More of Hallstatt

Weather changed but didn't stop Wendy from going out early to beat the crowds and finding a nice guy from Taipei for pictures before back to a sumptuous breakfast. Greg is feeling a bit under the weather unfortunately.

We went to the Hallstatt museum. This town isn't just a pretty face; salt has been mined here since 800 BC and there was actually a thriving culture here they now call for European archeology the "Hallstatt era." Romans were then here (of course) and Celts (of course) and the town was very prosperous because of the salt.

Then we went to the bone chapel or charnel house, by St. Michael's. It contains over 1200 skulls, 600 of them decorated, plus assorted bones. Since the 12th century here, because land against a mountain is at such a premium, they would dig people up after 10-20 years to make room for others. They started decorating them in the 18th century and then, once the Catholic church ok'd cremation, it went out of vogue in the 1960s. Pretty amazing to think of these people walking around back then. "From dust you came...to dust you shall return." What an appropriate Lenten reminder.

We've fallen in love with the sauna in our hotel, so hopefully that sweat some of the gunk out of Greg.Read more