax.
the best place to meet butterflies that way is at open cliffs, where the warm air is moving upwards in a way that butterflies and also paragliders like most.

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Elisabeth-Kirche at Schneeberg Sissi-Kirche is the small chapel next to the upper station of Schneeberg-Bahn. You can visit this small church freely and without restrictions during the day. Sissi, the wife of the Austrian emperor Kaiser Franz Josef was killed by an early terrorist and this church was built in order to commemorate her early death.
This small church dates back to the year 1901 and it has a simple but nice Art-nouveau interior : a nice altar, a lovely chandelier and an excellent mosaique at the ceiling.

Schneebergbahn is a steep mountain-railway driving up Schneeberg and I very often was there in summertime in my childhood. I still remember well the steamtrains but nowadays there are mostly modern trains and steamtrains need to be reserved and will cost you some extra money.

How to recognize VTers. Well, I didn't meet many of them but here you can see a typical behaviour when we where on the way to Schneeberg. You will see such photos later again. As I said, if you see 2 or more person in the same possition you almost can be sure that they must be VTers.... ;-)