Published on : Saturday, March 2, 2019
Only the light rushing of the Wimbach River, birdsong and horse hooves in the snow can be heard. The mountains of the Alps can be seen, standing majestically around the small village of Ramsau at the south-easternmost tip of Bavaria.
Now ski slopes wide as highways with artificial snow, huge lift complexes and après-ski chalets turn many villages in the Alps into hellish holiday hot spots with a large number of visitors every year.
Decades ago, Ramsau also wanted a cable car up Mount Watzmann, Germany’s most distinctive peak. But in the late 1970s, with the establishment of the national park, the plans were shelved for good.
In place of large concrete tourist developments, there are mainly small hotels and guesthouses here. The locals here prefer to breed rare sheep. Instead of taking sixteen-passenger gondolas, guests can ski the cross-country trails. Ramsau has the highest number of alpine guides in Germany, and as tourism director, Fritz Rasp has a hard time including all tours in the brochures for visitors.
In 2015, Ramsau was designated a mountaineering village, the first of its kind in Germany.
Tags: germany