Hallstatt

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A very long sleep in for me, then a fair hint it was time to get up when Kaffee was delivered im Bett. Thomas left to do some business with his cousin and I ventured out for a stroll through Alt Aussee, to clear the cobwebs and the evil hangover possessing me.

Testing my memory and navigational skills, I was quite happy when Thomas called to see where I was for collection. Many photos of die Kuhe und Hause. We drove to Untersee and parked, then walked around another incredible lake called Hallstattersee.

A very long walk around the lake, many, many photos later, as this was the first day the sun actually came out, and the schnee on the mountains, and the reflections on the lake were priceless.

The village of Hallstatt is famous not only because of its breathtaking beauty, situated on the lake bearing its name, the church spires are grand, the facades of the houses are in varying pastels, the boats and the lights, but also because of its history.

The Hallstatt Period was between 800 to 400 BC. (This is not a typo). This iron period was named after the village!!!

The picturesque village is always filled with tourists in summer, making it difficult to appreciate in its entirety, but to my surprise we saw a large Japanese procession enjoying the beauty.

Thomas' new scheme is to set up a sushi shop in Hallstatt using the local fresh fisch!

So - we parked at Untersee, walked around the lake to a haltestelle (train station), and caught a ferry over the Hallstattersee to Hallstatt. A stroll through the town and a surprising lesson about conserving space from Thomas...

A tiny cemetery, its inhabitants have just ten years to enjoy the side by side accommodation. After the ten years is up, their bodies are exhumed and stored in a smallish room.

How, you may well ask?

The skulls are decorated and named by the local skull decorator then lined up around the walls. Oddly enough, there was a newspaper article with the decorator painting his own father's skull. Noice! The rest of the bodies' bones are piled up neatly underneath. Very simple and very space saverish.

Caught an autobus from Hallstatt to another train station a few kilometres away, then walked back to the car. I think probably a total of ten kilometres walking today.

As the sun had been out during the day, and it was by now, evening, it was extremely cold. Thomas guessed it to be around five below. Yes, brrrrrrr.

Home to cook dinner, then Thomas had an old school friend visit. Another Thomas. I left them around 10pm, and Thomas literally crawled into bed several hours later, very under the weather.

Astoundingly, he woke up with his usual vigour, and we had another incredible day (tomorrow).

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