ABC - The Blog

A miracle! For the first time during our vacation in Austria, we could see the sun and enjoy its splendour, although that would only last a few hours. In the past days, the skies have always been cloudy and constantly raining (admittedly, most of the times it was only light rain). This reminded me of the weather forecast given on a hanged paper at the hotel which showed three ‘degrees’ of rain during the whole week: Light rain, drizzle and sprinkles...don’t they seem to be synonyms? Hard to say if one is heavier or lighter than the other.

Anyhow, we enjoyed the morning with some nice views of the surrounding mountains, as they’re usually concealed beneath thick clouds. Shortly after, we caught the train to Hallein, heading for the famous salt mines, or in german, Salzwelten.

It wasn’t too hard to find the entrance of the salt mines, and we were nicely welcomed by a smiling agent. In preparation for the salt mine tour, we were given some white clothes to wear before entering the mines...clothes that made us look like astronauts. We only lacked the big helmet. Together with us for the tour was another tourist, most likely from America who volunteered to take us some nice photos. He seemed the playful type, asking for certain poses and expressions for the photos. Here they are:

From each one’s expression, I seem to be the odd one out, but in fact, I was the correct one. That American guy asked for a serious expression, and everyone laughed at that, resulting in the opposite. Onto the next photo...prepare for a fright:

This was supposedly the funny face photo. Starting from left, my brother’s face is identical to the previous one (when he laughs, he’s serious. When he laughs, he’s making a funny face as well). Mum made a hopeless attempt. Maybe she needed a coffee to spill on herself to make some funny face. Dad at least made some effort. And...no comment needed on the last weirdo. Final photo:

Left foot up. At least everyone cooperated in this, with my mum being really into it, with those hands. My brother’s face once again made no change.

Following the celebrity photo shoot, we then ventured deep into the mines, inside the mountain. A ride took us through the tracks in the mine, giving us that unique feeling of being inside there. The narrow and rocky paths and trails were truly remarkable. Even more remarkable was a small lake that we traversed slowly with a boat, that actually lies inside the mountain. That lake contained the water from which salt was extracted. Another fun experience was the slides that the miners used to use for quick access down the levels. We had the nice chance to slide down these wooden slides, giving you a slight thrill. After the vacation, maybe I’ll upload a photo of us sliding down.

After leaving the salt mines, we walked to a nearby old Celtic village that was connected to the salt mines in history. At the top of the hill, we took a nice photo of us all again:

The last event of the day was a visit to the Silent Night house, the place where the popular song ‘Silent Night’ was written and played for the first time. People visiting this small museum all walked out (including myself) singing the Silent Night song, unsurprisingly. Inside, there were about eight translations of the song, and yet the Maltese translation was lacking...shame on them!

That’s all for the day and I hope you enjoy reading these as much as I do writing them.