Europe Trip 2013, Day 5

Our next stop was the tiny town of Hallstatt, Austria. Along the way, we stopped for a luge ride! We had such fun and the scenery was gorgeous, of course!

View from luge (and all along our drive to Hallstatt)

Top of the luge

Steven went first and I took pictures and rode behind at the same time! It was super fun-we got to control our own speed, so that was nice.

This is the guesthouse we stayed at in Hallstatt. Hallstatt was THE most beautiful place I've ever seen. The mountains and lake surrounding the mountainside guesthouse could not be surpassed. This place tops our list of favorites that we visited.


This is the view from our room. Beauty was everywhere!

Views of Hallstatt-can you believe this place??

Above Hallstatt (within walking distance) is the world's oldest known salt mine. We wore protective suits to ride down chutes to get from one level of the mine to the next (see our "pajamas" in pic above!). It had been SO hot on our trip, that the constant 65 degree temperature in the mine felt so good! Most of the mine pictures are not very good due to it being dark inside, but it really was a neat tour. The pic above is us hiking back down to the town of Hallstatt after the tour-more beautiful backdrops!

We took a hike above the town for even better views. The town had just experienced a rock slide (part of the danger of putting a town on the side of a mountain!), so we got to see some of the damage on our hike. I didn't want to leave Hallstatt! I can't believe places like this exist...I want to go back someday.