Hallstatt Salt Mines, Hallstatt, Austria

I've been dying to go to the OLDEST salt mine in the word in Hallstatt, Austria so I couldn't bypass it on this trip down to Slovenia.  But first.  Let's talk about the rain.  As I mentioned in my last post, it rained ALL NIGHT LONG. (Sing it, Lionel Richie!)  The forecast for Sunday was... rain. All day.  Not ending until Sunday night. This meant that our tent was never going to dry out.  Everything was damp (or flat out soaking wet). At some point, you just cut your losses and move on.  We weren't awake five minutes before we had out our phones, trying to find a hotel for Sunday night.

It only took about 5 minutes. It was the best money we've ever spent!

So we took advantage of the brief half hour dry spell that came upon us, and packed up the tent and all of our belongings and drove down to Hallstatt, Austria. Sorry, Germany. We just couldn't handle any more of your downpours.

 Hallstatt was a really cute little town, situated right on the Hallstätter See. In order to get to the Salt Mines, you take a funicular up to the top of the mountain and then go down into the mines from there.  This is my "I-don't-want-to-smile-because-I-hate-these-things" smile.

Glück Auf is the motto of the area, which means, "Good Luck (for)." 

This way to the World Heritage View.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.  I don't wanna go on that!

The Grub Castle was built as a farmhouse in 1522, but today is privately owned and only accessible by boat (or by foot). 

Looking down into the town of Hallstatt, you can see the Lutheran church on the left.

Insanely pretty views of Lake Hallstatt and the town. I love that even in crummy weather, the Alps are still stunning!

The town of Obertraun and the Traun River that dumps into Lake Hallstatt.

Thankfully the fencing was really high. I get kind of mad when people put locks on stuff like this.  First, it allows other people to think that it's ok to do this... so then they do. But also, this thing hangs out over the lake more than 1,100 feet in the air.  I don't really want any added weight on it, thank you!

Clouds and greenery abound at the entrance to the OLDEST salt mine in the world.

We had a quick cappuccino at Rudolph's Tower (built originally by Duke Albrecht in 1284 to protect the extremely important salt mines).  From here, you walk up a slight hill to the actual salt mine, but there are plenty of things to see along the way.

The first little stop along the way talks about the over 1,000 prehistoric burial graves that Johann George Ramsauer unearthed in 1846. During the Stone Age, it's thought that prehistoric men discovered the salt when they were hunting.  The animals followed the salt, and the Stone Age hunters followed the animals. There is evidence of deer antler picks and stone tools from around 5,000 BC making it the OLDEST salt mine in the world!

Welcome to the world's oldest salt mine!  Yahoo!  (And there's more superlatives to come!)  The kids thought this guy was really funny.  I should also mention the OLDEST active industrial pipeline in the world is also here but I didn't get a picture of it, although we drove under it on our way in and out of Hallstatt.  Completed in 1607, it took over 13,000 trees to make!

You can't visit the salt mine without going with a tour (English speaking, hooray!) and you can't take the tour without wearing a protective outfit. Works for me. I don't want to get any gunk on my clothes!  Our model Natalie is featuring a stunning blue pant with a too-short white shirt!

The tour begins with a hike up a bunch of stairs to the entrance of the caves.  You're treated to a very pretty view of a waterfall which makes the hike a bit easier!

  I've seen people mention that you have to wear hard hats... you can see in this picture that you do not.  Just the fun little outfits (!!!). 

There's a long walk down the Christina tunnel that was built in 1719. On the far right, where the lights are in the above picture, there is kind of like the third rail on the subway that can kill you if you touch it.  No big deal.  Because... Europe.

At some point, the Christina tunnel narrows and gets a bit lower.  Watch that head, TB!

 One of the best things about the salt mines, other than the history is that you get to slide down a couple of really fun slides!  Back in the day, the miners used a system of ladders and slides to get up and down.  All you have to do is wait for the green light, and slide!

Daddy snapped a pic of us getting off the first slide.  We were too fast for him to capture with his camera (27 kph vs his 24 kph!)  Yes, they shoot a radar gun at you and measure your speed!

If you are too afraid to go down the slides (and really, there's nothing to be afraid of!) or are impaired in some way that won't allow you to take the slide, then you can take the stairs down.  This particular slide, which is the last one we went down is 210 feet long and is the LONGEST underground slide in Europe!  (Check!)

There's various stops along the tour where you get to watch some presentations about the history of the salt mine, and the importance of each area to the production of salt. Unfortunately most of the tour is very dark (I was using my cell phone light as a guide!).  Todd managed to snap a picture of the underground salt lake where the brine is collected.  They did a little fun laser light/video production to show the history of the mine.

And the grand finale (for me) was seeing the OLDEST wooden staircase in Europe!  What? This is the Bronze Age Cinema, located 400 meters underground.  You watch a video about the staircase, and then they raise the screen (so dramatic!) and unveil the actual staircase!  The organic matter that would typically break down wood over this amount of time does not exist in salt mines so this is how it has survived in such incredible condition. It dates back to the 13th century, BC. 

The story of how the salt preserved the staircase is supported with how salt preserves many other things too!  In fact, one of the stories they tell in the mine is the story of the "Man in Salt."  In 1734, they found the well preserved body of a man from what they believe was from around the year 350 BC.  At the time he was discovered, they gave the man was buried in a nearby graveyard so the famous Man in Salt is not something you can see today.

Hold on tight, because the only way to get out of this place is to hop on the miner's train, which you just kind of straddle as it takes off and chugs through the salt mine railway.

Wow, that's a long railway tunnel!

We finally made it back to the surface of the earth!

We drove back to our HOTEL in Golling in the rain, and were pretty much high fiving about being in dry place for the night.  You can see we spread everything out in the hopes that it would dry out overnight. Nat also discovered CNN International!

Yep.  That's my husband taking a hairdryer to all of our soaking wet shoes.  I still can't express to you how much we enjoyed this apartment! Hotel Garni Ramsl came through for us! 

Until next time, Hallstatt! Next stop, SLOVENIA!