Hallstatt ~ Salzburg

Hallstatt, a picturesque village in the Salzkammergut was made a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site.  The town is situated by a lake but the saltmines that attracted the earliest settlers 7,000 years ago are about 300 metres up the mountains.  The mines are the oldest saltmines in the world.


 

Such clear waters and indeed the village is very picturesque!

Quaint wooden houses, they look so cute!

See, this funicular train will take you up to the  Saltmine.   Then it'll be a 'roller coaster' slide to the mine.
We left Hallstatt and drove onto Salzburg which literally means 'Salt Castle'.  Checked into our hotel in Salzburg and proceeded to this beer garden for lunch.

Augustiner Brau Mulln is the large beer hall and adjacent to it is an open air beer garden.  The place is an old monastery where brewing was started in the 17th Century by Augstin monks and then  opened to the public in the 19th Century.  The interior has long wooden tables, dark wood panelling and you can purchase food from the stalls in the hallway.

Pick your choice of food from stalls at the hallway

This is the non-smoking section .......... bring in your food, it's free seating and go get your beer !

This beer procedure is interesting.  Take a mug from the shelf, wash it at this fountain, pay the cashier on the right for half or one litre of beer, give the receipt to the guy pouring from the wooden cask and you'll get your beer!

Late lunch ......  Roast pork with warm cabbage and potatoes.

Pork knuckle.

As it was still bright, we drove to Hellbrunn Castle, on the outskirt of the city to catch a glimpse of the castle and the palace grounds.  It's more like a manor and pleasure ground, built between 1613 and 1615, a rectangular court with 2 pavilions in the front corner.  It was just past closing time but we managed to sneak in and did a quick tour of the grounds. 

See the two unicorns on the main pond of the castle, on the right  ........  date back to around 1700.  Looks like we're having this garden all to ourselves!

And this long alleyway connect to the city of Salzburg and at the end, on the right of the gardens, we found this..........

The pavillion, where the song 'Sixteen going on Seventeen' was sung by Liesel, the eldest of the Von Trapp children of the movie, 'The Sound of Music'.

We went for a stroll in the city at night and found this shop which sells  ....... guess what, Pretzels!  Aren't they cute!