Ozlilly's musings...

You know the Chinese have made a mirror image of the city of Hallstatt. Some colleagues at the Vital Hotel Heilbrunn took a day trip to Hallstatt. One couple said they could not find a parking spot and the town was full of busloads of Chinese and Japanese tourists. Another couple went on Sunday morning and said it was no problem at all. We went on Sunday after lunch. The drive there was breathtaking. The views of the snow covered mountains in the sunshine, the spring just breaking through with some trees beginning to bud after a long, cold, heavy winter. We stopped by the late Hallstätter See and observed a scuba diver go under water and watched his bubbles coming to the surface of the lake. The birds were singing. The lake was so clear. There were a few other people enjoying the lake, some even waded into the water without a wetsuit.

Then we drove on to the town itself. And guess what? We couldn’t find a parking spot. There were tourist buses and cars and people. We drove through the town about three times, and just when we thought we had found a spot which had just been vacated, it turned out to be a  disabled car parking spot. So we did another round through the town, through the tunnel, U-turn, and then took a side street. We ended up near the school and found a spot. Thankfully, this was even closer to the Salt Works than the other places. So we walked to the Salt Works and decided to do the tour.

Did you know that the oldest salt-mine in the world is in Austria? No? Well, it is this very mine which we went through today, And it is reputed to be SEVEN THOUSAND YEARS OLD! Can you imagine? The tour took an hour and a half. The guide spoke English and German. There were lots of steps to climb and some nature walking. I got my ten thousand steps today. I really enjoyed the tour and thought it was extremely well done. Highly recommend it. Wish I had taken my kids here. Would only recommend it if your kids are fit and interested.

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