Hallstatt

After driving for 20 minutes or so, we stopped at a car parking area.

There is something extra ordinary about this place, a big roaring waterfall is lying just at the side of the narrow tar road. When we first saw this big waterfall from the windscreen, it did scare us. It was so near that if I wind down the window, I could have touched the fast falling water.

This is the parking area, and the big waterfall I was talking about. Husband said this should be the fastest way to go down the town center should we parked our car here. Too bad there wasn't any vacancy.

Before leaving, we overlooking Hallstatt town from that parking area. Suddenly, husband pointed at the orange color guesthouse next to the church, and told me that he almost came to a point to book a room there. He gave up because it's too expensive, more than €220. Some more, the room isn't a lake view one. All of the lake view rooms were booked.

Should husband booked a room, I think our room could be one of this facing our side. Yeah, I think maybe it's not so worth it if the room is not facing the lake.

A very beautiful church it is.

We parked our car somewhere near to this fast moving river, and then walked into the town center. I wonder if the water is always moving that fast? or is it because of the heavy rain falls that day?



Houses along the river.

I saw many people have this kind of tree planted at their front yard. The fruits look like an apple, but not quite. I'm still not sure if they are apple tree or not? But husband said they are not.

Seriously, are these apples? If they are apples, I may go to knock on people door and asked them if I can buy some?

Whenever I see an apple tree, it reminds me of a regret....a regret for not plucking an apple and take a bite right on it when we passed by some apple plantations in Norway many years ago. There were nobody around the plantation, and cough cough, we were such a decent people that we didn't want to steal without asking. Only some time later, I figured out we could have leave a note and dropped some money there, for the apples we have taken away. Silly, I still think of this incident until now.

Also, isn't it nice when you wake up in the morning, open the window, pluck an apple right from the tree outside there and take a bite? YumYum, would be the most refreshing and juicy breakfast for the day. Well, that would be a wishful thinking as long as we still live in HK.

The small road leading to the town center.

Hallstatt is a village in Salzkammergut, a region in Austria. It is located near the Hallstatter See (a lake). Now I can confirm my previous guessing, see = lake. Thank you LY for teaching me this.

The name Hall is most probably comes from the old Celtic name for salt. The salt mines near the village has being an important factor. Salt was a valuable resource, so the region was historically very wealthy. In fact, there is another famous salt mine, operated by Saltwelten, located above downtown Hallstatt. When the boys saw the banner, they bugged us to take them for a trip again. We felt very tempted to go too. But of course we didn't go.

Today, apart from the salt production, which since 1595 is transported for 40 kilometers from Hallstatt to Ebensee via a brine pipeline, tourism plays a major role in the town's economic life. Hallstatt is a popular tourist attraction owing to its small-town appeal and can be toured on foot in ten minutes.








The village also gave its name to the early Iron Age Hallstatt culture and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for Cultural Heritage.

As always, the heavy construction machine can spoil the beautiful view.

Slowing walking up the road along the lake side....



Though not big, the rain shower on us on and off.

If it wasn't because of raining, I think this place would have been full house. We would love to sip a cup of coffee while breathing in the fresh air and admiring the beauty here.

This is the most distinctive feature in Hallstatt. I didn't see it elsewhere in the towns we have gone. The trees had been modulated into such a shape in a flat manner. It's as flat as a layer of papers. And it gives very special visual effect.

Until the late 19th century, it was only possible to reach Hallstatt by boat or via narrow trails. The land between the lake and mountains was sparse, and the town itself exhausted every free patch of it. Access between houses on the river bank was by boat or over the upper path, a small corridor passing through attics. The first road to Hallstatt was only built in 1890, along the west shore, partially by rock blasting.

The architectures here are pretty unique in their own way, some hang, some grounded.

One of the guesthouse in town. Husband said many of them couldn't be found through internet. Also, he read some tourist's forums, that it's not easy to carry their baggage all the way up to their room. Yes, I think it's true.






They are too young to appreciate the beauty of those old buildings, but they do like natural stuffs, like water. Don't know how many times we have to stop them from getting to the water any closer than this.





Side decoration of one of the shops.




We walked pass some souvenir's shops and take a look of the posters...Ahh, beautiful.




So beautiful...





And then we saw this ice cave's poster that we didn't go on that morning.

Another features about the houses in Austria and Germany, they like to draw on their outer walls.



Some guesthouses situated on the upper levels on the cliff.

The house that was built very near to that big waterfall we saw in the previous parking area. I wonder how people can stand that kind of loud noises all day long? Or maybe it only happens in the rainy days?

The Hallstatt-marktplatz (Central Square). There were no trading by the time we were there. However, we bumped into a funeral, right in front of the church here. It seemed to us that it was a funeral of a VIP.

Speaking of funeral, there is so little place for cemeteries that every 10 years, bones used to be exhumed and removed into an ossuary, to make room for new burials. A collection of elaborately decorated skulls with the owners' names, professions, death dates inscribed on them is on display at the local chapel. I don't know if this is still a practice in modern days?

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We stood there silently to wait for the funeral to get over, so as to continue our walk. But the funeral was progressing very slow. After 15 minutes, we left the place by using a small side street somewhere in between the shops here.

I call this an "Amazing Tree".

Till here, that's the end of our short walk in Hallstatt Town.

We walked back by using the same road.

While waiting for husband to take the car and pick us, we waited here. The rain was getting bigger by then. Anyway, we felt grateful that the rain wasn't continuously falling, that we were able to walk around Hallstatt Town, though for a short while.

We drove back to Gosau village, at around 5.30 pm.

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