Day 47: Hallein: Off to the Salt Mines

June 15, 2014

Breakfast this morning was the weakest of any so far, but there was some compensation. It seems like we are the only guests in the hotel, so it was the older couple that own the place, us, and one friend in the breakfast room. It was more like a family stay, and with that you do not expect ten kinds of cheeses.

Our plan for the day was to take a bus up and down the mountain to the demonstration salt mine (Salzwelten) and then to check out the Kelten Museum (Museum of the Celts), which is housed in the massively renovated former salt shipping offices in Hallein, built in 1654.

We reported to the bus stop on the corner of our street, and saw on the Sunday schedule on the shelter wall that the next bus would be along in 20 minutes. Great. We had some regrets, though, because the streets down the way were being closed off for some sort of festive event, which we were going to miss. We realized that it was a round the city run, and soon lots of people were passing by us, wearing their numbers and looking energized.

Oh well, the bus came and we were whisked up the mountain - on a steep no shoulder road that we could clearly have never cycled nor walked. We had had some concerns about crowds and whether to try to buy our 17 euro each tickets in advance online. We did actually try it - and our oh so efficient French bank interceded with the "verified by VISA" nonsense. They sent an SMS message to our cell phone of record, with a code needed to proceed with the salt mine ticket purchase. That cell phone of course is in Canada!

So we showed up at the mine unannounced, so to speak. Fortunately there were no crowds - with one exception: 29 high school students from Croatia. The Grampies like kids, but very often clumps of them on excursions have really gotten in our way at castles or museums. These kids were really well behaved, and of course none of them could help the fact that there were so many in total.

Partly because it was hard to see what was going on through the kids and partly because the site operators were not giving good, or any, directions, it took a while to sort out where to go and what to do. The main next thing turned out to be being issued protective and warm pants and jacket, then to follow a guide through a long tunnel and finally to board a train like conveyance to head deep into the mountain. To ride the train one mounted benches horse style, needed because the tunnels are very narrow. Despite this, the train went reasonably fast! During the ride, the Croatians started to sing. Cute!

Along the tunnel and through the various parts of the mine were little displays, of mining tools and techniques, life of the miners, examples of salt rocks, and suchlike - but the guided tour moved along quickly, focussing on four main things:

First, of course was the train ride, always a crowd pleaser. Next was a series of films, displayed at various chambers along the way, and actually comprising sections of a single narrative. This was a series of acted vignettes depicting the interplay between Archbishop Wolf Dietrich and a monk assistant, as they discuss the salt trade, in the 17th century. The thing is, at that time (from the 15th and 16th century) the archbishops were not only clerics but also princes, owners, and traders. They controlled the salt trade. In this land locked mountain region, salt was a critical commodity, and its exploitation generated great wealth. So in fact when fire destroyed much of Salzburg, Wolf Dietrich was able to rebuild in grand style - producing the Residenz, Dom, and etc. in the city.

So, in case it is not obvious, Salzburg and Hallein are both named for salt, and they were constructed by and for the salt trade. Because the church and the secular power were one and the same, the construction usually took the form of churches and related buildings.

The vignettes go on to document the fact that Wolf Dietrich got into a tiff with Bavaria over salt prices, and in an ensuing war, lost. He ended up imprisoned in the fortress at Salzburg and Bavaria controlled the salt trade. Eventually the dispute was resolved and a treaty signed, though this was after the death of Dietrich.

Salt mining continued here until 1989, but now the demonstration mine is all that remains.

The mine had two other thrills (at least) remaining. The first was the chance to ride on two miner's slides, which were a fast way to get down one level. Like with a playground slide, you sit in a channel, but in this case your legs are outside and you have to hold them up. Then away you go! Its a short but rather fast ride, and the friction actually warms your bum through your protective pants. The first time, Dodie balked and took the stairs, but based on my assurance that it was no problem, she rode the second one. Her assessment: "Never again!" (Dodie is an anti-speed freak).

The main method for extracting the salt was to dissolve it in water and transport the resulting brine. We were brought to a deep lake of salt water, far inside the mountain. I am not sure if the water in this was pumped in, or seeped in. No matter, the thing was a boat ride across the lake. This had been done up with music and coloured lights, and billed as a romantic experience. It was, at least, cool, slow and very peaceful.

Our guide, meanwhile, made a series of small presentations containing a moderate amount of information, at various points along the way. I felt he had done this a few times too many and was merely reciting the lines, but Dodie appreciated what she saw as a low key approach. Anyway, the presentation was first in German and then in English, giving us a chance to catch on to certain words.

