Day 10: May 23rd, Salt For The Soul And Fun for A Lifetime

Supposedly salt has some medicinal purposes, and while I may be no doctor I can tell you as someone with a nasty cold a nice brisk tour through a salt mine can really clear up the sinuses. That is was the brilliant mountain water and air. All I know is for a few hours of the day I had the best time of my life. While many people would thinking touring a salt mine is boring I was quite excited. I had never been to anything like this before, and I have always been fan of salt so what could be disappointing about that? In reality the mine was ten times better than anything I could have imagined. In a way it was an odd version of Disney-world complete with attractions. The first thing you do in order to enter the mines is ride a trolley that goes up the steps incline of the mountain. From there you take a short hike though the beautiful alps to the building where the mine entrance is. In there we get suited up in ill-fitting and odd colored pajama like clothes that have extra support on the butt for when we got to slide down the miners slides. That's right miners in the Hallstatt mine actually used slides to get form different chambers at one time in its operation, now they are used for the public's entertainment. After we got suited up we hiked ups little farther to the entrance to the mines. While caves usually don't freak me out but something about Hallstatt mine creeped me out (maybe the creepy music and german voice affected this feeling). For the beginning of the tour I was honestly scared until we went down our first slide. Now is may be the child that always lives in me or my desperation to have some fun but I was absolutely ecstatic to go down the slides. They didn't disappoint in the slightest and by the bottom of the slide I was no longer scared but excited to learn more about the salt mines. It was very interesting learning about eh history of the mine since it dates to over 7,000 years ago, but also learning functional things about eh mine like the different ways to mine the salt and the ways it is still active in the world salt market. I was most impressed with the archeological significance of the site. As the guide reported many times salt preserves everything so archeologists can learn a lot about the Bronze Age society and many other things. The most impressive exhibit was the display of the oldest known wooden staircase in the world. Used in the mines probably by the first miners it was a way to try and make their hard work a little easier. After that we left the mines to go admire more of the beautiful views Hallstatt had to offer.

Near the salt mines there is a viewing platform for people to take pictures of the lake and the mountains, and in all honesty there are no words to describe that view. It almost seemed fake, like you could reach out and rip away a corner as if it were a set. But it was beautiful and real and breath taking. I could have honestly stayed up there the whole time but I did want to see what the city of Hallstatt had to offer. The unique setting of town makes it quite the tourist section for many people all over the world. The views in from the town are some of the most amazing things you will ever see. So it was no surprise to me that the town was packed with tourists weaving out of restaurants an gift shops as we all tried to fir onto Hallstatt's one street. While the tourist part of the city was alive and well you could still tell people actually live there whether it be a car taking up the one lane or residents on bikes passing you in the street. I loved the obvious german influence on the town with the architecture and flower baskets on the window sills.