Hallstatt
Day 3 - Wednesday - June 15, 2016
Today we left Salzburg and drove to Hallstatt. Hallstatt is a small town with a beautiful lake on one side and a mountain on the other. It has a population of about 1,000 people. Hallstatt existed before Rome. In fact, salt veins in the mountain rock drew people here centuries before Christ.
When we arrived in Hallstatt, we rented an electric boat for a ride on Lake Hallstatt. Rick says the boats have two speeds - slow and stop - so it was a very peaceful and relaxing ride. There are some pictures below.
After our Lake Hallstatt boat ride, we needed to get some excercize and hiked up the Echern Valley to the Waldbachstrub waterfall. It was a beautiful hike up the valley with neat houses, wonderful gardens, big wood piles for heat in the winter, and some nice horses to admire.
There is a sidestory to this waterfall hike. We later found out that the waterfall we saw was not the one we were looking for. We had not gone far enough. So the next morning I got up early and walked to the correct waterfall. It was a beautiful early morning walk with no one around. Of course the Waldbachstrub waterfall was also spectacular. Take a look at the pictures below.
There is a sidestory to this waterfall hike. We later found out that the waterfall we saw was not the one we were looking for. We had not gone far enough. So the next morning I got up early and walked to the correct waterfall. It was a beautiful early morning walk with no one around. Of course the Waldbachstrub waterfall was also spectacular. Take a look at the pictures below.
We also walked around the town to see the other sights, such as the Catholic Church and Bone Chapel. The Bone Chapel contains more than 600 skulls each lovingly decorated with the deceased's name and date of death. Space in the cemetery was limited so bones only had 12 buried years before making their way to the bone chapel to make room for the freshly dead. They discontinued this practice in the 1960s. Here are some pictures of our late afternoon strolling.
We ended our day in Hallstatt with a meal at our Hotel Gruner Baum. I had the recommended Reinanke (whitefish) caught wild out of Lake Hallstatt and served fresh every day.
After our one day stay in Hallstatt, it was time to move on to the Italian Dolommites.