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.