Hallstatt....WOW!

September 26th-28th: Salzburg, Hallstatt, and Berchtesgaden
the best way to describe this weekend is just to look at the beautiful scenery, but I'll try anyway.
http://www.joeylux.shutterfly.com/

**The correct quote, sorry for last week's mess up:
Lloyd: That's a lovely accent you have. New Jersey?
Lady at bus stop: Austria.
Lloyd: Austria! Well, then. G'day mate! Let's put another shrimp on the barbie!
Lady at bus stop: Let's not.

American Song of The Week: Soulja boy at O’Malley’s Pub in Salzburg. They really do love American Rap over here.

This Week’s Travel Tip(s): Get A Rick Steves Travel Book. I was fortunate enough to have Mr. Jim Slater lend me a copy of Rick Steves: Europe Through The Back Door. Without that I would not have known about most places I am about to write about, especially Hallstatt. Thank You Jim!

It was an action packed weekend to say the least. Approximately 12 hours sleep combined Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night. Thursday night was the premiere of The Office on NBC. It’s not aired over here and can only be watched on sites like NBC.com or Megavideo.com if you are in the U.S. Because of this the guys in Oxford skyped (videochat) me The Office at 9 PM their time and 3 AM my time. Guys thanks again! It was completely worth the lack of sleep.

This weekend’s destinations were the mountains of Austria in the towns of Salzburg, Berchtesgaden, and Hallstatt.

Friday we left Lux City and again found our train going through Munich for the second straight week on the way to Salzburg. This however was very entertaining because we caught the Oktoberfest crowd coming out of Munich and over to Salzburg. Luckily this guy got on and entertained us for about an hour.

We got to our hostel in Salzburg at about 10:30 PM, put our stuff down and when to try and find some fun. O’Malley’s Irish Pub was the choice and it did us well.

Saturday morning was an early one. We had a group of ten. Three girls went on The Sound of Music Tour. The other seven of us checked out the castle in the middle of Salzburg, the square, and just a little Salzburg sightseeing. The castle in the middle of town towered over everything and gave a great view of the foggy city.

The town square had a unique touch to it as well. It had a life size chess board, however not as large as the one in Harry Potter.

The seven of us then went to Berchtesgaden and Hitler’s ‘Eagle’s Nest’. This was Hitler’s vacation home where he lived with his widowed sister-in-law and his niece whom he fell in love with. As much as I hate to say it Hitler had good taste in Scenery. It was a 40 minute bus ride from Salzburg and then another 40 minute bus ride up the side of the mountain and boy was this a stomach twister in itself with the bus flying and the only thing separating this bus from a plunge to the bottom was a one foot high guard rail. When on this mountain top at an altitude of 6,017 feet you literally are on top of the world. We were in and above the clouds; it was surreal. It was hard to catch your breath, possibly because of the altitude but probably because of the scenery.

This guys living life on the edge

We left Berchtesgarden and after a VERY close call with making the bus back to Salzburg we all headed back. Four of us then took the 2.5 hour train ride to Hallstatt and arrived at about 8:30 PM. I have a new favorite place on earth after being to Hallstatt. The pictures will do a better job of telling the story than my words will. The town is only accessible from the train stop by ferry.

The Hallstatt train stop...it's as small as it appears.

ferry from the train to the city

The hotel we stayed at was actually in Obertraun, a 5 minute cab ride from Hallstatt on the other side of the lake. We got there and were in shock as this was the nicest place we had stayed yet and will be the nicest place we will stay for this entire trip, for the cheapest rate I have had yet. The owner was in the lobby and luckily for us was British. This was a great relief to have someone understand your English. We ended up sitting and chatting with him in the lobby for about a half hour about Hallstatt, Austria, Canterbury where he was from, London, and many other things. Katy, Emily, Tom, and I then caught the cab to Hallstatt and just hung out by the water and and looked at a beautiful Austrian Starry Sky.

Sunday morning we woke up and went out on our balcony to watch the sun come up over the mountains; yes we had a balcony. After soaking this up we did the 20 minute walk to the Hallstatt train stop so we could catch the ferry in to town. This is just one picture I got on that walk.

I hope my wife understands when I want to name my first daughter Stephanie after the Ferry that took us into town. This was some of the most gorgeous scenery I have ever seen.

Stephanie in the distance coming to get us.

We got in and explored town. There was not even a place to buy coffee, everything was closed at 8 AM on Sunday. We walked up to the Catholic Church where the town cemetery is located.

Because of the limited land in this town on the mountain side bodies are only buried in the cemetery for a few years before they are dug up and their skulls are decorated and put on display.

I then saw myself 50 years in the future...

From Hallstatt through Salzburg to Lux City it was a total of 12 hours on the train Sunday. It was all completely worth it.

Hola to:
Nicole: Thanks for the e-mail with the updates and all the great Ireland tips! I’ll make sure to have some great ‘craic’.
Jim: Thanks for The Office and the book, they were both lifesavers. Sounds like A.D. had a great weekend in Oxford.
Donald: Happy 21st, glad you made it through it!