Arriving Hallstatt in Salzkammergut by train is a small adventure in itself. It must be one of the few, if not the only town in the world, which has its train station across a lake. So following a 10-minute ferry ride, whilst gazing at the breath-taking mountain landscape, I arrived to the small town that desperately clings onto the mountain side on a stretch sometimes not wider than 50 meters. Whether it will all slide down into the lake was a question I asked myself more than once…

My stay in Hallstatt lasted for four days so I had plenty of time to explore both the ancient salt mines that has given its name to the landscape, the deep mountain ice caves in the nearby village of Dachstein but also just wonder around in this peaceful alpine landscape. Day-touring tourist might fill Hallstatt during the day but in the late afternoon it all calms down and you can enjoy a rich Austrian dinner together with a cold beer whilst dreaming yourself away to a different time and age.

An odd experience is the small “Beinhaus” (bone house) that in its own way illustrates the problem of availability of land and space in Hallstatt. Since the cemetery was so small and without possibility to expand and cremations was forbidden, there was no alternative than to open the graves after 10-15 years and move the bones to the Beinhouse. It’s a tradition that dates back over twelve centuries and today there are over 1200 skulls, half of them painted in a flowery design. I was told that the last skull to go into the Beinhouse was in 1995 so either the folks here have found some new ground for their cemetery or the Hallstätters have actually found the formula for eternal life…!