From Vienna -- get off at stop Wien Meidling (Bahnhof)…read more train Railjet every hour at :58 (to Graz) - get off in Wiener Neustadt and change trains train REX or Regionalzug to Payerbach-Reichenau bus 1746 to Hirschwang Raxseilbahn starting point: Hirschwang (bus stop 2.) = valley station of the cable car The cables ride is about 32€ Quick ride up the cable to reach your first destination up the mountain. walk to first mountain hut/restaurant: Ottohaus (Schutzhaus Otto) (3:30 hours) from there you can go to mountain huts/restaurants: Neue Seehütte (+1 hour) or the top of the mountain / top cable car stop Rax(alm) Berggasthof

The Klosterneuburgerhütte, established in 1929, is one of my favorite mountain lodges in the…read moreAustrian Alps above the treeline. This great place is a registered Austrian mountain cabin with a marvelous panoramic view onto the region as well as onto bordering Austrian states such as Carinthia. The cabin also provides a glass roofed sun terrace giving shelter. This lodge is easy to reach as it is located at the end of a paved mountain road at a wind farm with its 12 wind turbines and rotors so far (60 - 120 meters tall), as private wind farm producing energy for the public power grid of the region. Half the way up to the Klosterneuburgerhütte there is a toll station on the road which demands 5 Euros for the maintenance of the road. But as soon as you reached the Alm (the term for the Austrian top of the mountains) you can get into the Klosterneuburgerhütte and have lovely local Austrian food and drinks in a traditional county-style atmosphere with a friendly couple from South-Western Styria who are running this place. By the way it's 38 Euros per night (fully equipped bed with sheet, breakfast and supper included) if you decide to stay over night at the Klosterneuburgerhütte in order to explore the scenic area from here by hiking for instance. From here you can have extended hiking tours to other mountain peaks of the Austrian Alps in the region as well as to the mountain tops of the surrounding Kleiner Zinken and the Hoher Zinken peak which both are within close reach and only 2 hours away or a little more depending on your hiking speed. But here at the Klosterneuburgerhütte it's the closest you will get to a mountain peak, as you can drive all the way up to the Klosterneuburgerhütte cabin (at 1902 meters) and then you will hike some 300 meters elevation gain all the way up to the Hoher Zinken. This hiking tour of about 2 hours let you beat retreat anytime if the weather changes. But there is a small wooden Anna-Kapelle one the way providing shelter. Anyway at the Klosterneuburgerhütte we had a lovely Steirerkäsebrot (a delicious cheese bread with traditional tasty cheese, called Steirerkäse or Styrian Cheese) together with a Gösser Kracherl, a non-alcoholic new alternative by the Gösser beer brewery for hikers like us. From the Klosterneuburgerhütte with love! Dr. Dr. Immanuel Fruhmann