Hallstatt, Austria

The drive from Innsbruck to Hallstatt took us across the German border where we were stopped, had our passports checked, and were asked if there was anybody in the van besides us. They also asked us multiple times where we were going and if we were heading home now. They were very polite and favored us with big smiles. We were also asked why our van was registered in Great Britain but was left hand drive. Eventually satisfied we weren’t harboring migrants, supplying munitions for the war effort or whatever other shenanigans an American and Irish citizen might be up to, they handed our passports back and wished us well. 

Click here for our photos, (i) for information.

Our Garmin then guided us back into Austria through remote mountain backroads where we occasionally lost satellite reception. We soldiered on and eventually emerged from a long tunnel into the small but bustling town of Hallstatt. Maybe coming from Florida we’re just suckers for a town built into a hill with little stairways leading to hidden doors or disappearing into back gardens but we both found the town exceptionally cute. Just look at the pictures! 

Door into attic, house extends several floors below. 

Rick Steve’s walk through the town was very fun. It pointed out that the houses’ main entrances were through the attic level which opened into a back alley many feet above the current road through town because the bottom of the house was originally at lake level. There is also a store under which the remains of the Roman village that was once here are open to wander through. 

We noticed a higher percentage of Muslim tourists here and learned it had been advertised as a great vacation spot because it resembles the Koran’s description of heaven. We read Chinese tourists also flock here in great numbers and had even built a model of Hallstatt in China where people often took their wedding photos. All this has contributed to the town being over-touristed making it less livable for residents and the probable cause of the general grumpiness we noticed. Servers at restaurants huffed at a request for a table; campground owners were rude; and parking lot attendants waved us on impatiently. We also learned that tourism here started towards the end of the 18th century so you’d think they’d have it down to a science by now. 

We took an entertaining salt mine tour. We rode a funicular then an elevator to Rudolphstrum Viewpoint then hiked up an informative trail past an archeological site where many prehistoric burials have been excavated. At the entry, we all had to don funny clothes supposedly to protect our clothing from the salt but I suspect it entertains the guides. It was 47 degrees inside the mine so the bulk wasn’t unwelcome. There were several multimedia projections showing the history of salt mining here from prehistoric times through the current operations. There were also two slides - we were clocked at 23 km per hour in our longest tandem run. We may have to try the luge next! The big finale was a view of the oldest wooden staircase in Europe (carbon-dated to 1108 BC). 

Image from atlasobscura.com

We then visited the Catholic Church and took pictures of the graveyard with adorable tiny well-tended garden gravesites.  The nearby 12th-century Chapel of St. Michael is a bone chapel and entry is allowed for a small fee but no pictures are allowed. Space was so limited in the cemetery that bodies rested there only 12 years before they were dug up to make way for the more recently dead. Many of the bones and skulls ended up in the bone chapel but first many were marked with the deceased’s name and date of death and decorated with garlands of leaves, flowers, crosses or even snakes. 

Richest burial site with cremated remains.

The following day we toured the Hallstatt Museum and practically had the place to ourselves. Highly recommended - I took far too many pictures of the many archeological finds from the Late Bronze Age and early Iron Age that's called the Hallstatt culture (12th-6th centuries B.C.). 

As pretty and historic as it was, Hallstatt seemed too overrun by inconsiderate tourists to be a nice place to live. 

Next stops: Salzburg, Munich, Nuremberg.