The weather once again played havoc with our hiking. We awoke to rain and decided to skip the formal trek.
We took the train to Bad Aussee – another quaint little town with interesting shops. Dan picked up some dried sausages and later we stopped in a bakery for some cakes and breads. Sue, Kaylon and Lucy decided to stay in Bad Aussee to shop and tour the town and to hike to our destination at Aultersee later. The rest of us headed straight there. The 3 girls lucked out by finding the riverside path, but our group took the roadside path. Not really much of a disadvantage as it was raining the whole time anyway. As we left Bad Aussee, we couldn’t resist photoing the ‘not Bad Aussie’s of the group.
Again we passed many typical Austrian homes and farmsteads – all beautiful and well manicured. Our transferred bags again greeted us at our hotel where we had a great snack of our purchases along with schnapps and TimTams. Mick, Doug, Dan, Suz, Michael & I headed to the salt mine (after all, we are in Saltzkammergut) while Paul went to search for our evening dinner venue and to pick up some beer for 500.
We took the ‘new road’ to the mine which ended up being about 5km all uphill rather than the quoted 3.5 km on the road signs. But it was a great walk at any rate and combined with our hike to the town made for a full day of hiking in the end. We arrived at the mine for 2pm, but the next tour wasn’t until 3pm. So time for a beer while we waited. In the end, Doug and Mick decided to head back to PK but D&S, M& I stayed for the tour – which was well worth the wait. Too bad for them as they missed out on sporting the very trendy outfits for touring the mine (to protect your clothing)
Altaussee, May 1945 after the removal of the eight 500 kg bombs at the Nazi stolen art repository.
The salt mine here is still active, and most interestingly it was used by the Nazis to store their plundered treasures during WWII. When it was realized that the artwork in the underground chapel was in pristine condition, they knew they had found the ideal spot to store the stolen artwork and other artifacts. In the end over 6000 paintings, plus tapestries, statues, sculptures and other craftworks were stored here and were well catalogued. At wars end, the German army were to blow it all up rather than relinquish. But miners and army collaborated and they smuggled the bombs out overnight and all was saved. Still, much has gone missing as there were many hands involved.
There is very much interesting history to the mine which has been active since the 14th century. The chapel for St. Barbara is a highlight, as was sliding down the miners route to enter the lower sections of the mine. It is still an active salt mine where blasted caverns are filled with water, then after the salt has dissolved, the brine is pumped out and the salt extracted. Much is used for road salt, some for medical, some for smelting and about 10% for the food industry.
For the trek back to our hotel we followed the ‘old road’ which was much shorter and steeper but much faster and prettier as it was through the forest…. but still through the rain of course.
We all reconnected back at the hotel and after admiring Lucy’s new shoes (worthy of hiking yet stylish and multi-purposed) and Sue’s swanky new backpack purse (very nice handmade unique style), we headed for dinner. Another great meal but once again we were perhaps (no, definitely) too rambunctious and loud. At least by the time we left the restaurant it was finally not raining.
Fingers crossed that we can get the last 2 days of hiking in. We need it – I think I’ve gained 5 lbs with all the wine, beer and amazing food!
