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So today is basically a travel day (to Munich!), but I decided I wanted to hit the “infamous” salt mines in the area before heading out. Ergo an actual post for today, omg.
Sorry this didn't get posted yesterday like I said it would. I had an interesting experience where about a dozen Canadians and one American mobbed me desperate to watch what turned out to be the final game in the NHL this season. I ended up taking their passports and lending them my laptop (the only screen with audio they could find apparently) while I slept. Stupid I know, but they returned it so everything worked out. The American guy's team won, by the way-- he was the only one supporting the Redwings 😊
Anyways, back to Hallstatt and the Salt Mines-- Another cable car, another time Zack wishes he had an ISIC. Oh well. The view was still good.
The hike up to the salt mines was rainy, and a bit underwhelming. They have all these mini-exhibits (like a reconstruction of a bacon-curing hut or an example gravesite) that reek of an overfunded tourist (albeit mostly local tourism) site, cheesy onsite movies and all. Once
at the entrance to the caves, I was asked to put on these stylish, ill-fitting blue overclothes (blue for men, red for women and white for kids… so prejudiced ). And then went through the turnstile with another huge group of little kids just like yesterday—at least this tour guide spoke excellent English which was interchanged with Austrian during the tour. The tour began with a walk down this huge tunnel into the mountains. Clustrophobes need not apply. The tunnel was cool though because it changed every 100 feet or so, with metal walls, wood walls, stone walls, round walls, square walls, etc.
At the end of the tunnel, we got to use a short miner's slide (basically just a longer-than-normal wooden slide) that was more fun to watch the kids slide down than actually slide down myself. At the bottom we were greeted with a display using different salt formations that looked nice in the dark, and allowed for a few photo ops. I seem to like taking pics with kids in them, I guess they add to the mbience or something more scary.
The next major rom had a lame laser show, but the cool
part was that it had a perfectly still saline lake that reflected the cave ceiling so clearly that I didn;t even notice it was a reflection at first, instead thinking it was the cave floor. This is another instance, like the ice caves, where they really need to light the rooms better. I get the idea behind the dynamic lighting for mood and such during the presentations, but after they really need to light up these big caverns. Hopefully the pics show a little of what I saw, but I fear they can;t do the place justice.
Afte this the cave trip went downhill fast. And I'm not talking about elevation. They talk about people finding a well-preserved man in the caves (preserved by the salt) in the 1700s. But the entire 15+ minute film (assisted by an animatronic miner for no real reason) just shows a lame reenactment of the 17th centure miners carrying the body to be buried. No scientific info or anything, for example why they know the body was from 3000 years ago (they just said "because of archaeological findings. Great.) or anything about the presrvation. And the fact that the body just got buried
again is laaaaame. I have the same complaints about the next room, where the guide talked about the methods of salt extraction. She gave an overview of the idea, pumping in water which turns into brine over time that is then pumped back out, but that's it. Nothing that really deserved the 20 minutes it took to talk about. I want real info, dangit.
We then took a train rain out of an extremely cramped tunnel back to the surface. I could imagine Mom getting really freaked in that tunnel 😊 But yeah, I'm willing to say these caves were not worth the $35 American they charged, not by a long shot. They were neat to see, but I felt jilted. But this was just a half-day thing anyways, so no big deal. If I hadn't seen 'em I would've felt like I missed out anyways.
Endgame of Hallstatt is that it's an awesome place, but it's really better for those not in a hurry (like me), since everything closes at 5pm and the weather here can be inclement. I'd like to come back sometime in the future for at least a week, maybe during the winter when
I imagine this place changes dramatically.
Also want to make another "it's a small world" observation-- I met the same Indian couple I met in Greece and Rome coming out the Hallstatt when I was coming in. Crazy stuff.
The trip to Munich took bit longer than expected (seems I took the most non-express train possible), but I got here just fine and I FINALLY got a hostel with real WiFi. One day in Munich and then on to Switzerland to meet up with Brent. I'll just have to do more Germany, including the Neuschwanstien castle that I wanted to see on this trip, on another trip 😉 We're going straight to Interlaken in Switzerland, since apparently 80% of Switzerland is 100% booked due to the euro2008 soccer thingy-- something I should've really known would happen. Ergo we will probably skip Zurich altogether and hit Lucerne after Interlaken. Maybe we'll try Geneva afterwards, who knows.
Ah, and Kevin will probably be joining around the 15th in Barcelona. and we may have another guy joining just for England. So tomorrow is my last day alone on this trip. I'm sort of going to miss being able to set
my own pace and chose everything without thinking about someone else's preferences... but trust me when I say I'm glad to have people joining to shake things up :D I think we have similar enough tastes and pace anyways. I wonder how this blog will evolve once I'm not talking only about myself. We shall see!
Also, I'm going to post my/out current tentative itinerary for you guys, seeing as up to this point you have no idea where I'm gonna be until I'm already there and posted:
May 16-20 Greece
May 21-30 Italy
May 31-June 3 Austria
June 4-5 Germany (Munich)
June 6-10 Switzerland
June 11-15 France (southern)
June 16-19 Spain
June 20-22 Netherlnds
June 23-26 France (northern)
June 27-31 England
July 1-3 Ireland
Note that the dates and durations are likely to change somewhat, but the destinations aren't.
Munich was a really full day, so I'll save that entry for the long train ride to Interlaken. See you again soon!
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