September 20, 2011
Day 13 - Altaussee

I neglected to mention that our hotel has a spa in it. We decided to take advantage of it (I mean it's raining still so what else could we do!)

I had the first appointment. In August, I had a girlfriend weekend in Santa Fe with my friends, Leslie and Billie. Leslie signed us up for a head and neck massage with a salt scrub at the most wonderful place, Ten Thousand Waves. Anyhow, since we are in salt mine territory, I thought another salt scrub was in order.

This was a little different as they had this amazing table. It felt like it had a small mattress filled with warm water on it. The scrub was a bowl of honey, rapeseed oil, and coarse salt. After she finished scrubbing my body (apparently in Austria they think it important to exfoliate your breasts too, oy vey), she folded the mattress over me and wrapped me in towels so I felt like I was in a cocoon. She then pushed a button on the bed and the hardness under me disappeared and I was floating in what felt like a bottomless water bed. It was warm but not too warm. She explained that it was to open my pores and let the oil in. She turned down the lights and left me there for ten minutes. It was pretty psychedelic. It reminded me of the thing that we had in the 80s where you floated in a dark tub of salt water. She checked on me and then left me for another ten minutes. I had coffee for breakfast so I didn't fall asleep. It was just utter relaxation, both mind and body. What an experience. After there was a shower right in the room so I was able to shower off the salt but leave on the oil.Then it was a matter of putting on the bathrobe they provided and taking the elevator up to our room. What a luxurious treat!

After I was done, Rick had a hot stone treatment with a massage to follow. His description wasn't as detailed as mine but he thorough enjoyed it.

After Rick relaxed a little, we headed off to the salt mine in Hallstatt. Werner had assured me that I would enjoy it so I was pretty calm until we got there and I noticed the funicular. I didn't realize that we had to go up a mountain to go down into it. This seemed like the longest funicular I've been on. Here are a couple of photos of it and from in it.

Once we got off the funicular we then had to take a "panoramic lift" up higher, and then we walked still higher to the place where the tour started. Along the way, they had interesting information. Hallstatt is the oldest salt mine in the world. There is evidence of mining here from 7000 BC. That's the Bronze Age!If you are interested, I put a link about the mine above. It was a fascinating experience and hard to believe people have been here that long.

Archeologists discovered a burial ground and were able to uncover more than 1500 human remains of an advanced society. They had some good exhibits about how the bodies were buried and how they were discovered.

Once at the beginning of the tour, they suited us up in two piece outfits that were to protect our clothes for the slides and keep us warm. The mine temp is about 50 degrees with 65% humidity. The guide gave her spiel in German and English. This would not be a tour for anyone with claustrophobia. Some of the tunnels were quite narrow. We walked throughout the 80 minute tour and had two "slides" to take us to different levels. My trainer Stacy would have been proud of how easy it was for us to do all he walking and climbing.

I'm proud of myself that I didn't freak with the slides. The first was shorter. You straddled a wooden rail, put your feet up and your hands on your knees. The first one I leaned back a bit far and went pretty fast. The second one was 65 meters long and I sat up for that one. They took photos of us and calculated our speed on the second one. I was going 21 meters per hour. Rick went 31. The tour guide 38. We left the pictures in the car. I'll try to include them in tomorrow's blog post.

Along with the slides, they had a couple of light shows and multimedia presentations. They had a giant underground lake that was incredibly beautiful. The website shows it. Our pictures didn't turn out. At the end of the tour, we boarded a little train, same straddling position and it took us for a ride about 5 minutes to where we started. Then we had to make our way down the mountain to the funicular. It was totally cool and I am so glad I did it. Here are a few photos but they don't do it justice. This first pic is me with a "fake" miner.

The next is the entrance to the mine.
Then walking through the tunnel. Notice the salt on the beams.
Me waving before going down the second slide.

These two photos are of the town of Hallstatt. Very lovely.







Thanks, Werner, for convincing me that I could do it. It was a fantastic experience!

Tomorrow we're off to Italy!