To surprise my girlfriend on her birthday weekend i booked a room in Ramsau am Dachstein in Styria. It is an elevated plateau between the mountain Dachstein and the city Schladming. We arrived on Saturday evening and already witnessed a beautiful sunset. The last sunrays hit some cliffs and the edge of Dachstein, which looked spectacular.
The weather forecast for the next days didnt sound so good, but i hoped that we would get at least some hours of sunshine the next day to hike around a bit. When I was a kid I visited Ramsau am Dachstein every year with my family and grandparents so i knew the area quite well. I wanted to show my girlfriend some lovely places.
The next morning the sun woke us up early and we started our day soon. At first we walked around in the town center and the arena, where the Nordic World Ski Championships took place in 1999. After that we checked out a store that sells gemstones and fossils, called Mineralien Plut. This store is special because the owner throws out small gemstones onto the parking lot in front for everybody to find. I remember spending hours of searching those small stones to come back home with pockets full of different gems. My girlfriend and I found out that this is still a thing because we were able to find some gemstones.
After that we decided to hike at the Sattelberg because we got hungry and wanted to eat lunch at the Sattelberghütte. The weather still looked great and it seemed to be sunny for some more hours. Strengthened by the delicious food my girlfriend and I hiked back where we parked the car and drove back to our AirBnB. On the way we stopped to appreciate this scenery:
It was afternoon by then and we started our second hike directly from our accomodation. The trail lead us through the forests directly below the Dachstein, from one field to the other, past tree lines and small farms until we reached the town center. From there another trail lead us back where we started around two hours before. As it was evening clouds started to roll in and we decided to drive to Schladming to explore the city. Right when we got hungry and walked in a restaurant for dinner it started to rain. It was an eventful day and we were so lucky to have experienced it all without getting wet.
On monday it was still cloudy but I wanted to show my girlfriend an old mill and the Lodenwalker, a historic cloth manufacture, on the way back to Linz. Leaving Ramsau made me feel nostalgic as i have many pleasant childhood memories associated with this place. One hour later it was time for lunch so we stopped in Irdning at a restaurant. We also took a walk around Schloss Trautenfels before driving home and completing this wonderful trip.
