Wheels Around Europe . . . . . . . : Sculls and Selfie Sticks

Hallstatt’s a pretty town and has an impressive history.

It clings to a cliff face overlooking Lake Hallstatt with rocky peaks rising all around.

The slab of rock on which the town is built, is shot through with tunnels and caverns, hacked out over history, the oldest salt mine in the world apparently.

White Gold as it was called gave this town it`s reason for being and it`s wealth.

Salt was mined here, in the mountain above the town, making it worthwhile living in a place only accessible by donkey or boat. It was otherwise completely cut off from the rest of the country.

The houses were stacked one on top of the other going up the cliff and neighbours not wanting to take to the water, would visit each other through a path which passed through their attics.

That’s all finished now of course, a road was blasted through in the 19th century, partly balancing on stakes driven into the lake.

Nowadays your average tourist arrives into the place via a lengthy, narrow tunnel, popping into the open for a gasp of light before plunging back into the darkness for part two of trying to guess where the walls of the tunnel are, elbows tucked in, teeth sucked and breath held.

After the rain yesterday teatime, it blew a hooley in the night and yesterdays temperatures of high 20`s were replaced with temperatures of high teens, quite a difference. Much fresher and more comfortable.

The wind rocked the van all night.

This morning we drove about forty minutes to Hallstatt, stopping a couple of times at shops to get Louis a new muzzle as we lost his in Salzburg. The public transport here are fairly strict on allowing only muzzled dogs on board, so we felt we needed to get a replacement. First stop was a pet shop and all they had was a fancy leather one for 45 euro ! no thanks. Next stop was a garden centre where we got one for about 4.50 euro.

Arriving in the town there is very limited parking but there is a campsite where I pulled into and spoke to the man in reception. He explained we could park there for three hours for five euro, but no vehicle movements were allowed between 1200 and 1500, so we`d be stuck there until 3pm. Or he said we could park outside the barrier for free for as long as we wanted, no contest, what a result.

Hallstatt is a very attractive town, but it has clearly been marketed very extensively and successfully to the Japanese tourist industry. It is like downtown Tokyo here. Hundreds of Japanese arriving by the bus load all the time, one after the other.

The one thing you can be sure about with the Japanese is they like to take photos from every possible angle. It`s also a requirement to get a photos of yourself standing in front of said photo opportunity, but your friend needs to take a front shot, then a left shot, then a right shot and finally one of you standing with your back to the camera ! all this is then repeated as your friend poses in the same positions !!! Then another friend arrives and wants the same. God`s sake, let someone else get a shot please.

They are lovely people, so polite, charming and grateful, but why so many photo`s ?

There are a lot of photo opportunities in Hallstatt as you will see below.

We walked up to St Michaels Church where I had read about the Beinhaus or Bonehouse.

In times goneby, with the cemetery being very small, after ten years they would dig up the deceased to make way for new arrivals. There was then a custom of decorating the sculls by painting them with names and messages, they would then be stored in the Beinhaus along with the femurs.

The cemetery is now very well tended, whether they still dig up the occupants, I`ve got no idea and didn`t ask.

This afternoon we drove to a small spa town of Golling an der Salzach where I had found a camperstop run by the Spa.

After parking up we walked up to the Spa and found only builders working there and the pool drained for maintenance work.

So nobody to pay our 10 euro to and we get a free stopover, all services including electricity !

We got here mid afternoon and the weather was still cool and cloudy so I decided I would try and fix the fridge. An hour and a half later, part fitted and guess what…..still not working on gas.

Back to the drawing board. Actually, I`ll leave it now until we get home, I`ve had enough of it and we`re managing ok with it on electricity.

This evening I took a walk up to the town of Golling an der Salzach. Not a great deal there, but it was quite pleasant and would probably look different again on a better evening if the sun was shining.

Tomorrow I think we will head into Bavaria as the weather seems to be warmer and drier over there.