THE SALZWELTEN - Phil &;Jill

Salt has been the mainstay of Hallstatt for hundreds of years and established it as a major trading place in this part of the world. It is still an important mine today with 300,000 tons of salt extracted annually. Today they don't mine for salt, they bore down and fill under the salt with liquid and force the salt to the surface.

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After leaving the Sky Walk we took the track leading to the Salt Mine. It was arduous for Phil as it was 20 minutes of ever increasing upward gradient. However he dug deep and made it. The themed walk was both informative and picturesque.

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Through forests with their patchwork of blended green leaves, whilst being dark and sinister
underneath. Mountain huts blending into the side of the meadow and as it is summer, some sheep grazing on the grass with their little bells ringing out with every turn of their head.

Mirror columns are dotted along the path to give a 360 degree view of the scenery.

The first exhibit is an exhibit of an in tact skeleton. Appropriate reverent music was playing in the enclosure with another body wrapped like a mummy. There is also an explanation that as land was very scarce in former times they placed the skulls of the deceased in the Bein Haus and painted the skull with flowers representing the flowers that would have been placed on a grave. Nowadays that custom has ceased but there is still a Bein Haus near the Catholic church.

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We passed a statute of St Barbara, the patron saint of salt. We also learned that 'Hall' is the Celtic word for salt.

The necropolis site is located on the path in the place where the bones were found.

We finally made it to the top and were pleased to find that we were able to join an English/German 90 minute tour straight away. Everybody had to put on multi coloured overalls for two reasons. Firstly to protect your clothes from any contamination from any salt which may drop and secondly from the cold with temperatures dropping to 8 degrees inside the mine.

We first all gathered in the briefing room which had interesting graphics telling the evolution of the geological changes that brought about the salt being trapped in the depths of the mountain.

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Martin was very adept at delivering the spiel in two different languages switching from German to English and back again without a breath in between. What a talent.

He led us outside to the opening of the Christina tunnel and we walked in single file into the beginning of the bowels of the mine. It was quite dark and the floor uneven and it took a little while to find your night vision and orientate. Along the walls there were time markers and the appropriste historical item to enable you to get the feel of the centuries that had gone before in the mountain.

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A short film also filled in the historical geological facts. We looked down a long dark hole which had been bored hundreds of years ago. It is difficult to understand the working conditions but it must have been tough for miners.

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The layers of salt are called galleries. The different floors are metres apart so the way they move lots of tourists today are by wooden slides. I was hesitant at the thought of a fast slide but the alternative of climbing down lots of stairs beside the slide didn't appeal either. So I plucked up the courage and down Phil and I went together. They encouraged everyone to go in pairs. I had no problem with that!! I was so impressed with myself. Little did I know until about half an hour later that the first slide was only practise for the 64m mega slide. Martin was.assuring everyone it will be fine if you follow the rules - keep your legs spread out over the sides, never brake to stop and keep your hands in. You were allowed to scream and in fact they encouraged you to do that. I needed no encouragement as, as we took off I thought what am I.doing. It was sheer terrifying (as evidenced by the tourist photo they take automatically, where I looked like a stunned mullet. Saved money not buying that photo) however they had built a run up at the bottom which brought you to a rather sudden but safe stop. My heart was pumping for ages, but it was thrilling to have done it when it was all over. Our speed was recorded at 25.6 kmph. I call that....fast!!

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The mega slide had brought us down to the salt lake within the mountain. It was really dark and hard to distinguish the fenced off lake but they projected a spectacular light show over the salt walls and reflected over the water.

A cute little train formerly used by the miners caught my attention as we left this chamber.

Finally Martin led us to an undergrown auditorium and told us about the work of the Natural History scientists having found what is believed to be the oldest staircase in a mine in situ (possibly in the world). After carefully documenting the wooden structure, it remains in place and they have developed a high tech 3D animation of families centuries ago coming down the staircase to work, filling their bags made from sheepskin, with an average 66 lbs of salt and climbing up the staircase with their cache. The little boy of 9 was named to make the show personalised and it was depicted as his first day as a miner. That is the age boys started carrying the reeds with the fire alight so you could see in the darkness of the cave. It was a brillant way to showcase the staircase and illustrate how well families combined together to work in the mine. Brilliant.

There were also other artefacts found at the same time as the staircase. Some jewellery, woven cloth and tools made from bones of animals.

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To leave the mine and travel to the outside again we all sat horse like with legs hitched over a wooden platform and a small diesel engine pulled us along on the rail tracks. What a tour and inventiveness of making a tour of a salt mine really animated in so many ways. It far and above exceeded my expectations of what a salt mine might be like.

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We loved the day. It had been fantastic. It was no problem walking down the hill, once again taking in the spectacular scenery and breathing in the fresh air. We were almost down to the bridge and it started raining. We were ok as we had umbrellas and coats as rain had been predicted. We quickly caught the funicular again with the cloud coming down around the base of the mountain. Good timing for us as we had completed all we wanted.
to do for the day. The Gasthof Bergfried where we were staying was being covered by mist.

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