After spending a few days in Salzburg, we continued our road trip, and headed to Hallstatt, one of the most picturesque town in Austria. Chances are, you have seen a picture of it before knowing the name of the place (which is exactly the case for Naomi; she has a jigsaw puzzle of Hallstatt before learning about it for the trip.) It is not far from Salzburg, and it is kinda on the way to Vienna; we just had to drive thru some mountain roads.
We should have known what mountain roads could mean; even lower temperature, icy, and snow. Well, there were some snow showers even in Salzburg, but by the time we get to the mountain area, we saw more snow on the ground already. We planned a stop before Hallstatt, a lake called Gosausee (near the town Gosau) We almost didn’t make it there, because the road was steep and slippery. In fact we had already gave up and headed back (our tires were not snow tires, and it was slipping bad) Then we saw a snowplow truck passing by. With the road cleared a bit, we tried again, and we managed to get thru that steep stretch, and got to the lake. We saw the lake alright, but it was pretty much white out, nothing like we saw in pictures before the trip. Then when we headed back down that same road, it was even more dangerous. I was not thrill driving there.
With that little adventure, we didn’t get to Hallstatt until early afternoon (I was hoping to get there a little earlier.) But then with less than ideal weather, we didn’t need a lot of time to see Hallstatt. There were snow everywhere, it was definitely not as picturesque, and we could hardly see the mountains. We walked around a little, it has a nice little square in the middle, and we found the spot where everyone takes pictures of the town. But it was very quiet, with only a handful of people around.
Our apartment in Hallstatt was not bad, but it was almost like a homestay because our hosts live just upstairs. The apartment is really split up into two rooms; one bedroom and one living room with a hallway divided up in between. The toilet is outside of the two rooms, and the shower stall is in the bedroom (I think it used to be a closet.) Even though the setup is a little strange, we really have no complains; everything is clean and works properly. And it has a great view of the town and the lake. We wish we could stay there a little longer than just one night; we could only afford one afternoon to relax in Hallstatt, even in bad weather.
