Hallstatt 6 September 2017

We woke at 6.00am to the sound of church bells immediately next door which seemed to last for several minutes, not sure why they were ringing.  There was a large funeral in town later that day so that may have been the connection.

We were in no hurry to rise and shine, and the weather was a bit overcast and rainy.

The view from our hotel was still magical but we were very glad we had seen it in the sun yesterday.  The tops of the adjacent mountains were covered in cloud.

After a leisurely breakfast overlooking the lake we ventured out with our umbrellas and meandered through town. Before long the rain had stopped and the cloud began to clear and blue skies appeared.

 We then decided that the time was right to take the funicular up the mountain behind the town, and a short time later we were in the funicular car heading up the mountain.  At the top there is a stunning viewing platform which looks straight down on to the town and across the valley to other more distant villages.

Sabine stayed and admired the view while Sam headed off the visit the salt mine, he got there just in time for a guided tour.

The mine is the oldest salt mine in the world, it has been operating for 7000 years, and is still producing salt to this day.  We learnt how the salt deposits were formed millions of years ago by continual drying out of salt lakes until they were several hundred metres thick, and then with geological events such as volcanic activity they were covered with rock and before long were deep under the surface.

Original mining techniques were by using simple tools such as deer antlers as picks, eventually evolving to bronze implements during the bronze age.  Salt was literally chipped from the rock face.  In recent years human remains have been found within the mine presumably from accidents over the years and the bodies and clothing have been preserved by the salt. The oldest wooden staircase in Europe has been discovered in the mine.

Modern salt extraction methods are by dissolving the salt in situ and pumping it out to a plant 40 km away where the brine is heated to evaporate off the water.

As part of the tour we slid down two miners slides to get to lower levels of the mine, on the second slide which was 64 metres long Sam was measured as travelling at over 31 km/hr, it was such fun.

The whole tour was fabulous and lasted 90 minutes, by the time we got back the sun had gone and it was raining, but not too heavily.

A quick stroll back to the hotel for a bit of a rest.

Shortly after that we heard the sounds of church bells and a brass band so we looked out our balcony and could see a large funeral procession passing along the streets, with the band leading followed by the altar servers, the priest, the banner holders, the cross holder, the coffin on a special trolley, and the mourners.  It was a good hour and a half later that the procession finished in the town plaza and the coffin was placed in the hearse and driven away as the band continued to play and the church bells continued ringing.  Everyone then dispersed, it must have been a person of great importance.

Later we went out for a bite to eat, but it started to rain again so we did not go far.

In the morning we are back on the ferry again for another big day on the trains to get to Lugano in Switzerland. Sabine and Sam