Hallstatt-Salzberg

Hallstatt has definitely made my top ten list for the trip. It´s 1500 feet up in the Alps, southeast of Salzberg. The tiny town (over 1000 years old) has been a vacation spot for Austria royalty for the last 500 years. It´s nestled at the edge of the Hallstatter See, surrounded by mountains, and is reached by ferry. Elese and I spent the first day climbing up to the salt mines above the town, strolling the main (and only) street, and enjoying the local beer at a small bar under a large umbrella (aptly named the umbrella bar). Tourism appears to pick up in June--the town was nearly empty, with only a handful of foreigners.

We rented bikes on Tuesday (or rather were given a set for free at a local hotel) and pedalled around the lake to Obertraun, a slightly larger town known for its snow caves. The scenery is breathtaking--snowcapped mountains, fields of wildflowers, lush greenery everywhere you look. We detoured through the mountains on a hiking trail that overlooked the entire valley. I can´t wait to see how the pictures turn out.

Hallstatt has a small, 12-century chapel that holds the leg bones and skulls of roughly 1200 local inhabitants. The skulls are beautifully painted with flowers and leaves, and each labeled with the date of death and person´s name. It sounds a bit macabre, but really wasn´t--the overall feeling is one of realism about death, respect, and even love for the people that were placed there. As Elese put it, it was the best euro we´ve spent yet.

I´m not seeing Salzberg under the best of conditions. It has poured today, and the temperature is down around 40 degrees. I can definitely tell that this would be a fine place to visit in the summer, but there are few indoor activities. Everything our guidebook recommends involves being outdoors. We did tour the fortress on the top of the hill to get our daily dose of culture (a decidedly ho-hum experience), and endured a few hours in the rain to stroll the town and some gardens. I´m looking forward to a rousing game of uno and more local beer tonight. We´re off to Innsbrook tomorrow, which thankfully does have a few things to see indoors.