My memories of Salzburg are of massive crowds of tourists and incessant ads for "Sound of Music" location tours. We decided to stay overnight at Hallstatt, a smaller version of picture perfect Salzburg, on June 17, 2025.
Hallstatt is perched on the shores of the deep green Hallstattersee, with mountain homes clinging to the cliffs surrounding the town.
We stayed at the Gasthof Simony, right in the center of town. We could see the main square out our bedroom window.
We slept in a sleigh bed, in a pink room with its own porcelain space heater, so Austrian.
We wandered through the town, with its picturesque houses, churches, shops, and fountains.
Masks like this one are used during certain Austrian celebrations.
There are three salt mine tours in Austria--one near Salzburg, one near Hallstatt, and one near another of the Austrian lakes. The whole area is known as the Salzkammergut, named after the salt in the ground below. The salt mine near Hallstatt has been used for some 7,000 years. We took a salt mine tour and saw a preserved shoe dating back to those very early days of mining, as well as an ancient leather ladder.
Our tour guide took great pride in his job of shepherding us around the dark tunnels and teaching us about the salt industry.
Our tour included a bevy of school munchkins who were sternly instructed by their teachers to stay behind us and not bother their older "betters."
We walked through old mine tunnels, watched displays which included huge, backlit salt crystals, and slid down several long wooden slides. The salt miners did use slides to get around the different levels of the mine, although their slides were not as polished, safe, and comfortable as ours!
We rode out of the salt mine on an old mine train.
I finally got my weinerschnitzel dinner, as Dave and I sat on the back porch of our hotel, looking out at the Hallstattersee.
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