Taking our son to the Austrian mountains had to include a ride with the historic steam train at the Schneeberg near Vienna!
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| Steam Train working since 1900 @ Schneeberg |
Via park4night I found a hotel which allows campers to stay overnight. As it was exactly where our hike would end, it was the perfect spot for the planned tour at the Schneeberg. (Forellenhof: 47.790804, 15.842989) If you eat at their restaurant, the night is free. We had fresh trouts for dinner, which came from the ponds just next to our camper!
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| Parking for the night @ Forellenhof |
In the morning, we took the bus to Puchberg, from where the cog railway starts to climb up the mountain. At the train station, an exhibition about the history of the train gave some insight.
Nowadays, modern trains called Salamander do the same route in much shorter time and the steam train runs only on weekends in summer. But of course we wanted the full experience and had made reservations for the old and slow version.
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| Enough coal for the ride |
Water was filled up, lots of coal loaded, and every bit greased, before we set off for the long ride up. The track is 10km long, during which 1,220m in height have to be overcome! The train had to stop twice to fill up water before we reached the Hochschneeberg station at 1,800 m.
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| Water had to be filled up twice |
The experience at the 2 tunnels before the mountain station was fun. When we reached the first one, all the windows were open as it was a very hot day. At the beginning the cooler air of the tunnel came in, but as soon as the steam train had entered the tunnel and the steam couldn’t escape we felt like in a sauna. Hot steam and smoke filled the compartments and everybody started to sweat heavily. When we reached the second tunnel, we hurried to close the windows in time, which made it much more comfortable.
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| Stop at the middle station |
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| Finally, we reached Hochschneeberg |
From the mountain station it is first an easy walk over the Alm before the climb to the top starts.
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| Crossing the last field of snow was fun |
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| Fischer Hütte @ Schneeberg |
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| Incredible views over the Alpes |
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| Silberwurz or mountain avens |
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| The first part of the descent was quite rough .. |
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| .. but finally we reached a lovely forest |
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| Händelwurz or fragrant orchid |
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| Reaching the lower pastures |
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| Akeleiblättrige Wiesenraute or columbine meadow-rue |
