salt mines | Fridge Magnet Tales

We woke up at our farmhouse in St. Gilgen admiring the view of the lake and mountains.

We had an early start to finalize our plan for the day (yes, we do leave some things flexible till the end). It felt like a plan with a lot of dependencies but we decided to go ahead with it anyway.

After a quick breakfast, we got on the 9:10am bus to Bad Ischl. Bad Ischl is a beautiful town with a long legacy of royalty. It is more famous for being the place where Emperor Franz Joseph used to live and the place where he signed the declaration of war on Serbia (which set in motion the events leading to World War I).

We walked to the train station and bought 2 sets of tickets – one from Bad Ischl to Hallstatt and the other from Obertraun to Bad Ischl. Our train to Hallstatt arrived at 10:20am – it went along the river and then the banks of Hallstattersee. We reached the tiny station at Hallstatt right on time for the 11am ferry which would take us across the lake and to the town.

We arrived on schedule at the Hallstatt train station

The lake had a lot of swans and ducks floating around and it was a beautiful sight. We were given a heads-up by a local earlier in the day that Hallstatt would be full to the brim with Chinese tourists – apparently they were so obsessed with Hallstatt that they made a copy of the town in China! He was right! As we approached the town, we saw the iconic postcard view of the village from the ferry.

Some buildings had their private garages for boats!

We wandered around the town for a while – there were steps leading up to small pathways between the houses. After a few hundred steps, we realised that we were not headed anywhere in particular and decided to find the path to the salt mines (before the other tourists could get there).

It was fun walking around exploring the lakeside town

It was tough to pull away from just standing and admiring the beauty of the town – cute houses with blooming flowers and small balconies. The houses on the lake had garages in the water for boats to park in. But we kept moving and were right on time for the 11:30am funicular which would take us up to the salt mines.

The funicular ride was exhilarating – especially with this view

The view from up top was beautiful – we could see Hallstatt, the lake and Obertraun (another small town) on the other side.

While we walk towards the salt mines, you can subscribe to the blog and get notified when we post our new blogs.

We hiked up the path to the entrance of the mines. On the way, we saw a few signboards – the green fields we could see around us were actually graveyards from more than 3000 years ago – over 1500 graves of the salt mining community. We also saw a pre-historic meat factory where over 150 pigs could be cured at once!

We were given a coat and pants to wear before entering the mines.

Our guide, Lukas, led the way and off we went into the narrow tunnel. The hole grew narrow and colder – we could see the salt crystals sparkling all around us. There we were – dressed somewhat like miners and several metres below ground level inside those ancient mines. The mine was divided into many horizontals with slides connecting them.

The slides connecting the different levels of the mine

Along the way, we saw videos explaining how sea salt ended up inside the Alps in Hallstatt – an effect of continental shifts and receding seas. Around 7000 years ago, people noticed animals drinking water from the mountain and tasted the salt – and they loved the flavour! They started digging towards the salt deposits – initially with animal horns and over the years, improving to iron and bronze when the respective Ages came in. In the modern era, liquid methods are used to extract salt instead of breaking into the sides of mountains.

The salt in the hills has also helped preserve fabrics, tools and wood from this time. We saw a wooden staircase from the Bronze Age – one of the oldest well-preserved wooden structures from that period.

The pre-historic wooden staircase preserved by the salt

We were nearing the end of the tour and went down the longest slide yet – we reached a speed of 25 kmph (and got a photo as well!). We exited the mine in a small train (the kind you see in adventure movies). As we exited, we collected our souvenirs – a free box of salt! The overall tour took about 2 hours.

Now, we had to rush – we took the 2:15pm funicular down to the town. As per our calculation, we would have just missed the bus to Dachstein. Luckily, that particular day, the bus was at 2:24pm and we walked in just as the driver was preparing to leave. The drive to Dachstein Seilbahn took about 10 mins. We bought our tickets for the cable car and the ice cave (Eishohle). The 2:45pm cable car took us to the top. We then hiked up the hill – it was a beautiful forested area – thick woods with just this narrow path curving through.

Hiking up the steep path to the ice cave

We could see snow at the next level of the cable car – sadly we didn’t have time to go there. The 15-min walk brought us to the entrance of the cave – there were about 10 people waiting to enter as part of the next batch.

