Now, there's not much to the town of Semmering, so before I even realized we were really in the town I saw the ski slope. We drove right up to the base and found a great parking spot. Skis rented. Lift passes purchased. Check and check. We were ready to hit the slopes.
Well, sort of. It must have been mentioned in passing before, but I didn't really realize that Mel wasn't much of a skier. In fact, she wasn't a skier at all. She had never tried it before. Will's a snowboarder, so he wasn't exactly helpful on that front, either. But, hey, it's not like I was missing out on any fantastically thrilling runs by sticking on the beginner slopes, so I spent the morning teaching her how to ski. I've sort of helped out with giving pointers and whatnot, but I've never actively taught someone to ski before, so that was new and kind of exciting. I took her poles and perfected my backwards skiing technique, trying to get her to imitate the angles I was making with my skis (aka "pizza" and "french fries") and following my path when I turned. I was actually amazed at how quickly she picked it up! Not that I have much of a basis for comparison, but I thought she did really well.
There was one main lift to the peak from the base with beginner runs branching off one way and the intermediate runs (and one advanced, which was closed because most of the snow was melted), going down the other 2/3 of the mountain. We made quite a few laps of that before stopping for lunch at a warming house at the top of the lift.
You can't see them in the above picture, but to the right of this warming house there were a lot of sun bathers...
We had a really good, filling meal with a great view of the valley and distant peaks. Mel also tried a specialty her students had told her about: a giant dough ball filled with apricot marmalade (have I mentioned how much Austrians love their apricot?), soaking in a kiddie pool of butter, and dumped on with about two inches of poppyseed powder. For as odd of a combination as that sounds, it wasn't too bad. Not exactly something I would find satisfying, but I was happy to try a bite of it since she got one.
After lunch we made another run down, then asked about the sled (or 'sledge', as the British apparently say which the Austrians have adopted) option we had read about. We had noticed a lot of people going up the lift with sleds and saw the track curved around from the top to the bottom. Apparently it was also lit up at night. We paid 6€ to rent a sled, Mel and I dropped our skis while Will made another run, and we were off.
Now, I full admit that I am not much of a sledder, so I decided to let Mel take the, uh, reins on this one. These things really should come with instruction manuals. Perhaps because we were still in our ski boots, Mel was reluctant to use them as our brakes and I wasn't any more knowledgable about the best way to steer, so we ended up creating a sort of leaning method which would start to make us move one way or another on the track until we came upon hairpin turns and would go careening into the snow drifts on the sides and topple off. Well, we can't say we didn't try, and the themes along the way were interesting (and I imagine had the potential to be quite psychedelic, perhaps even horrifying, at night if you had had a few drinks). We were slightly more successful when we switched drivers halfway down and I attempted using my feet to steer, but we were still a little battered and pretty exhausted by the time we got down.
Will and Mel then made a run (apparently much more successfully, which Will thinks may have been influenced by a more significant weight difference between them, too) while I spent the final hour or so skiing the intermediate slopes. Nothing to write home about, but they were almost completely empty so I could really cruise.
Afterwards we weren't really hungry and the après ski scene wasn't really happening, so we decided to try and find a café in Semmering. We'd heard it's supposedly a really scenic little town with a lot of history, and we had seen a glimpse of at least one interesting thing from the slopes - a neat house on the side of a mountain.
We weren't successful in the slightest in finding a café, but there were definitely some other interesting finds, such as the old Südbahn Hotel. Mel was explaining how, much like the Vanderbilts in the US, there was a man who really fathered the rail system through Austria, but eventually it was taken over by the government. I read up on this more when I got back. Apparently Johann of Austria (1782 - 1859), member of the House of Habsburgs, was impressed by the steam engines he saw in his 1815 travel through England and made a huge push for the expansion of the rail lines throughout the Habsburg's empire. Of course, when they fell, the government took over and this Southern Railway is now operated by the ÖBB, Austria's Federal railway operator. Anyway, Johann of Austria built this hotel along the Southern Railway; I bet it would have been quite something to stay there!
There were also charming wooden houses with lots of detailed painting.
However, since we never really did find a café, we hit the road back to Vienna, stopping off at a gas station with a Landzeit 'Autobahn Restaurant'. Will informed us that these are essentially the Cracker Barrels of Austria (complete with gift stores). We ate some quick waffles with chocolate sauce, then continued on our way, making it back to Vienna by about 6:30. Not a bad day at all, if I do say.
I think I'd really like to go back out to Semmering in the spring sometime and wander around the town and see if I can discover some more of the Südbahn Hotel's history. Steffi, my cellist friend, played a concert out there last summer and had highly recommended it, and if I recall correctly even said that you could still go in the hotel. I'll need to look into this for sure.
Bis bald!
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