Sept 22-25 weekend trip to Mauthausen Memorial, Hallstatt, and Salzburg

The SA group drove to Hallstatt and Salzburg for an extended weekend.  It was fabulous!  But it started out very solemn.  Our first stop was at the former concentration camp Mauthausen.  It was in operation from 1938-1945.  The outer walls looked like a fortress.  There were about a dozen barracks where the prisoners and guards lived.  And the quarantined section was an empty spot of land where incoming prisoners stayed.  The extermination chambers were the worst.  Downhill from the fortress was the Stairway of Death.  The prisoners climbed the stairs while carrying granite stones from the quarry to the main camp.  If someone couldn't continue working, then they were often killed on the spot.  About 200 people died every day.  The parachutist cliff looked out over the quarry.  When the guards threw people off the cliff to their death they referred to them as the "parachutists."  The quarry now was very green and had a couple ponds.  It was covered in life.  I thought it was cruel and melancholy that such a nightmarish place was now beautiful.  More so, I guess I thought it was ironic.  For sure it took your breath away too see it's beauty and think about its history.  My friend had a slightly different outlook.  She thought it was soothing that such beauty was growing from this long-ago death trap.

From the outside.

Looking over Parachutist Cliff down into the quarry.  

Anyway we went to St. Florance church afterwards.  It was wonderfully calming and revitalizing.  The garden was especially pretty.  There was a fairly wide fountain in the middle and large cone-shaped bushes all around.  I'm noticing it's common to have a fountain in the courtyard.  I like! 

Next we drove the remainder of the way to Hallstatt.  We pulled into town, threw our stuff in the hotel, and went exploring.  The town is situated on a steep mountainside reaching to the rim of a gorgeous lake.  The water is unbelievably reflective.  Some of us took a little motor boat out for an hour and a half.  It was there we got the crazy idea to jump in the lake.  It was freezing!  Let me emphasize FREEZING.  None of us stayed in longer than ten minutes.  Our other adventures include stuffing ourselves into a phone booth, strolling through town, looking inside the Protestant church, going into the Catholic church, walking through the graveyard, checking out the skulls in the Charnel House, and sitting by the lake coaxing the swans to come closer.  The Charnel House is next to the graveyard.  It's a little room filled with about 1200 skulls from people who died anytime between the 12th century and mid-20th century.  The painted ones are older bones.  For small towns such as Hallstatt, cremation was ideal in order to save space.  And sometimes the skull was kept.  But I haven't even mentioned the main attraction of Hallstatt.  This little town was highly valued back in the day due to its nearby salt mine.  So we took a funicular up the mountain and took a tour of the still-in-use mine.  The slides were undoubtedly the best part of the tour.  But some people might argue the random goats downhill from the mine were even better.  Well, two pastries and a day later we continued on to Salzburg.

Notice the steepness of the mountainside.   

Protestant church. 

Inside the Charnel House. 

Looking up the mountain we thankfully didn't have to climb.   

Our salt mine garb. 

Teeny weeny hallway during the tour. 

I spy with my little eye... Hallstatt! 

We pulled into Salzburg around dinnertime.  Almost everyone got together for an amazing Italian dinner before hitting the sack.  In the morning was a guided tour.  I walked through most of the churches in the afternoon.  "The Magic Flute" marionette show was interesting.  It was difficult to take seriously, like watching  "Cats" for the first time.  And yet they were surprisingly realistic.  Their little quirks and movements helped create personality.  Bravo to the puppeteers.  Later I went to an orchestra show.  There were brass, wood, and string instruments.  Plus singers came in for the last two songs.  It was hands-down brilliant!  Salzburg truly is the capital of music.  The musicians seemed fairly young, maybe college students.  If so, then it would explain the reason the tickets were only ten Euros. 

The following day a handful of us went to the St. Peter's cave dwelling next to the graveyard.  We thought it was a catacomb, but turns out hermit Monks lived there in medieval times.  (Haha we were totally wrong.)  We went to St. Peter's church, the University church, and the Modern Museum of Rupertinum.  Later we took pictures in the Mirabell gardens.  It used to be the royal family's garden.  However now it is open to the public.  There were several sections separated by squared hedges and short cast iron fences.  One section was filled with yellow and purple flowers.  Another had a long walkway with arched vines overhead.  Another section had bright red flowers.  And another was filled with red and pink roses.  It must take a lot of work to keep the garden looking good.  Especially because none of these flowers grow locally.  New ones are implanted every month.