Currywurst mit ketchup: Hallstatt salt mines

Wednesday 26th

Another long drive across Austria, seemed to be retracing our steps... all my fault apparently because I wanted to go to the Belvedere Museum in Vienna! I cannot get my head around this map! Not to worry! It was, however, another lower route, probably more scenic, lots of mountains and curvy roads. What amazes me is the frequency of villages coming up on the road, one after another, makes for a very slow trip. We stayed at a place called Bad Goisern, Bad features a lot as prefix to place names, meaning spa town.

Inside a little roadside shrine... one of many

Yes, this is the shrine

Austrian Alps dotted with houses

Lake Hallstatt, v picturesque

Thursday 27th

Destination today is Hallstatt, site of the oldest salt mine in the world. Approach is along Lake Hallstatt, v scenic and would rival Lake Geneva in beauty, mountains on one side, beautiful old wooden houses up the hill. .

Hallstatt REAL tourist town and for a reason, - thick with tourists - obviously settled on the edge of the lake because of the salt mine. Archaeogical findings have found evidence of salt mining here from prehistoric times.
Salt mine tour very good, bit Disney, but included wooden slides down between different horizontals - levels - one was 64metres long... lots of fun and screams.
Interesting part was about Hallstatt miners in 1734 who uncovered the body of the miner preserved in salt. Today, it is assumed that the man perished in a mine accident some time during the 1st millennium BC.
When we left Hallstatt exit was via 1 way tunnel, due to road works. Some bright spark at the other end ran a redlight, so as exiting traffic left, in the tunnel we were met by a car coming towards us. Automatic lights at both ends of the tunnel meant that those coming in just kept on coming, 1 hour later it was cleared.... not enough vit B in the world to deal with these situations!