Hold on to your seat, because this story gets a bit strange.
When planning our trip, I knew we had a limited amount of time in Austria, In addition to visiting Salzburg, I chose to visit Hallstatt, which isn't far away and also en route to our next destination. We only had a day and a half, and one night in Hallstatt. so it would be a fairly quick stop.
Hallstatt is not only a picturesque town, but one with a long and rich history. There are records of settlers in Hallstatt as early as the Neolithic Period. The salt mining industry has been in operation since 1300 BC and continues today. Hallstatt is home to the oldest salt mine in the world with 7000 years of salt mining. Many people describe Hallstatt as the "world's most beautiful lake-side resort". Hallstatt joined the list of UNESCO "World Cultural and Natural Heritage" sites in December 1997. According to one article, "Harper’s Bazaar deemed Hallstatt 'the most Instagrammable town in the world,' and a glance at the #Hallstatt hashtag yields more than 700,000 photos."
When I embarked on planning our time there, I found a lot of warnings online about how crowded this charming town on the lake could become during high tourist season. The warnings advised to stay clear altogether in the middle of the day noting large numbers of daytrippers coming in from Salzburg by bus. One blog likened the atmosphere to Disneyland on the most crowded day imaginable, should you attempt to visit between the hours of 10 and 4. Disneyland? It didn't make sense. We have traveled to many charming towns and none were described this way. Something was off. However, I had little time to dig deeper, so I trusted what I read and planned accordingly.
We headed out of Salzburg very early in the morning, en route to Hallstatt. However, rather than heading straight to the town of Hallstatt, I opted to take the children on a cable car ride and hike, on a mountain nearby Hallstatt, which was supposed to be lovely. After all, anything had to be better than a hot and crowded Disneyland experience in the middle of Austria!
After our scenic hike on Dachstein Kripperstein mountain (where the kids had snowball fights while wearing shorts), we arrived at Hallstatt late in the day, as we had been advised. We checked into our charming 500-year-old hotel right on the lake and took a walk around the town, as we usually do upon arriving in a new town. I was eager to see what all the fuss was about.
Hallstatt was as beautiful and charming as I had anticipated, but where were the Disneyland-type crowds?
We thoroughly enjoyed our brief stay in Hallstatt. We visited the town, had a lovely lakeside dinner, and were even treated to a show-stopping thunderstorm in the evening, as we sat on our balcony with a perfect view of the lake.
We arose the next morning and enjoyed the traditional German breakfast served in the quaint dining room of our hotel. All the windows were open when we arrived at 7 AM, showcasing the bounty of flowers growing in the window boxes outside.
Before saying goodbye to Hallstatt, we decided to take another walk around town. It was around 9 AM. That's when we noticed something strange. There appeared to be hundreds of Asian tourists pouring into town, off buses, that had been forced to park just outside of town because Hallstatt is a pedestrian-only town. In all my travels, I had never seen anything like it. In a matter of an hour, the town went from being nearly empty to completely overrun with Asian tourists. We decided to high-tail it out of there and fast!
Later that day, on our drive, I asked Garin to do some research on Hallstatt and the unexpected mobs of Asian tourists we had encountered that morning. Please click the link below to solve the mystery. It's fascinating, to say the least!
We sat for hours on the balcony of our room at the Braugasthof Lobissier Gasthof listening to the pouring rain and enjoying the most spectacular electrical storm, illuminating the Hallstatter See (Lake Hallstatt). It was a magical evening and one we won't soon forget.
Remembering Fitzy...
This photo was taken on Fitzy's 6th birthday at our house on Patricia. Every year we had a big party for him with a human cake for us and a doggy cake or specially decorated cookie for him. Since his birthday was on October 29, we always incorporated a touch of Halloween into his party. A good time was always had, by all!
In my mind, Fitzy would be here to celebrate his Sweet Sixteen. But that was not to be. We are grateful for the fourteen birthdays we had with him but wanted more. There is never enough time with someone you love that deeply.
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