Hallstatt

We packed our bags and left our comfortable hotel early Sunday morning for what would be a long day of travel. Our plan was to take the train from Salzburg to Attnang-Puchheim, store our luggage in a day locker, and then take another train from there to Hallstatt. After visiting Hallstatt, we would take a train back to Attnang-Puchheim, then transfer to a train that would take us on to Vienna. All in all it would be about 6 hours of train travel time.

Hallstatt is a small town situated in the Mountain/Lake District above Salzburg. It's main importance is that it contains the oldest Salt Mine in the world. There is evidence that it has been mined for salt for over 3000 years. Salt from this mine was sent to Rome.





It is built into a very small space along the edge of a lake. In fact it is so small, that the train actually stops on the other side of the lake, and from there you need to take a boat to cross the lake to the town. It is amazingly picturesque, and I can only image how beautiful it would be if the weather had been better. Unfortunately for us, it was overcast and rainy a bit.

We walked around the cute little town that was originally built to service the mine, but has since become a bit of a tourist spot.



Towering over the town is the Catholic Church and its small graveyard.



The graveyard is so small in fact that people are only allowed to be buried in it for 20 years.






After that time, the bones are exhumed and placed in the bone cemetary building just above the cemetary.







The skulls are labeled with the name of the person and their dates, and with some religious symbols. It is a strange custom, but understandably necessary given the land restrictions.







The views from the church are spectacular, and we paused to enjoy them for a moment after seeing all the macabre piles of bones.








From town, it is a short walk over to the funicular that will take you to the Salt Mine. It is amazing to see how much the town is built right up to and over the water.







Along the way, we came across a shop selling Edelweiss. Though not the national flower of Austria, it certainly is probably one of the most famous thanks to Sound of Music.






The Salt Mine is the number one tourist attraction in Hallstatt. Tony wasn't impressed, but I loved it. I highly recommend taking it despite its slightly kitchy aspects.





You ride a funicular up the side of the mountain a ways, and then walk from there through the forest to the original mine sight.





On a clear day, I bet the views alone would be worth the price of admission.




Once at the mine, you put on miner's overalls to both keep you warm in the cool mine as well as to protect your clothing.









I think it just makes for a good photo opportunity. . .




The original mine entrance has this really cool door on it, and upon entering you really do feel that you are going into a unique place.



You walk into the mountain a good 300 yards before stopping to learn how the salt deposits came to be in these mountains. Evidently these mountains were once under the ocean, and the salt from the seas settled into the earth here.





And they've been mining it ever since. . .

There are some fun traditional wooden miners slides in the mine, and you get to ride down them. The mine if pretty extensive.

Before long, it was time to make our way to the boat to make it to the train to make our connection at Attnang-Puchheim to get to Vienna. It was crazy making all of these connections, and it was a tight schedule, but we made it.

Thankfully the trains were comfortable, and I think I actually nodded off briefly. We made it to Vienna a little after 9pm, and headed straight to our hotel. It had been a long but fun day.

Salzburg - Mozarts Home and Augustiner Brau

I woke on July 2nd to my birthday. It was going to be a great day. We didn't have too much on the agenda, as we'd seen most of the main attractions the day before. We went to the breakfast room and had a lovely breakfast before heading out to see the main Saturday Farmers Market.




Most of the food is organic and absolutely beautiful. If we lived in Salzburg, we would definitely be regulars at this market.






There was a wonderful Lavender stand, and I would have loved to bring some of it back to London as it smelled absolutely wonderful.




We did however pickup a vial of Salzburg Salt and some of the most amazing Cherries I've ever seen. They were huge, and boy were they good.

Amazingly, we avoided buying any of those touristy Mozart Chocolates.

After the market, we wandered across the river to the "newer" section of Salzburg. This is definitely where more of the local people live.

We made our way over to the home where Mozart lived with his family for a good part of his time in Salzburg. It was damaged in WWII, but was recently restored to its appearance before the war. It was a nice museum, not necessarily filled with actual Mozart artifacts, but it had lots of similar instruments to ones that he would have used, and it was a pleasant space to absorb some of that Mozart energy of Salzburg's favorite son.




We also visited the former site of the local brothel used by troops in WWII. Right nearby is a huge gouge in the road wall where an American GI tried to drive a tank down a narrow road. He didn't make it.

There was a street music fair going on over in the new town, so we paused to have a Steigl beer(the largest local brewer), a pretzel, and take in some of the music. It was a fun time. I even got to practice speaking some of my German on a drunk local.

