Salt of the earth

15 km. From Salzburg, there is a city of Halayn, from where you can get to the famous Salt Cave. The bus stop is located in the heart of Salzburg, near the square of Mozart (the schedule can be asked in the information bureau on the same area). The bus goes around once in half an hour (ticket cost – 70 shill.) and puts off passengers in Halyane on one of the central streets. Here it is best to immediately find out the road to the cave. If the knowledge of the German language is not enough, the best way to explain what you want is to grab a booklet with colorful pictures advertising a salt cave, and just show it passersby.

Mount Salzburgberg Mountain and Cave are 5 km away. from Halyane. You can get there or taking advantage of a cable car or on foot. Option number one is the most successful. First, there is a wonderful opportunity to ride on the cable car. Secondly, you will immediately be sold with a solid discount (in just 210 shill.) Ticket to the cable rope and back, to visit the salt cave and located next to her Celtic village. In the presence of "Salzburg Card" The price is still declining (185 shill.). In addition, it disappears the need to buy a ticket to the salt cave at the checkout in front of the entrance (195 shill.), where is always a big queue.

Naturally, we chose a cable car. First, the cabin of the rope, designed for four people, sharply swam up to the mountain, sailed over deep gorges, almost touching the vertices of the carved firings, and at the very toplighted and went horizontally. A little more, and we fell into another valley, where they soon landed on top of a small hill, on which the church is located. The panorama of the valley opens from the church, but the fog rising from the bottom did not give us the opportunity to admire her beautiful species. Running from the hill, we soon approached the entrance to the salt cave. Here all visitors are applied to white clothes – dimensionless trousers and hoods hooded, then each other is sitting on the long bench of the tender train (like when riding a slide "Farovosik"), and soon the train takes them into the mountains deep into the mountain.

The horizontal mine along which the train moves is quite narrow – two ruts for tenders and all. Land or lean to the side, without risk to smash your head or shoulders, you can only centimeters on 15. We swept the train with a group of returning excursions called a storm of welcomers of our passengers, the bulk of which consisted of expansive Italians.

Excursion to the depths of the mountain turned out to be very interesting. At first, we showed a film about the formation of salt powders and about the production of salt here since the days of the Celts to the present day, then we walked along the horizontal gallery of the mountain, in the side corridors of which the scenes of the miners were recreated. In one of the shred, we met the so-called "Salonic man", discovered sometime in the thick of salt. Then, on special wooden toboggans, we moved a couple of times from one level to another. Under the ground we moved the border between Austria and Germany, and in conclusion they sailed on a wooden ferry on a salt underground lake. The whole excursion lasted about an hour. Naturally, underground air temperature not higher than +7 s, so it will not be too much warming.

On leaving we were asked to buy a souvenir of the visit to the salt cave photos, which have been represented ourselves at the time of descent along the toboggan and during a trip to the tender. Near the cave there is another museum located in the open air and reflects the life of a Celtic village. The entrance to it was paid for us even when buying a ticket on the cable car. Museum represents several wooden structures such as those in which once lived Celts. Men and women lived in separate houses. Looking at one of the homes, we were in the male part. There laid and hung utensils that were used by the male half of the village. Above us on the hardwood floor sat a boy (doll) from time to time "revived" and slowly told about the life of Celtic men. The story was accompanied by a display on a small screen friendly feasts. The impression that male Celts just did that feasted. The female half, as usual, a young woman cradling a baby and an elderly conjured over the fire, diluted directly on the earthen floor in the center of the home, and preparing some food in a cauldron.

Everything here is left to chance. Even a small babbling brook falls down under the classical sounds of music. Not surprisingly, when I saw the cat, frozen in a hunting stand, I thought it was a scarecrow. Imagine my surprise when it "scarecrow" suddenly darted swiftly on their prey!

Returning to the cable car in Halyayn, we had lunch in some small edalni institution that also serves as a store for the sale of semi-finished products of meat and fish. We ordered a white sausage, wondering – from which they can be made? Is clearly not out of toilet paper because they were delicious and juicy. A little more shook the center Halyayna, very small and deserted. Then he went to the store and bought myself, and as a gift, the world-famous candy "Mozartkugein" with the portrait of Wolfgang Amadeus on each bulb. They can be seen on the shelves of stores in Moscow, but to bring out the very heart of Austria, from Zaltsburglanda where they once came up, it was a must.

Then we wanted to stop the bus going towards Salzburg. Roads in all small towns of Austria are rather narrow, so the movement on them is organized only in one direction. Find the street on which the bus passes in the opposite direction is quite difficult. In addition, in our case, the bus to Salzburg is passing out even on another bridge, so the search for the necessary stop was delayed. As it turned out, it was necessary to immediately learn how to walk to the railway station, and also to look for the necessary stop.