Road Trip to Hallstatt
I woke up this morning and made the trek to the Salzburg airport to pick up our rental car. Though I was expecting a tiny car with no air conditioning, I was pleasantly surprised to find out we had been upgraded to an Audi A3 with air. After checking out of the Budget car rental, I climbed into the car and made my way back to the dorm. Not only did I not get lost, I made it back without any problems. The car is one sweet ride – it would totally be my next car if I could afford to buy one!
When I returned to the dorm, Kendra informed me that two of her classmates, Mike and Jason, would be joining us on the road trip! We were more than happy to have the extra company. After loading the trunk, we set out for Hallstatt. On the way, we stopped at Wolfgangsee, an enormous glacial lake. The water was crystal clear, and a beautiful turquoise color. Though we didn’t go swimming, we did spend a short time snapping pictures and admiring the view of this beautiful lake at the foot of the Alps.
Arriving in Halstatt, we had to drive through a long tunnel cut into the mountainside. The town is set into the mountain, with small wooden houses built practically on top of one another. Beautiful flowers hung from the flowerboxes, the small, cobbled main street wound it way through old buildings and along the gorgeous Hallstattsee (Lake Hallstatt). After a bit of driving around, we found a parking area and set out to explore this tiny salt-mining village. Our first stop was the Pfarrkirche (Parish Church), a beautiful structure dating to 1181. We moved through the churchyard to the 12th century Michaelikirche (St. Michael’s Chapel). Though there was not much to see in the chapel itself, save for two small altars, what was
below was quite astounding. Because the cemetery in Hallstatt is so small, and cremations were against church law for years, the residents came up with an alternative solution for the lack of
burial ground. In the downstairs of St. Michael’s Church, there is a Beinhaus (bone house), which contains over 1,200 skulls and bones of local residents. We walked into the small crypt-like room, and I was overwhelmed with the sight of neatly piled bones, topped by shelves of skulls, many of which had been painted with the family name and flowers. It was a jarring display, to say the very least. I was very happy to leave the Beinhaus for the cemetery outside of the chapel.
Upon leaving that area of the village, we were all quiet for a bit. At this point, we parted ways, and Kendra and I went to the Hallstatt World Heritage Museum, a wonderful exhibition of the town’s deep history, which dates back to at least 12,000 B.C. The displays were quite impressive, with an enormous collection of archaeological artifacts dating back thousands of years. After about an hour in the museum, we stopped for some ice cream, snapped some pictures, and met up with the guys to move onto our next stop – Obertraun.
After settling into our hostel, we went searching for dinner. A very friendly man at the tourist office sent us in the direction of a small hotel on the water. There, seated outside at the edge of the lake, we had an incredible meal of BBQ ribs, baked potatoes, and beer. Kendra broke from the pack, and had the wiener schnitzel, which she also found to be quite delightful. I was surprised to find BBQ ribs in Austria, but they were fantastic – and not just from my Yankee perspective… both Kendra and Mike, who is from Texas, thought they were excellent.
Full and ready to relax, we walked a few short steps to a dock next to the hotel and boarded a small boat for a candlelight cruise around the Hallstattsee. Sitting on the top deck, we enjoyed the sunset over the Alps, and the cool breeze of the impending thunderstorm. About halfway through our hour-long tour, the storm broke and sent sheets of rain crashing down upon us; we quickly moved to the lower deck, and watched the lightening from a relatively dry spot.
At the end of the boat ride, not yet ready to call it a night, we headed back to the hostel for an intense game of gin rummy. Tomorrow, we are getting up early to travel to the nearby ice caves! Until then, I need some rest…
