Today, we said goodbye to Herbert & Rikki and Alexander. They made us eggs for our farewell breakfast. Alexander did not want to say goodbye as he was too sad. He did bring the girls some juice for the road. We drove out about an hour south of Salzburg to Hallett, to tour a salt mine (Salzwelten) recommended by someone at our bank who grew up in Austria. I have a hunch that “welten” means “cave” in German – yeah a new word in German. The drive was lovely – through small towns, past Austrian homes with steeply slanted roofs and window boxes full of flowers. Then we arrived at the salt mine. I HIGHLY recommend this place. It was so much fun. Since I am scared of heights, I was at first pretty apprehensive going up another mountain. But unlike the ice caves, there were no cliffs beside us, so I was able to enjoy the scenery instead. For the tour, we all needed to put on protective miner gear – no hard hat though. We walked into the mine through one of the shafts they had used to take the salt out. After a long walk, we ended up at a shoot. We had to slide down the shoot to the next level. We heard a story about the body some miners found in the early 1900s. What the miners who discovered the body did not know was that the body they found was over 3000 years old! We then took another shoot (Ainsley and I clocked at 25.4 km/hour.) We saw a laser show reflected off the salt lake. It was such a fabulous tour. Both girls said hands down a 10.
After we descended down to the base of the mountain, we began our 3 hour tour, I mean drive to Vienna where we would stay for the next 2 nights. For the first hour, we drove on scenic local routes through little and bigger towns. It was quite picturesque! We passed a lake with many people sunbathing. The last 2 hours were on the autobahn, not as scenic but we did see some parachuters and a large chair – I mean really large red chair – very odd. I will have to look up what it is.
We arrived in Vienna and got lost a little before we found the hotel. Many of the streets were one way and with construction projects, we got turned around. But we finally found it. We were a little nervous as some of the areas we were driving through were not too great. But the hotel seemed to be on the outskirts of these areas, closer to the museum. And the hotel, K&K Maria Theresa, was very nice. And even better, it had A/C. After checking in, we went to a restaurant 2 blocks away recommended by the front desk. It was very good but all outside and still very hot. Scott & Emily left Ainsley and I to get the bill because it was just too hot. Since they left us, I thought it only fair that we got to indulge in some warm apple strudel with ice cream. It was supposed to be our little secret but Ainsley spilled the beans when we got back.
We had a very enjoyable night in the air-conditioned room.
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