The temperature plunged the moment we entered the cave – from sweating after the steep hike in the sun to shivering! As we walked into the cave, it felt like a scene from a movie – a dark cave with a bunch of people going deeper into it. The temperature kept dropping and got to around 0 degrees celsius. We saw the grave of a bear which was found by the early explorers who had discovered the ice cave in 1910. The next level was full of ice! We were awestruck – it looked like water had been flowing through here and somebody just snapped their fingers and turned it to ice – the currents were literally etched on the ice and it was smooth and shiny.

It was amazing how the ice remained even though it was so hot outside. Our guide told us that there was a tunnel effect which kept it so cold inside.

The cave was made of limestone – and here, unplanned, we crossed out a bucket-list item. Stalagmites and Stalactites! Ever since we had read about them at school, we both wanted to see them in real life – and here we were – in a frozen cave hidden among the forests in a remote part of Austria. Some of these were covered with ice shards and looked like the dangerous traps in video games which would fall down when someone is passing below. On other levels, we saw imposing ice structures over 30m tall and waterfalls that had frozen over! We then climbed up to the upper chambers where we could hear the sound of water gushing. This was the point where water would enter the mountain and freeze as it reached the lower levels. During the rainy season, the force of the water would melt some of the ice but freeze again to form additional layers – as the layers were compressed due to the pressure, it was difficult to melt. In fact, the deepest layers of ice could be up to hundreds of years old! It was really an amazing sight! We reached the exit door and our guide asked us to stay back. He had hardly unlocked it when the door went flying out due to the pressure difference!

We took the cable car back down and were right on time for the 5:20pm bus back to Hallstatt. We walked through the town, took some more pics and got on the 6:15pm ferry. The train from the Hallstatt station was at 6:32pm. We reached Bad Ischl at 7pm. Thanks to the long days, we could still explore the town in sunlight. We walked around the town and saw the river, the Kaiservilla and some of the famous hot baths.

Walking around Bad Ischl – the place where World War I was declared

The streets were beautiful and quite cute! We saw a burger stand (Borni Burger) where we ate some burgers and walked back to the bus station. We took the 8:24pm bus to St. Gilgen – this was the last bus in that direction which had a stop at St. Gilgen! It was almost empty – just three people including the two of us.

We generally plan things well during our trips but this one has to be the most precise we’ve ever been. And there was a lot of luck involved too. We managed to visit Hallstatt, the salt mines and the ice caves in Dachstein (and even found time to hike around a bit!). Everything fell in place so well that we managed to travel on the exact buses and trains that we had planned. It is also testament to the amazing accuracy of the Austrian transportation networks. Would we have loved to spend more time at each of the places we went? Yes, of course! But with the time we had, I believe we were able to make the most of it.

Once back at St. Gilgen, we sat out on our balcony and watched the sunset. The moon was also rising in the clear sky full of stars – it was one of the most beautiful moonrises we’d ever seen – the moon climbing up behind the mountains with its reflection in the lake. We left our curtains open and slept watching the moon and stars.

The next morning, we woke up early, said goodbye to the beautiful lake town of St. Gilgen and headed onto our next destination – Vienna. We took a bus to Salzburg and then the train to Vienna. The train was unusually late – the 8:08 train was coming in at 8:28 – something that would be considered very normal in India. This gave us time to pick up a quick breakfast of sandwiches and croissants from the nearby Spar. We boarded our Railjet train to Vienna Hauptbahnhof and off we went! Check out our entire Austria itinerary here.

NEXT STOP -> VIENNA

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A beautiful town in the west of Austria, Salzburg is the perfect example of where nature meets culture. Sitting on the banks of the Salzach river, Salzburg is home to the legendary Mozart and has everything from beautiful gardens to palaces to an amazing medieval fortress and of course some amazing food. Salzburg literally means “Salt Fortress” referring to the huge salt mines around the area.

Arriving at Salzburg

We spent an entire day exploring the town during our Austria trip (check out our complete itinerary here). We arrived at Salzburg by train from Prague – we had to change into another train at Linz before reaching Salzburg. From the train station, we took a bus to our hotel. It is easy to navigate your way around in Austria – there are maps everywhere and with some amount of prior research, you can easily use public transport without having to sacrifice anything in your itinerary.

