Semmering Things to Do

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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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This lovely Art-Nouveau / Jugenstil-Villa is one of my favorite buildings of Semmering: it dates back to the year 1900 and it is privately owned, you even can buy 2 appartments inside of there at the moment (Aug2007). This building is a good excemple of a typical building of Semmering, unfortnately a lot of houses of that time are in a bad condition and obviously given up by their owners after the times of the "booming" tourism at the end of the 19th century.

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Take a look inside the lovely, small church of the village of Semmering, it is just a few meters from the end of Hotel Panhans, when walking along Hochstrasse. You can enter the small church freely and without restrictions during the day, outside it reminds me a bit of Art-Nouveau-style, inside it is somehow mixed between different styles and the best are the windows of colorfull glass and the fact that you can see them from a very short distance.
Dont miss the scenic house of the priest, next to the church, see my next tip !

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Panhans is the leading hotel of Semmering, a giant 4-star-hotel of the traditional kind, and the only one of the old Semmering - Grand hotels, that is still open for the public. It was recently restored and adapted to the modern times, with a spa and wellness-area, a large covered garage for the hotel-guests and a big part of the old building was also transfered into a school for Hotel-managment.
Take a look inside the Grandhotel Panhans in order to see the lovely interior, take your afternoon-tea and enjoy the view from their terrace.

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Dont miss that lovely wooden house with ornate decorations, it could easily be overseen, because the biggest part of it is hidden behind some trees. It belongs to the church, so it could be the house of the priest maybe.
Take a closer look, the ground around of it is not fenced in and there is a street passing by leading to a public hall, so you can take pics from a short distance as well. Unfortunately the best decorations are under the roof and you can take pics only from the street, in quite a distance and with some buses in between...

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Alpengarten at Rax was my favorite place to be because it was there where I saw my first real Edelweiss in the free nature and it was not only a single one, but hundreds of them togeather with lots of other alpine flowers!
When hiking you hardly ever see Edelweiss, simply because animals like chamois / Gemse love to eat it for desert, but at Alpengarten they obviously cant jump across the fence and so these lovely flowers can survive.
Edelweiss are under strict protection and picking them as a souvenir is a serious crime. I am quite sure 98% of all customs-officers in the world know them and might fine you and take away the Edelweiss anyway, so leave it where it is and take just photographs home with you !

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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 !

If you are into hiking in the mountains, Semmering is the place to be. They have some beautiful tracks giving you the alternative of either walking up the mountain or taking the chair-lift, which is relatively expensive though.