We didn't have a whole lot else on the agenda that day other than to relax and enjoy the city and to wander the streets.





And that is a wonderful way to spend a day in Salzburg.





We discovered the original location of the Stiegl Brewhaus. it is built into the hillside below the castle. It isn't their current location any longer, but as they were brewing beer there before the new world was discovered, their signage is still in place.






For my birthday cake, we stopped for a slice of Sacher Torte at Furst Chocolatiers. It was moist rich chocolatey goodness. I'll have to try making this myself when I get home.




We discovered that they were going to be performing one of Mozart's original Masses at the Salzburg Cathedral for which he wrote the Mass. A large choir comprised of several choirs from the US was going to be performing. We decided to go and listen to it. It was a beautiful concert.



For dinner that evening, we went to the local monastery that also happens to make some of the best beer in Salzburg, Augustiner Brau. It is a bit of a walk from the center of town, but it was a pleasant evening, so it made for a lovely walk.








I was really impressed with the scale of the operation. The Augustiner monks are doing very well for themselves with the brewery. They have a cavernous indoor beer hall as well as a sizable beer garden outdoors.




Obtaining your beer is kind of a do it yourself operation. We purchased our beers and grabbed the appropriate sized mug from the shelf.











Then we rinsed it in the water fountain (I'm sure it is Holy Water). . .






Finally, it is then filled from the barrel on tap. And it really was an old fashioned barrel.








For food, there are different food stalls all selling Austrian food dishes. We got a ham plate with sauerkraut and a roasted pork belly with potato salad. Both were delicious.





Tony wasn't particularly thrilled with the sauerkraut, but as we sort of split the food between us so we could try both, it worked out okay. I think I ended up eating most of the sauerkraut. It was a very memorable 46th Birthday Dinner.

Salzburg - The Sound of Music Tour and Nockerl

When we decided to visit Salzburg, right at the top of our list of activities we had to do was the Sound of Music tour. As the 1965 film is basically a travelogue for Salzburg, we knew it would be a must.




The tour we took was nice, though it was a little too serious for its own good. The film, though a well loved classic throughout the world, did not find an audience in Austria until 2000. This is often attributed as its release being still a bit too close to World War II for the Austrians to appreciate the film minus its WWII connection.


They drove us all over Salzburg into the neighboring suburbs and ultimately portions of the nearby lake district. Unfortunately, a lot of the filming locations are private property, so you can only get so close. The yellow house used for the backyard exteriors belonged to Max Rheinhart, who created the Salzburg Music Festival featured in the movie, and still runs to this day. Today, the house is owned by a US university, as a conference center. We were only able to get as close as the opposite side of the lake from it.

The famouse gazebo featured in the film was given to the city by 20th Century Fox, and that is now located in a public park.

Along the way, we stopped for a brief "strudel break" at a restaurant that serves Julie Andrew's favorite Apfelstrudel. I had to have piece. So much strudel - so little time.



We drove on a bit further, past Arnold Schwarzenegger's hometown until we came to the church used in Sound of Music for the wedding scene. Surprisingly, it is about one hour outside of Salzburg.



It was absolutely beautiful, having recently been renovated. Guess being used as a film location in a popular classic film doesn't hurt.






Though not related to The Sound of Music, we passed one other important site on our tour, especially to the people in visual effects - the headquarters for Red Bull Energy Drinks. I'm guessing this is Austria's No. 1 export at the moment.



The tour ended at the Mirabell Gardens. This location was used extensively in the Do Re Mi number where the kids are jumping up and down the steps and peaking out from behind the statues.


Somehow, I got Tony to reenact the jumping up and down the steps bit from the film. There were actually quite a few people (Americans) doing it.

The gardens are beautiful, and if it hadn't been rainy, I bet they would have been even prettier. We wandered around them enjoying the lovely public spaces.






After the tour, Tony and I had to visit the Convent where Julie Andrews' character lived. This wasn't on the tour, but was part of our own extended tour. We found the gates where the kids had come to beg her to return to them. Evidently this scene is based on truth, and these were the gates where it really did happen. This was also the church where the real VonTrapp's were married.

That evening for dinner, we were exhausted so we ate at the hotel. We had an amazing dessert called Salzburg Nockerl. It is an eggy dish much like a Souffle, except the whipped eggs are served over a bed of fruit compote.

As berries are in season, we got to have it served over a wonderful fresh berry compote. Absolutely amazing and very filling. We couldn't eat it all, and after crying for mercy, we crawled up to our hotel room to bed. What a busy day!