Salt Mines

The next stop on our tour was a trip to the Salt Mines of Hallein, some of the oldest salt mines in the world. While in some areas the mine is still working and in production, the area we were in was open to the public as “show” mines.

When you enter, the workers hand you a miner’s set of overalls – with a remarkable eye for coming up with the right size. They also have the ubiquitous portable language players. They lead you from there to the waiting carts that take you into the mines. Once again we were tugged through tunnels, though this time there were no protruding boulders to have to dodge around.  The route leads you through different parts of the mine, with good graphics, and oral information about the history of the mine, and how they mine it. They even have two different wooden slides you get to go down to the next level of the tour, hence the miner’s overalls. In the middle of the tour there’s a boat that is floating on an extremely still lake. The reflections of the light on the salt plays on the water with really beautiful reflections. There’s a boat that sitting at the edge and we silently slipped across the pond.