The tour did lean heavily on its "ride" component - the train, the boat, the slide, and the little films - and was light on concrete information. We also got hustled quickly past the displays or dioramas that we were built along the way. However, in the gift shop were books at three or four advancng levels of detail, that provided a lot more information. The level one book, which we bought for 1.90, comprised 22 pages of photos and information, and filled in a lot of the gaps for us. We did not buy the little salt miner rubber duckie (same base duck as the Mozart ones in Salzburg) for 8.90!

The story of salt mining does not actually begin with the clerics of the 16th century. Rather, there are three phases. The first one involves the Celts. Yes, the Celts - those folks who famously still reside in Scotland, parts of Ireland, Cornwall, Wales, and northwestern France.

The Celts started out being the dominant culture over all of Europe north of the Alps, for at least 2500 years. They were given the boot by the Romans, in the early centuries of the first millennium. The Celts were heavily into the extraction of salt here. The Romans, on the other hand, had access to the seas and did not need to mine salt. So the Roman period and up to about the 12th century had no salt mining going on.

The story of the Celts here is highly interesting and not just about salt. Dozens of their grave and work sites have been found in these mountains. For the story on that, we needed to return to Hallein, where there is the major archaeological museum of the Celts.

Returning to Hallein was supposed to be a simple matter. The bus stop for the return trip was on the other side of the street from the one where we were dropped off. In the shelter was posted the schedule, and it showed for Sundays one bus per hour. That gave us 45 minutes to wait. The sun was bright, but we would be tough. After 15 minutes a couple came along and asked us whether this was the place for the bus to Hallein. Yes, we confidently assured them, pointing out the schedule on the wall.. After another 45 minutes we were all less confident. On the other hand, we did get to know our shelter mates. They were from Turkey, but had lived in Netherlands and Germany, and we here for a wedding. If they did not get back right soon, they would miss the wedding! So the man phoned a taxi, we chipped in, and we all sailed quickly into Hallein. We said goodbye to our new acquaintances - Emin and Yara, but maybe we will meet again - Emin is a tour guide on the Mediterranean coast (of Turkey)!

Under the mountain we cross into Germany

The view from the salt mountain down to the valley

In Hallein there sat our bus, resting quietly. We marched up and demanded of the driver what on earth he was doing. He smoothly told us that the service was every two hours. But the schedule on the wall! we protested. The man stuck to his guns, and as for whether the posted schedule was right or wrong - he couldn't have cared less.

So now the Celts. The museum has three floors and 30 rooms! It begins by asserting that archeology is a very important study. Somebody really (and properly) believes that, because incredible care and money has been poured in here. Just as a small indication, all the floors and stairs are marble and windows looking out to the Salzach are huge. We got a guide book:"A Short Guide to the Exhibition" - yes it was short compared to other books on offer, but though in English it was way too much information for us. The exhibition itself was wonderful too. After three hours we had just scratched the surface, but had to quit from exhaustion. Listen, even the guy behind the ticket counter was a Ph.D in Art History!

The first aspect of the story of the Celts for us was the amazingly advanced state of their art and fashion, technology and craft. Their stuff, carefully conserved and reconstructed here, is elegant, gorgeous. From the stone age through bronze, copper, and iron they produced functional and beautiful things. Much was buried with the dead, so graves are a major source of finds. The museum has carefully documented all grave sites and finds, though they do ruefully mention that earlier databases had too many items numbered "1".

Though again no photos were allowed, I took a bunch. They have thousands and thousands of items, so (rest easy) I was not about to photograph them all. I will try to choose a semi reasonable number and caption them as soon as possible.

This statue portrays a Celtic warrior committing suicide after killing his wife - because of losing in battle to the Romans

A skeleton find of a woman with unborn baby

Diarama of ancient Celt discovering salty water spring in the mountains

From a tomb, showing ladies and mans buried objects

The couple's grave, showing where various objects were located

This beaked jug, discovered in the 30's is one of the greatest treasures of the museum

A frawing of the jug. The jug appears in all sorts of magazines and discussion papers

The museum has a room about its own inceptionand advertising. This poster pretty well covers it all.

The view to the river from a museum window.

Leaving the museum, exhausted, we naturally needed an eis cafe to recover in. We just stopped at the first one we hit. It was a mistake. So my mixed cup just contained three small scoops of ice cream and a biscuit, for 3.60. The going rate is 1 euro per scoop, so that was too much and the scoops too small. Around the corner we found the rest of the population of Hallein, enjoying the actually good eis cafes nearer to our hotel. As soon as I type the next sentence and post this text, we are going out to join them!

Those not at the main eis cafe are at this "overflow" one. Note the people in traditional dress.

At the eis cafe, a typical concoction. The people are from Bosnia.

"Spaghetti" eis is gelato that has been run through an extruder.

Our pretty ordinary spaghetti eis dishes

Walking the town in the evening, we looked in the large bike shop's windows, and also in the wool shop. Dodie drooled over these patterns for merino baby things.

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