Salzburg and Hallstatt. Gorgeousness,

We decided to get up first thing in the morning to see the city.  I am very glad we did.  After breakfast in the hostel, Jen and I headed out into old town, and had fun taking pictures of everything in the morning light.  It was also nice for photographing because not very many other people were out and about, so we had unobstructed shots of most everything.  There was a large golden sphere with a man standing on top, fountains, statues, and my favorite, a statue of Mozart that someone had put a post bag in his hand. It was postman Mozart!

We slowly made our way toward the train station in a meandering fashion to get a ride to Attnung-Puthheim and then onward to Hallstatt.  The train ride alone made it worth while!  Past lakes and mountains, through tiny little towns. We even had to stop sometimes because there was only one track and another train needed to pass at set points. I had wanted to see Hallstatt since watching an episode of Rick Steves on it, and at Heather's wedding, Ryan had mentioned it to me as somewhere I needed to go.  This just solidified it for me as a must see.  And they did not lead me astray!

When you get off the train, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, you make your way down to the ferry dock, where a ferry meets every train for passengers to funnel you across the lake to the town.  Set in a little valley between two mountains, right on the waters edge.  It couldn't have been more beautiful, with all the trees starting to change color, so that the roofs and steeples were backdropped with green, yellow, orange, and red.  Further up the lake we could see people paragliding  down into another village.  

The one thing I really wanted to do here was to tour the old salt mine.  Hallstatt has one of the oldest salt mines, and even has a time era named the Hallstatt Period after it when they were one of the most powerful salt traders around.  They traded all the way down into Africa, or so their burial grounds show from the quantity of artifacts from all over.  

To get up to the mine, which is near the top of the mountain, you have to take a tram up the side of the mountain.  While I find this to be beautiful, in fact I may have been plastered to the side of the car trying to look over the edge as much as I could, Jen is afraid of heights.  She did great though, and toughed her way through it.  I told her she could stay down in the town and see that if she would prefer, but she was determined to face her fear on this one.  Once up there, the view was even more spectacular than I had hoped.  The Alps really are gorgeous, especially in the fall.  

After some photo ops, we headed up the guided trail, set with informational points along the way.  This was the first grave that was found, here is where we found evidence of settlements, here is where we are trying to recreate their way of life.  It was enough to be interesting, but brief enough to keep you moving.  Then at the top of the path was the mine tour.  We had to put on outfits that were like ill-fitting scrubs, with a different material on the back of the thighs, and then our guide stepped up.  He was a great guide.  No-nonsense (good since there was also a high school on a field trip in our group), but fun.  He wore traditional miner uniform, which we learned is buttoned the way it is in honor of the patron saint of miners.  

We went 300 meters into the mountain through tunnels, and watched an informational video, complete with English subtitles.  Then came the slides.  There were two of them, one is the longest slide in Europe.  This is why there was the alternate material in our pants.  You sit in the slide with your legs outside, so you need the material to keep you moving where it rubs on the edge of the slides.  On the second slide they clock your speed.  I managed 31.5 kph, which wasn't the fastest, but it was one of the five fastest.  36.2 was the top winner.  So much fun!

Then we were put onto a little train where we all sat single file.  There was a cute Asian family sitting behind me, and the dad and daughter started singing "Gangnam Style!" and all I could do was laugh.  As we all changed out of our scrubs, they passed out little shakers of Hallstatt salt for us to take home.  

Then we were down the mountain, and walking through town to catch one of the last ferries back over for our train.   It was an uneventful trip back to Salzburg. We kept it simple and had a kebob sandwich for dinner and were going to call it an early night.  Until we realized our hostel was playing "The Sound of Music" when we got back, and were just about to start singing ''Do-Re-Mi.'  We got sucked in and watched most of the movie before heading to bed.  Whoops!