Sunday, 29 September
HALLSTATT
A Vacation from our Vacation
Though we liked the idea about going to a Mass in Europe and hearing the choir, we really, really, really wanted to get out of Salzburg (gee, how could you tell). So we took the first train out to tiny little Hallstatt, "pretty as a postcard and about the same size." [60] Though it really was not that far away from Salzburg, it took about 2 1/2 hours to get there because there were several transfers on `milk' trains. But I think even the heavens wanted us to have a better time in Hallstatt than Salzburg, because everything went perfectly. The weather was once again gorgeous, and the scenery even prettier than on our `Hills are Alive' (...with the sound of cash registers?) bus ride. When arriving at the Hallstatt station, a ferry called `Stefanie' was waiting to take us (for 20 AS) across breathtaking Hallstatt Lake to the town proper. You could just take one long sigh there and feel all your stress just melt away. We needed this--a vacation away from our vacation.
Upon docking, we went immediately to our first choice in hotels, Gasthof Simony[61], and hoped that she would have a reasonable room for us for two nights. "Zimmer mit Aussight?"[62] I asked her. And she gave us one, with a balcony directly overlooking that spectacular lake, plus breakfast, for $60/night. I don't think life could get better than this.
We then asked her where a good place to eat lunch would be. "Why, downstairs of
course!" she said. And boy was she right. The cafe in our hotel, which also
overlooked the lake[63], had some of the best,
if not the best food on our trip! Luscious grilled pork and a mixed
salad[64] (that Doug kept trying to recreate
throughout our trip) was the perfect accompaniment to the panoramic setting
that surrounded us. And eating amongst nature had its moments--we noticed that
several cats were stalking the people at the table next to us, who were eating
something that looked like pork (though when we ordered pork, we found
out theirs had been chicken). I think I said, "Sie Haben Katzen Freunde, ja?"[65] or something like that. They liked that, and
started speaking to us in English, thinking we were from London[66]. It was starting to look like we would skip our remaining
countries and stay here for the rest of the month.
We then spent the afternoon exploring this small town's incredible history. Though thousands of people visit it every year just for the scenery, it also has thousands of years of settled history. But I am getting ahead of myself. First, we went to the small chapel on the side of the mountain, which has a very beautiful yet unusual cemetery. Most of the tombs there are recent--so where are the graves of people who lived there before that? Well, because this region is so rocky and very little soil suitable for burial exists, they started the practice of burying people in the ground for 12 short years, after which the bones were dug up again and placed in a separate room. We paid to go into this room (but it was worth it), and saw how the skulls were lovingly painted with roses or ivy and the person's name[67]. It should have been creepy, but I thought it was rather touching; about the only thing that was a little disturbing were the small skulls, evident of a child's death. In the chapel itself, we were fortunate enough to drop in when a violinist and harpsichordist were practicing, filling the ancient building with baroque music.
After that, we went to Museum Hallstatt, a tiny, house-sized museum with 10,000 years of history inside its doors. You see, the ancient Hallstatt period[68] was so named for the time when the Celts first started mining salt to preserve meat. In this museum, there were ancient artifacts: arrowheads, pottery, mining tools, coins...things I thought way too civilized to be that old. It really gave us both a better appreciation for mankind's history. We also found it odd that we were the only people in this fascinating place, with the exception of one man with his son. How could anybody come here and not experience this rich heritage? Included in the 40 AS ticket was a cultural folk museum around the corner. Not really expecting it to be very exciting (and it wasn't), we took a quick browse through, long enough to see the black chicken...er, uh, kitchen[69].
We took the rest of the afternoon quite leisurely. We looked in a sporting
goods shop and found out that, when they had wanted to expand their shop, they
had discovered ancient settlements under their foundation--these are now open
for the public to see. We didn't buy any sporting goods there, but we
did buy two kinds of Austrian Brandy[70]. We also relaxed in the town square, which was about the
size of our apartment back home. Here we experienced the only reminder of
Salzburg--a very rude woman who dished us our ice cream. So we went up the
mountain to where the only road in town has a tunnel that leads right to a
waterfall. We sang in that tunnel, enjoying the reverb (but not the blaring
cars that occasionally drowned us out). Ah, but by listening to the waterfall
and looking down on the peaceful lake, the rest of our nasty, touristy
experience had been washed away.
Later that evening we dressed up[71] and
went two doors down from our hotel to another church that was having a free,
intriguing concert of 10 young flautists. The director, who unfortunately
orally spoke the program notes in German so we didn't get much from them,
played a bass flute, two others played alto, and the rest played chords on
conventional flutes. It was very interesting, with the program ranging from
Renaissance madrigals to Bach to "The Pink Panther." We ended up observing the
various traits of some of these players, and nicknamed them: Green Jacket, EGO,
etc. We analyzed them[72] for hours
as we walked along the lake after the concert. Then we returned to our relaxing
(albeit a little chilly) room, again reveling in conversation and brandy as the
moon tickled the gentle waves on the lake below. We understood then why locals
come here for a month at a time.
On to HALLSTATT II