I had read to go at 6:30 but I would recommend not before 7:00 when there is more fish and less empty bins and ice. It was bustling with fishmonger activity! We saw many things we had never seen before...
Kate: What is that? (A swordfish.)
Ewww! They just chopped the tail off!
Throwing the fish from the boat to the market
Black ink squid
As we were leaving the fish market and passing the butcher (the chicken with its head still on and the skinned rabbit), Kate commented, "I see why people are vegetarian."
Folsom5 is on the move again. Our 11 days in Italy have ended, and there is excitement as we leave for our next destination: Salzburg, Austria. It is a new country for all of us!
Kate has the two nicest brothers in the world! Jeremy carried her suitcase into Venice, and Chris carried it out. The wheeling part is obviously not so bad ... It's the carrying up and down on the steps of the "too many" bridges.
Kate was bubbling with excitement when she saw the car. "I have my own seat! I'm not going to be crammed between two overly large people!" And then, shortly later, "We have a table back here - like on an airplane!" Her enthusiasm was also anticipation for our destination. "I've been dying for this..." Pretty Little Liars is trending on Netflix, and Austria has Netflix (Italy does not).
"Oooh, that's pretty," said Kate (referring to the whole scenery in front of us).
Just past the Austrian border, we had to buy a vignette sticker to use the roads (€8.70). The lady at the window said something to me. All I caught was "bitte" so I quickly turned to Chris (who has completed year two of German), "What did she say?" I don't know, he replied. Oh crap, I was going to rely on him here!
It was like the rain switch turned on when we entered Austria - we were surrounded in beautifully suspended clouds and rain. In a recent interview, Julie Andrews said Austria was on the list of top ten rainiest countries.
I took us on a detour. It was supposed to be fun - to ride Pendolino "Mountain Coaster". The kids were excited to try the bobsled-like ride! Unfortunately I didn't find enough information online in English. So when we got to the nearby town, I found out that in order to get to Nassfeld resort we would need to take a gondola. Or we could drive up most of the way and then walk for 20 minutes. After all that, if it was raining - which it was every 9 out of 10 minutes - the coaster would be closed. We passed. To get back on track we had to take a curvy mountain road. "Whoa, I thought it was a oneway road," Kate exclaimed as an 18-wheeler came barreling at us. (We yielded.) Still climbing at 3,200 feet, Greg and I silently feared we would reach snow. I am impressed that Greg handled it all very calmly, with just a sigh of relief when we returned to the main highway.
This is just after the truck passed us ... so happy we weren't a second ahead!
At this point I would have been nice just to get to our end destination. But my plan was to see the Hallein salt mine. Not one person complained! I had already made a pretty big screw up today (the detour) so when we made it onto the last tour (5pm), all my stress vanished. Standing in line to get into the tour, there was just a couple people in front of us. All of a sudden these couple of people let more and more into the line. 30 Japanese tourists later, the guide explains to us, "We are a group, we are together." His excuse to cut in line was oddly funny to me.
I can't really explain the next 60 minutes. I felt like we should be tired and grumpy and not wanting to be there walking through a dumb cave but it wasn't like that at all. It was exhilarating and a lot of fun for all of us! First we had to put on our miner's outfits. Next we rode a sort of train into the cave - straddling a bench seat. Kate said it felt like WDW's Expedition Everest and was waiting for the Yedi to jump out at us. Then we walked rather quickly through the dark slippery cave and took a slide to get even deeper - the funnest slide I have ever been on! After crossing the German border, we took a slow boat across a lake. Finally we were deep in the bellows of the mountain: 210m underground and 1150m inside. All the meanwhile, we are learning about how mining salt made Salzburg rich. It was a fantastic experience!!
Modeling the latest in mining outfits
Riding in on the "train"
Getting off the fun slide
I have to pay 7 euro to get in a picture ... it is worth it!
When I checked into the hotel I asked if it always rains here. I meant to be exaggerating but she gave me a serious answer: yes.
The good news is that we finally made it to Salzburg. The bad news is that Greg has started singing.
Logistics
- I didn't realize Austria has tolls in addition to the vignette!! 100 km outside of Salzburg we had to pay €11.
- At one point my gut told me to take a break from cities and stay in an apartment near Werfen. We could take day trips from there. Two things changed my mind: 1) I lost interest in the Werfen Ice Cave (our itinerary was too busy), and 2) our Salzburg center hotel reservations dropped in price.
- We are staying near Mirabell Gardens at Star Inn Hotel Gablerbraeu. It by far has the nicest amenities so far - even simple things like tissues and washcloths! After 11 days of inconsistent hot water, a normal shower is heavenly! The room is a suite, so Jeremy has his own room. His bed won't collapse or eject him, either. He is on the floor.
- I mostly use booking.com but I booked this hotel on Tingo and chose the refundable rate. Throughout the course of 11 months, Tingo kept rebooking the cheaper rate and in the end saved me $88.
