Hallstatt - day1

Day 1 began in a way that was to set the tone for the rest of the week. Too excited to sleep , we got up at 6:30. We soon realized that meant 5:30am local time. Oh well, at least there was nobody on the playground at that time. So the obvious choice was to sample swings from yet another country.

Ahh, nothing like swinging in your pjs at 5am!
Especially when you have this view:

With that crossed off the list, breakfast was carefully avoided so as not to rouse the other inhabitants of the camping ground, and an orientation walk through the town was also crossed off the list. Come to think of it, the catchphrase of the entire holiday was "nevermind, we'll eat when we come back".

The town looks like this. I'm pretty sure in months to come I will spend many motionless minutes staring at this picture.
It was great to walk around at that time, there was complete silence and not a tourist in sight.

Later that morning the sleepyheads joined the group and we went on the first trek, on a path above the town, following the course of a very long waterfall all the way up to the historic salt mine.

This is just a segment of the waterfall that starts 1600m up the mountain and falls in the town centre.

The town from above:
The trek leads you to the site of the Hallstatt necropolis. It always fascinates me to be in a place where the presence of ancient peoples is so strongly felt. The spot where the first grave (of over 2000) was found now holds a reconstruction of that grave, inside a small black boxy building.
On the ceiling, a movie was projected, enabling you to see through the eyes of that skeleton: the burial, and later, in the 1800s, the archaeological discovery.
The necropolis site is now shaded by this bridge, built for the sole purpose of offering tourists a better view of the lake. Of course it had to have a glass elevator! And of course they made me go in it twice!

~To be continued, in a logical sequence, with day 2 ~