Austria 3: Hallstaettersee

 12 - 14 June

A Salty Dog

The next leg of our travels was just 25 miles to Lahn, at the edge of Hallstatt. On the way we stopped at Bad Ischl to visit the Kaiservilla, one of the residences of Kaiser Franz Josef and Princess Elizabeth (Sisi). It's a small place and we felt that the hour long tour (guided in German with summarised English text) was a little too long. Interesting though.

Kaiservilla through the trees

A walk through the parkland led to Sisi's cottage, her bolt hole. She did not enjoy her public duties and loved to horse ride and walk in the mountains.  The building is now used to house seasonal exhibitions, one dedicated to hunting at the moment.  

We arrived at the next campsite late afternoon, very aware of the reviews we had read, particularly warning of the potentially grumpy site owner. We trod carefully and obviously passed an unknown test as John was awarded a can of chilled Guinness. The site, nestling beneath the mountains, comprises several areas, motorhome, caravans, tents, plus a daytime parking area / Stellplatz for motorhomes.  We have never had such international neighbours - at different times our corner of the site had vans from Norway, Finland, Switzerland, Italy, Czechia, Austria, Holland, Germany and the UK.  We had a short walk into the town that  evening to appreciate the quieter time of day; we knew that Hallstatt is a very popular tourist town.

Hallstatt probably has two churches, with bells ringing at 6 am, 7 am, 6 pm and 7 pm. Thank goodness for earplugs!

The Hallstaettersee is quite different from the Wolfgangsee. Whereas the Wolfgangsee has a flat area between the mountains and lake for towns, campsites, cycling/walking paths, the mountains around the Hallstaettersee are generally much closer to the water. So the town of Hallstatt seems to hang from the cliffs.

Hallstatt

Our designated pitch was in the shade and a bit chilly so the following morning I dared to ask if we could move to the sunny side. Mr Grumpy was not well pleased but said we could.  

On the sunny side

It was just a short walk via the lakeside to get to the entrance of the funicular railway which gives access to the Salzwelten (salt mine). The ride on the funicular, which can be seen from the campsite, was pretty fast, giving barely time to take a photo. We had a good guide in the salt mine whose patter was broken up with bits of video and a light show over the salt lake. We learnt how the salt deposit formed in the first place and the history of the mining here from several thousand years ago to the present day. We had to wear special uniform over our clothes and slid down wooden slides to reach different levels, finally coming back outside via a train like the miners used. Really interesting, if a little claustrophobic.

Fancy uniform

Slides down to lower level

Light show over salt lake

At the top of the mountain there is also the sky walk, from which you get a wonderful view over Hallstatt and the lake.

Hallstaettersee

The ride back down on the funicular

Next day we ditched plans to go to the Dachstein ice caves.  Instead we did a bit of photography in Hallstatt in better light but with hordes of tourists, especially Chinese posing for their selfies, before getting a bus to the nearby village/small town of Obertraun. There was not much to do there but we poked our noses into the two churches and enjoyed ice cream by the lake. We also found a very nice Stellplatz,  although at Euro 22 plus tourist tax and no facilities, we felt it was overpriced.

On to Mauterndorf in the Lungau region next.