Monday, November 2, 2009

Hallstatt... Finally!

Sorry it's taken me so long to get pics of Hallstatt up. Between a BIG German test and being sick as heck with I'm not sure what, It's been a crazy few days.

Anyway, as you know, I spent most of last Thursday in Hallstatt, Austria. It's a beautiful little down midway between Salzburg and Vienna, in the heart of Austria's Lake District.



The town's actually so small that it's train station isn't even in the town; it's on the other side of the lake and you need to take a ferry across (which is where I took that picture).



The town is also built literally right on the side of a mountain, which is why the buildings are stacked one on top of another like that.

For centuries, Hallstatt was central to Austria's economy because it was located next to a massive deposit of salt, which was the lifeblood of Austria's economy up until the 1800s. The salt mine, which is located in the mountain above Hallstatt, is still operational. However, enough of the salt has been removed that the mine - or at least the already-cleared parts of it - are open for tours. There's a hiking trail that takes you from the town up to the mine. Even though I was pretty sure the mine was closed, I decided to hike up anyway. Here are some pictures from the trail.











It took about an hour for me to hike up, and maybe another hour to hike back down. Unfortunately, that left me with another hour before the train I needed to catch arrived, so I wandered around the town and the lakeside for a while.







Little history lesson; Austria's Empress Elizabeth, better known as Sisi, loved swans. Since Hallstatt was among her favorite places to visit, the locals always made sure there were plenty of swans on the lake. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago, so I only saw a grand total of two swans on the entire lake.



Just before the ferry arrived to take me back to the train station, it stated to rain, so I put away the camera. It didn't really matter, though; I'd seen the town and had a great time, even if I was drop-dead exhausted from hiking up a bloody mountain! So I got back to Salzburg without incident, and went to Mauthausen the next day.

Anyhow, I'm leaving for Italy on Thursday morning. Four days in Florence, three days in Rome, and I'm going to try and do a day or two in Venice (if I can get anyone else to come with me; that's our free weekend). I'll try and get some pics of Mauthausen put up before I leave. If not, then at some point in the future; again, I'm not sure if, when, or where I'll have Internet access.

Until next time, peace.

-Raptor

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