Bus 130 dropped us near our hotel, Hotel Turnerwirt. The place looked straight out of a story book.

We pulled up our luggage along the creaky wooden stairs to the 3rd floor and settled in. We looked for a good eatery nearby and found a Pizzeria. Salzburg to the west of the country and you can find some good Italian food here. We ordered a wood fired pizza with ham, cheese, tomato and mushrooms. The ambience was really nice with “antique knick-knack” stuff around. The pizza was amazing and we ended up loving the crust even more than the toppings – it was so fresh and crunchy!

Our first meal was this amazing pizza and wine!

We walked back enjoying the clear night time sky and hurried to make it to the hotel before they closed their front doors.

We woke up early and checked out of the hotel. We took the same bus 130 back to the railway station and kept our luggage in the lockers there. You can find such lockers all over Europe – they are super convenient, cheap and mostly automated. Shoulders light and hands free, we picked up a couple of sandwiches and walked to a nearby garden. We sat there at the park bench and munched on the ham and cheese sandwiches while observing the life of the locals – there were some folks in formals rushing to work, an old man walking his dog in the park, a couple of kids cycling.

We sat there in the shade enjoying our sandwiches

We always make it a point to take such time out so that our trips don’t become a series of checkpoint races.

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Let the walking tour begin

Our next stop was the Mirabell Palace and gardens – beautifully manicured gardens with flowers of all kinds. It is the kind of place where a photographer can go crazy – as if on cue, we saw a video shoot happening there.

The Mirabell gardens with the fortress in the background

We also took our share of pics, posed with the dwarves and walked on.

We stopped at a small bakery on Linzerstrasse where we had one of the best foods of the entire trip! Apple strudel (or Apfelstrudel) – a pastry filled with apple, it was crunchy, sweet and melt-in-the-mouth! Food that makes you want to go back again and again!

With happy tummies, we continued our walk on the stone path along the Salzach river. These walkways were beautiful and perfect for an evening stroll. They also offered amazing views of the fortress.

Along with these walkways, there were cycle paths. There were cycles everywhere – we even saw a modified cycle which had a baby pram tagged along with it! We crossed the river at the Mozart bridge and landed at Mozartplatz. We walked past the museums (we’d heard they weren’t great and decided to reserve our museum visits for Vienna) toward the Salzburger Dom cathedral – a huge cathedral with intricate paintings and sculptures which were symmetrical all the way around. We were right on time to hear the giant church bell ringing and echoing everywhere. We also visited the crypt below the cathedral – it was eerie down there with all the coffins!

Our next stop was the top of the fortress we’d been seeing right from the time we reached Salzburg – the Hohensalzburg Fortress. Built in 1077, the fortress has stood the test of time and is a majestic landmark overlooking the entire town. You can choose to take the funicular to the top of the hill or walk up – we chose the funicular as it was something we’d never seen before and wanted to experience the ride! We opted for the audio guided tour of the fortress and were given earpieces which looked like hand-held phones. The views from the top were spectacular! We got a panoramic view of the town, the river snaking its view through it and the hills on the other side with snowy peaks.

Inside the fortress we got to see the story of the town of Salzburg and how it evolved over the ages. There were also pictures showing how the fortress itself changed over the years. It was really pleasant walking through the cool corridors of the fortress. We saw the giant horn – the Salzburg bull which when blown could be heard for many kilometres. In recent years, the fortress was used to house prisoners of war during the World Wars before it was turned into a museum/tourist attraction.

After the tour, we took the funicular back down and proceeded to St. Peter’s Abbey. It had a cemetery with the graves beautifully decorated with flowers.

We also explored the catacombs whose steep stairs cut into the mountain. We walked up into a small hall where a girl was playing a piano. We stopped for a quick bathroom break and then walked to the old market.

The market area also housed Mozart’s birthplace.

Mozart’s birthplace (which now has a Spar below it!)

We picked up a couple of fish burgers from Nordsee and ate it sitting by the bank of the Salzach. We topped it up with cherry ice-cream. Our day in Salzburg was coming to a close.