Hallstat, Lake Konigssee and Mauthausen-Gusen (more pictures tonight)

We cooked tuna casserole!

I have added many photos today. Tried to format them the best I can.

View from the cable railway (hallstat)

Lake behind lake koeingsee

Stream upto the waterfall

Stream again - cascades

Ice cave

View from the waterfall

Yep - the water is pretty clear

The death stairs.......

The front of the camp.

The next day we went to Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp at about 11.00 with Joseph. This camp was one of the largest labour camp complexes in German-controlled Europe. They think that between 100,000 – 300,000 people died there. This camp was much different to Buchenwald in eastern Germany for a few reasons. Firstly the camp here was a death labour camp Vs a labour camp where people died. Eg: People in Mauthausen-Gusen didn’t receive enough food for the labour that they were being forced to do. More than half the amount of calories that were required – so for people trying to lose weight – they were eating 4000KJ per day, considering if they spent that whole day in bed, they would use 8000kj per day! Not to even take into account carrying huge rocks up 400 very steep stairs!  No wonder that the people in the camp were thin, starving, diseased, and anything else, they were starving and dying. If at any point they didn’t carry the stones, or stopped or collapsed – they were shot. There was also a small gas chamber, and various other rooms designed solely for killing camp inmates. The walls of the camp were huge, massive electric  fences and head counts every day…
Walking up and down the ‘death stairs’ was crazy – knowing that tens of thousands of people had died here – not from war – but from brutality and starvation.

We then left the camp – and went to visit one of Joseph’s friends that lived in the area, we had a drink there, had a chat, saw his motorbike collection and then headed off for dinner at a local Chinese Restaurant which was good.

The next day was traveling day – and rain rain rain. The day before the weather was poor, but today was pouring rain. We were driving to Tronstein, a smallish town close to salsburg. On the way ( well 2 minutes out of the driveway) we got a flat tyre! Not a problem really, except for the fact that we had just got ‘new’ tyres. But a change in the rain – found some apples on the side of the road to sweeten the deal, and then drive off to the guy we got the tyres from. He found the leak after a while, and although didn’t speak English, we got another tyre. So – via our new found delicious kebab store, then we headed off to see Stefanie and Benno, who had graciously accepted our ffer to host us for the next few nights.

We arrived about 6.00 Had nice chats – he is a coffee machine mechanical engineer. Stefanie is a LED engineer – put together with Joseph being a Wood chip machine engineer! But we had a short dinner – and went to bed – (12ish).

The next day was a little bit cloudy, not the greatest day for seeing mountains, but we had to go and see things, and try not to let the weather dictate our movements too much more. We drove to Hallstat, a picturesque town on a lake – we were going to the ice caves there, and were deciding if we would go to the salt mine there.When we arrived our decision was made for us, 10cm of snow had fell up to the mountain so there was no access to the ice caves… boo. So we went to the more expensive Salt mine.

I will write a separate paragraph for the salt mine in Hallstatt. We took the cable car up the mountain a little way after paying the exorbitant price of 26 euro. (35 AUD) and then walked up a short path to the mine where the tour left.  If anyone reading this is planning on going to the salt mine in Hallstat I have one piece of advice – don’t go. The place was full of tourists, the guide was dull and not enthusiastic, the price was way too high, the German tourists were rude and talking while our guide rushed through her English explanation. Add to that the gimmicks of a light show portraying the old miners as cartoons, and the slide that is supposed to be a major attraction inside the mine being just like any other slide that you have been in the world. There was no attempt by the guide to interact with the group, no chances to ask questions, and nothing really to see down the mine. Horrible. I hope that someone actually takes this advice and decides against going.

That being said I wasn’t hugely disappointed because I didn’t expect it to be excellent. The views from the top of the cable car were great – see photo. We then had lunch by the lake, which was very nice, then drove back. That night we cooked old style tuna casserole – with pineapple and pasta. Not bad – but next time might go with cream as well as milk.  That night we got some super tips from Benno about where to go in Austria and in Germany. We also gave him some not so useful coffee machine ideas – maybe a sugar dispenser and a marshmallow dropper??

The next day we were heading to Lake Königssee – near Berchtesgaden. This lake and day was sublime.

From Traunstein, Germany it is about 45 minutes drive to Berchtesgaden, parking for a day (6 euro) there was a big big crowd and talking to a few people there – in June/July it was 10 times worse apparently. It was pretty crazy. We took a boat ride out on the smooth, clear water (an interesting fact is that there is only electric motors allowed to be used on the lake. This, as well as no sewerage or waste makes the lake very very clear. Halfway over the lake a man with a trumpet play a few tunes into the rock face with the echo playing back with sparkling clarity 1-2 seconds later. The boat ride took about 55-60 minutes from one end of the lake to the other.  Just past Lake Konigsee there is another lake – I forget the name of it, but we took a short walk past that lake, and then another 10-15 minutes to another waterfall. Past the lake the track breaks into a field walking past cows, and towards where the waterfall exits the forest. –Travel tip – there is a track that we took that runs along the lefthand side of the river. We walked up this fairly steep hill/mountain alongside the stream to try and reach the waterfall. Some climbing/scrambling ensured but we were treated to some excellent views of the waterfall and the return look back to the lakes. An old german (I think) followed us for a little way until it got too steep for him. The stream/cascading water was great, walking through the forest with tarks – (funky slept on a rock in the sun at the base) and was very cool. We came back after I had quite a slip coming down haha, and then we headed back to the lake to catch the boat to the ice chapel/cave. About a 1 hour walk to the ice chapel/cave (looked to us it was a glacier that had been formed into a cave) and we arrived there, had a wlak inside and marvelled at the ice formations. It was suggested that you don’t walk in and under it, so we didn’t stay long under there. A quick walk back – with some downhill heat producing running, and we took the boat back – caught a glimpse of the new bobsled track that they are making there (first time I had seen a bob track) and then headed back to Stef and Benno’s house. They were having tea – we chatted for a while, then went back to bed – with an early morning awaiting – as the Glossglockner road awaited us the next day. (even thought it was past 12 before I got to bed)