On 6th August we had a beautiful day trip to one of the most famous mountains in Lower Austria. Our group of forty persons, scholarship holders and OeAD staff, met early in the morning. After a short bus trip, we reached Puchberg am Schneeberg.
In only 40 minutes the impressing Schneeberg-Railway "Salamander" took us from Puchberg up to Hochschneeberg station at an elevation of 1800 m.
At the top on the Panorama Paradise trail we could have had a surrounding mountain scenery in all its glory, but unfortunately, the weather was not very good - it was windy and quite foggy.
So we took a few group photos and started hiking. In the middle of the tour we made a short presentation round so that all participants could get to know each other and their research interest.
After a leisurely trek and a final steep climb to the summit of the Schneeberg, we arrived at the mountain restaurant where we were already expected.
In the ”Fischerhütte” we had time to warm up and fortify ourselves with a warm meal and tea.
As we sat in the hut, it started to rain. Since not all of us had rain jackets, we had to improvise. The restaurant manager gave us a pack of rubbish bags from which we created our rain protection.
Fortunately, the rain subsided and we were able to take a leisurely walk back to the starting point of the hike. Just before we arrived back at the top station of the Salamander Railway, we had the opportunity to climb the small Schneeberg peak.
Afterwards, the Salamander railway took us back to Puchberg, where our bus was already waiting. Even though the weather was bad, we had a wonderful day of hiking and were able to meet new people and made exciting new experiences.
Here are a few comments from our scholars:
“It was fun. It was nice to get to know other scholarship members. Even though the weather was not nice, we still managed to.”
“I liked the hiking challenge when it was too windy. It was one of my best days in Austria.”
