Day 3: An Archaeological Era
After a final tasty breakfast at the Hofwirt we meet the bus and our driver Hilde outside for a 9:30 departure to Hallstatt.
The scenery is gorgeous as we drive through the Austrian lake country, and we talk about what we did in Salzburg. Other members of our group did the Sound of Music tour, the Eagles Nest tour, city tour, and a concert at the fortress. We did not run into a single member of our group while we were poking around Salzburg.
The drive to Hallstatt takes about two hours. Hilde drops us off on one side of the small town, and we take our bags and walk toward the hotel. Along the way we stop and Rick tells us about the Nazi medals found discarded in the lake.
A view of the lake, and the basket of beer the bus company sent Rick, destined to be consumed at evening happy hour.
When we arrive at the hotel our rooms are not ready, so we store our bags and go behind the hotel to play the Name Game. I have read others complain about this traditional aspect of a Rick Steves tour, but I find it fun watching Rick maneuver Trish to go last, so she has to remember everyone's name (although actually I think Trish already knew all our names), seeing the kids triumphantly remember them all, and just everyone laughing and having a good time. Next most of the members of our group go up to the salt mine, but we do not since we did the one in Hallein yesterday, and I want to go to the museum. We walk part of the way with the others and then turn off to the Pizzeria Bella Milano and have lovely pizzas outside on the deck while enjoying the view of the mountains behind us. When we finish we walk back toward the hotel and stop in at the Dachstein Sport Shop to see the ruins in the basement.
Continuing on we return to Hotel Gruner Baum, where our room is ready, so we retrieve our bags and get settled. Here's a photo of the view from our room.
Next we do a thorough tour of the Hallstatt Museum, which is a good accompaniment to yesterday's salt mine tour because a lot of it is about salt. People have lived at Hallstatt since Celtic times, and the museum tells the story of how they mined the salt, how they shipped it, disasters like rock slides, and everyday life through the eras.
Basket for carrying rock salt
Prehistoric miner
Finds from a grave
Door to the bone chapel
We look for the bone chapel next and have to do some searching to find the path and stairs leading up to it. But eventually we find it. Bill is immediately taken with the door, appropriately themed with skulls. The chapel stays packed with visitors, and it's not easy to find a good moment for a photo.
Crowded bone chapel
Graveyard next to bone chapel
The entire group gathers for a happy hour at 6. We share out the various Belgian beers from Rick's basket, and I try Johannesberry gespritzt, red currant juice mixed with seltzer water. It is really good, and I always wonder why currant is not a popular flavor in the United States. The happy hour is a good opportunity to get to know some of the other members of the group. When we did the fully guided tour it was a lot easier to spend time talking to other people on the tour because we were eating together and doing activities, so it is good to do this.
We wrap up our evening with dinner at the Gasthof Simony at one of their outdoor tables. It is chilly, so the waiter kindly offers us some blankets. And the local white fish is excellent!
Bus
Hilde
Beautiful Hallstatt
Food and Beverages of the Day
Belgian Beer
Johannesberry Gespritzt
Local White Fish
Practicalities
City: Salzburg, Hallstatt
Weather: Overcast, a Few Drops of Rain, Windy
Hotel: Gruner Baum
Sights: Dachstein Sport Shop
Hallstatt Museum
Bone Chapel
Archaeology
I was an archaeology major, so I usually cannot resist an archaeology museum. In fact I have also learned to adjust the time estimates in Rick’s books for archaeological sites to accommodate our great interest. We must have spent five hours in the Roman Baths in Bath, England. At Delphi we stayed in the ruins until they closed – so evocative! – and were late to dinner.
Anyway, Hallstatt, as mentioned above, gave its name to an era in prehistory, so I was very keen to see the museum, and it was great. I had given no consideration to salt mining in prehistoric times, but they did it. It was really a wonderful history of salt through the ages. It was also interesting seeing the Roman ruins in the sport shop. I find it particularly fascinating to look at Roman remains in different places in Europe. The extent of the empire and the consistency of the culture was impressive.