To end the first month of 2017 with a bang I took a little day trip to the town of Hallstatt in Upper Austria. The town was listed as a UNESCO Cultural World Heritage Site in 1997, as well as a natural site for the Salzkammergut Region. It was such an adorable and quaint town! It was nestled on the Hallstätter See and in the mountains so that meant real snow! At least this way the cold felt justified unlike in Vienna, where it’s been gray and windy all winter with hardly any snow. We had a guided tour and learned a bit about the importance of salt mining in the region and its history that dates back over 7,000 years! One of the strangest parts though was the Beinhaus, which housed the skulls, humeri, and femurs of deceased people. Apparently during a jump in the population, Hallstatt ran out of space in the Catholic church’s small cemetery so they began digging up people who had been buried for 10-15 years and placing a new body in the empty grave. They then bleached and painted the old bones with the person’s name and birth and death dates. The last person to have this done had her bones placed there in the 1990s and as long as you put it in your will, Hallstatt will still do this for anyone today. After the tour and grabbing something to eat, we hiked as far as we could up the snowy mountain for multiple breath-taking views of the lake and town (which is a lot smaller than we thought until you’re looking down on it). Even though I fell twice, it was great to experience a typical mountainous region of Austria with tons of snow. I’m super glad I was able to visit Hallstatt and especially during winter – there’s something about the glistening snow that makes it even more enchanting.
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travelmickey 