July 15th – We started our day with a fun adventure south of Salzburg, Austria. We visited the Salzwelten (salt mines) within the Durrnberg mountain near Hallein, Austria. This is the oldest mine in the world open to the public. The Celtic people first started here 400 B.C. to mine for salt with their bare hands. It later became known as “white gold” and helped make Salzburg into a magnificent baroque city.
When we first entered the mine, they had us put on white slacks and jacket over our clothes. We sure looked great! The pit railway then transported us into the mountain. We then enjoyed going down wooden slides into the heart of the mountain. That was really fun!
We passed through mystical tunnels, going back in time to a long-forgotten world. They used the “wet mining” method to extract the salt. At one point we went across a salt lake, within the mountain, as they explained the method that was used to extract the salt. What a unique underground world!
The tunnels wound us around, crossing over the Germany border and then back into Austria. They had little presentations throughout the mine, for the tourist, with our guide first speaking in German and then in English.
When we came out of the mine, we then walked through a reconstructed Celtic village, showing how the Celts lived and worked here over 2500 year ago. We throughly enjoyed stepping back in time in visiting this mine.
