Hallstatt, part III - Salzwelten i

Apparently my desire to finish up all entries last night were far too ambitious,but nevertheless I feel I'm getting there. After Hallstatt we have Fussen (the famous Neuschwansteins) and then Frankfurt, and then it'll be continental#1.

I had to split this entry up into two because there were far too many pictures for the one entry. I met a very friendly Chinese couple at the pier, where I stayed for a bit, enjoying the view and taking pictures. After I'd finished chatting to them, another East Asian man sidled up to me and introduced himself as a fellow Taiwanese. He admitted, with a bit of a rueful grin, that he had been eavesdropping on our conversation, and we talked for a while. I found out that he was a few years older than me, we had a couple of mutual friends, and that he worked at EVA Air and was taking some time off.

I adored Hallstatt - I mentioned, in my last entry, that not for nothing was it called the heart of Austria. Unfortunately, it's one of those places, along with the Neuschwansteins, which has become completely and utterly overrun with tourists, mostly elderly Japanese, Chinese and Korean people in tour groups. The Chinese were pretty damn unbearable - whilst me and EVA were ambling down one of the streets, an elderly camera-toting Chinese man glared at us.He asked us quite rudely to "shove it" in order to make room" for his photo. Of course, me and the EVA guy slowed down our paces. When I'm that old, I hope I'm never ever that obnoxious.

At another spot, another elderly Chinese man asked me to take a picture of him. He wasn't happy with the first, second nor third picture I took. "Too many mountains. Not enough water. I want my legs in this, bla bla bla." At the end of the third pic I really quite lost my temper, since I had actually been sitting there enjoying the view on my own, lost in my own thoughts, before he'd come up to me, tapped my shoulder and asked me to take his picture. "Sir," I told him sharply, "In case you're not aware, this is my holiday too, and I am in no way under any obligation to take pictures for you. I've already taken three, two more than I should have. Now please let me get on with my vacation."

He drifted away to bother some other people. There, that's my only beef with the otherwise pristinely perfect Hallstatt - far too many annoying, pestiferous tourists who think everything's beholden to them.

The Salzwelten was something I actually hadn't planned, but I figured that I might try to "wing it," and the EVA guy and the Chinese couple had recommended it. It was high up in the alps, and you first had to walk about twenty minutes along the main causeway to the ticket booth. It's the world's oldest salt mine, hence the name "Salzwelten", which basically just means salt mines in German.

You can see the railtracks of the funicular against the mountainside here

This is the ticket booth. Tickets didn't come cheap, including a return trip via the funiculars, and entry to the Salzwelten.

Once I'd gone up via the funicular - another painfully steep, dizzying ride, I had to walk a bit, take a lift up, and then walk up a mountain trail for another 15 minutes before actually reaching the Salzwelten. If I'd had enough time, I would have liked to stay longer, since the view was stunning, and I really wanted to do some hiking in the mountains, but time was of the essence. I did manage to climb around a bit though and snap some gorgeous photos. Commence photos. Once again, no Photoshop, no filter, no nothing. Just cold hard photos straight from the oven.