September 19, 2011

Day 12 - Altaussee

The forecast was correct, it rained all day. No wind just a steady, chilly rain. After breakfast we came back to the room and I did what I hoped I would do, took out the watercolors I brought with me and painted a picture! The view out our window was so dreary that I instead chose a photograph from the trip to use as my model. As some of you know, I have no confidence in my artistic abilities but I try every once in a while.

After my heartfelt experience with Hundertwasser, I was intent upon having a creative experience with no judgment. I somewhat enjoyed myself playing with the paint. There are parts of my painting I like. I'm going to post it here in an effort to get over myself. It is my intention to keep at the painting until I can enjoy the whole experience instead of just parts of it.

This afternoon we decided to venture out to do our salt mine tour. Hey, it's underground. A little rain can't mess it up. There are two tours in the vicinity, one in Altaussee and the other in Hallstatt. We checked out the one near here but the brochures informed us that the Hallstatt one is more extensive. It was a 30 minute drive to Hallstatt and the rain turned to slush as we went up over the mountain. Then it turned to snow! Not knowing what to expect, I encouraged Rick to turn around but he wouldn't, saying he knows how to drive in snow. I also was feeling a bit anxious about the tour since the pictures in the brochure showed people sliding down a big slide to get to the mine. I don't like heights and I don't like speed. Why would I think this could be fun?

The snow didn't accumulate where we were but by the time we got to Hallstatt, the last tour had left. Now I get to be anxious until tomorrow! I've been telling myself that if it were that dangerous, they wouldn't let people do it. I'm mostly concerned about how you stop, like in do you go flying off into the mine?

When we got back to our room, I detected snow on the mountains across the lake. Wow, a week ago I was whining about being too hot in Zurich and now it's cold enough to snow! You notice I'm not whining though. I prefer this to the heat.

After our now habitual afternoon nap, we went down to dinner. They seat us a the same table each meal. The dining room is very quiet and feels kind of formal. People smile here when you make eye contact but don't seem to welcome conversation.

The hotel we are staying in used to be a villa called Villa Wagner. A friend of Herr Wagner (not the composer) was Johannes Brahms. He apparently spent time here and composed a couple of his pieces in this villa. They have a Brahms Room which is set up to feel like a Viennese coffee house. They serve cake and coffee in the afternoon. There is a baby grand piano in it. Usually they have a life sized dummy to depict Brahms sitting at it. At 8:00pm tonight they had a live pianist playing Brahms, among other pieces. We went in after dinner to enjoy the concert. The only thing disconcerting to me was that they had placed Johannes at the bar and he starred at me the whole time!