A Slippery Jause

If one visits Schafberg at the end of October, one must be prepared. It’s not only stupid tourists with screaming kids that one has to endure – those are present throughout the year. Why would anyone take a kid under the age of six up a mountain is totally beyond me. These kids are not going to remember anything when they grow up (even if it’s the Austrian steepest cog-wheel train and is kind of cool). On the other hand, the poor adults sharing the train with the kids are going to remember their cries well for a long time.

No, what I want to say is that at the end of October one should not expect the weather to cooperate. Today, it was very unpleasantly windy on Schafberg’s top, and it even snowed at one point. When my train arrived at the mountain station, the paths were covered with snow and ice, and I had quite an entertainment watching Japanese tourists with flat shoe soles struggling their way to the main viewing points, continuously falling and crawling on all fours. Even though my own shoes were much better than theirs, I was quite worried about getting back to the station; after all, walking uphill is much easier than walking downhill.

Hotel Schafbergspitze is one of the two locations to enjoy a Brettljause at the top of Schafberg, and compared to its competition, Gaststätte Himmelspforte, the hotel is the uglier one, at least this time of the year. The Schafbergspitze must be making money as a one-night sleepover place for those looking for spectacular sunsets or sunrises, but during the day it is a very touristic and highly overpriced restaurant that still does not accept cards as means of payment.

While I have certain understanding for higher prices since the only way of delivering fresh food to Schafberg is by using the above-mentioned cogwheel train, the Brettljause of Schafbergspitze would have been sub-standard at any price. It was, basically, a mix of four thinly cut supermarket-grade meats and a boring cheese, served with a Pfefferoni, rather good horseradish and rather bad bread. I would have rated the dish even lower were it not for a single slice of Geselchtes that was surprisingly tasty. The other slices were not, however, so my luck was some sort of a statistical error. I was also not amused by receiving bottled beer instead of the tap beer listed on the menu.

The most positive side of my lunch was, however, the fact that while I was eating, the ice I was so afraid of melted, so the walk down to the train station was quite easy. I even thought of walking back to St. Gilgen instead of taking the train (thus avoiding screaming kids), but unfortunately the signs for the hiking routes were all misplaced, suggesting an easy walk in the beginning, but turning into a black path (read: certain death) later on, forcing me to turn back.