Sunday September 3, 2006
We ate breakfast at McDonald’s. We drove over to “Salzbergwerke” to take the salt mine tour. We had to wait for about an hour for the next tour so we walked around this really pretty “Celtic” neighborhood. The salt mine tour is above the town of Hallein (9 miles from Salzburg). It was really fun. You wear traditional miners’ outfits, get on funny little trains, and zip deep into the mountain. For one hour you cruise subterranean lakes, slide speedily down two long, slick wooden banisters. You cross underground from Austria into Germany while you learn about the salt mining process. “Salzburg” means “Salt Mountain”! Cool I did not know that!! Of course Michael did! He told me. It was pretty cold down there but it was really interesting and fun. The water and lakes in this area are so beautiful they are a bright Jade color. It must be some kind of mineral in it. We really couldn’t capture the true color in a picture! It was amazing. This whole area around us is Alpine ski resort country.