Salzbergwerk - Salt Mines

So, last weekend Jenny and Jon arrived in Salzburg Thursday night, checked into their hotel and gave me a call on my cell phone (Kirsten was on the phone with her mum at the time). We said we'd meet at 7:15-7:30ish at the Stadtsbrücke, aka the main bridge for vehicle traffic in the Altstadt von Salzburg. We got there at finally met up with them (they came a bit late) and together with my roommate Ben and this girl Tamra from AIFS, we all headed over to Frau Schöttke's place zu Fuß (on foot). We enjoyed an excellent Austrian meal, exchanged some laughs and stories and listened to some traditional Austrian Music: Barry White, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong duets, etc...

Next Morning we got up and after a little bit of a mixup met up with Jenny and Jon again and went for a Spaziergang up to the Fortress of Hohen-Salzburg and the Great views from all sides of the mountains. Spring is here, and the bugs and flowers and green and sun and colors and smells and sights are OUT! We then checked Fred and Ethel out of their hotel and went to stash their bags at Kirsten's dorm and we found our friends Emily Boyd and Joy Meckes waiting for us. Joy is studying in London, England and Emily is in Sussex; they were both on a Spring Break of sorts. So the whole crew--Jenny, Jon, Joy, Emily, Kirsten and i--made our way to the train station with a short walk through the Mirabellgarten and the adjoining dwarf-statue garden. We took the train out to Hallein bound for the Salt Mines. We got there and discovered that we'd need to take a bus to get there and it would take about an hour before we could leave. We figured it out, got there and bought our tickets (with no discount for me because they wouldn't believe that i am a student and that my ID was stolen in Italy). We visited the Celtic Village there to pass the time before going into the Salt Mines. The Celts were the first ones to mine salt there and then it passed into the hands of the Archbishops, rich in power, corruption, and false religion. There is a tram ride to start off the journey into the mountain which knocks off much of the walking. Then you begin a guided tour with various exhibits and short film clips shown along the way--luckily everyone in the group was OK with English, so that was the language used. i was the only one that broke some salt off the ceiling and ate it, and it was quite good. Salty. I guess everyone else was afraid of dirt or something, who knows. Anyway, the most exciting part of the Salt Mines is that you dress up in these Spacey looking suits to slide down mine-shafts and keep you clean from the walls. You ride in a boat over a salt-saturated separation pond (more salty than the Dead Sea) and see a series of other film clips and hear some other cool info about the mine. 70% of the mine is in Bavaria, a German Province where Munich lies and the Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau actually died as a result of the battles he wages for rights to the mines. You cross the German-Austrian border underground. This same Archbishop was also responsible for most of the grand buildings that Salzburg is famous for today as he rebuilt them after a large fire (which he did nothing to stop) as an excuse to build the Schloss Mirabell, die Residenz/Residenzplatz, und Der Dom. He hired an Italian architect to build them and with revenue generated from the lucrative Salt trading business. This is, in fact, how Salzburg got its name. Salz, meaning Salt, and Burg, meaning castle; the castle was built out of salt, (though not literally, but €conomically!) The Austrian Schilling has never done too bad, even with the results of war because of it's strong connection with the old Deutsche Mark. Of course, both countries are now part of the EU and Austria is celebrating its 10th anniversary as a member.

So! This was a great way to wrap up the Spring Break travels and say farewell to Jenny and Jon (though after a week of school of course). They took a train back to Munich that afternoon to catch a plane the next morning. Emily and Joy stayed at Kirsten's dorm and resumed their travels while Kirsten and i took a trip with our class to the Schleedorf Cheese Factory Käsewelt! More on that to come!

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