Kosher Travel with Fran and David: Western Austria 3

We are writing this motzaei Shabbat in Salzburg. We just spent a very relaxing and long Shabbat...Shabbat here ended at 10:07 PM.

We are staying on the "Yorkville" street of Salzburg (the same style as Yorkville but much much bigger and part of a network of pedestrian only streets in the heart of the old town of Salzburg)...There are stores on the main level and apartments (usually 3 stories high) above; the buildings were mostly built in the 15th century (600 years old) and have been modernized inside. Our apartment is small and compact but has everything we need and we are right in the heart of town. This is a very beautiful city, very walker friendly and surrounded by beautiful sights and mountains that are within an hour's drive.

We walked today to the Mirabell Palace and Gardens which was only ten minutes from our place. Parts of The Sound of Music were actually filmed there...we now have to see the movie again to see if we can recognize the places that we saw today! Salzburg and the entire area is a great place for a short visit from Israel. We have had a great time and great weather thusfar, bli ayin hora.

Catching up on our update,....on Friday, we left Radstadt in the morning and drove to Hallstatt which is a town suspended in time.

It dates back more than one thousand years and it is very remote and not that accessible by highway. It is on a beautiful mirror lake and there is nothing modern in the way of architecture in the entire town. It is suspended on a narrow piece of land between the mountains and the lake and is really a very beautiful place.

High above the town is the oldest salt mine in Austria which is still operating.

To get to the front of the mine, you have to take a funicular railroad up to the top of the hill and then walk a few hundred steps higher. We took the tour and it was very interesting. the inside of the mine was at a constant temp. of 8 degrees C.

Following the tour, we went back to the town and drove to Gosau where we took a ski gondola ride to the top of a mountain to eat lunch and while we would have liked to hike a bit up there, it was Friday afternoon and we wanted to get to Salzburg.

On the way to Salzburg, we passed another gondola ski ride which Chaim and Sara had told us about, where you ascend by the gondola but then ride down the mountain on a sort of toboggan which is mounted on a metal monorail. You control the sled...we said why not...sounds like fun...so we seized the moment and it was an exhilarating ride.