Well I’m back to small town living again and I love it. There’s just something magical about these small European hamlets that make you feel like you’ve gone back in time. I took the short bus ride to the town of Hall in Tirol. It has a population of 13,000 and was a rich salt mining and silver minting center back in it’s day. It was founded in 1303 and its name was derived from the Celtic word for salt. It is also the birthplace of the dollar! The silver coins minted here were first called the “guldiner” and then called the “thaler” which eventually became the dollar.
I spent the late morning walking thru this beautiful little town and shared a few pics. While to you guys it probably looks like every other town I’ve shared (and yes this one has an old city wall and tower) each is so unique in its feel. This one was very relaxed and people just seemed to be carefree.
I then took the bus to this cute little village called Gnadenwald that has this nice flat (and with all the mountains around I emphasize the word FLAT! Lol) walking trail along the base of the mountains. It goes on for miles thru picturesque farms and valleys and is called the Karwendel Alpine Park. I included my favorite pic of my roughly 5 mile journey when I came across the lovely St Michael’s church. Just appearing to be sitting out in the middle of nowhere it was striking against both the mountains and valley.
And I love the hotel I am staying at. It’s right on the Inn river (yep, the same one that flowed past Innsbruck) and I included the view from my room of the mountains (the one with the pond in the back yard). They are the friendliest staff and they let me play with their Bernese Mountain dog named Ella (pic). She was a lot of fun so I got my dog fix!
The location is really quaint since you have to cross this wooden covered bridge to get to it. And they have an awesome restaurant that’s attached. I ordered the National dish of Austria called Weiner Schnitzel (thin breaded pan-fried veal cutlets). Look at the size of that thing and including the salad it was only about $12! The salad was interesting too. On the surface it looked just like mixed greens but underneath was kidney beans, corn and potato salad! Very interesting (but tasty!).
Tomorrow they have a big farmers market in town with entertainment and lots of people selling goods. Should be interesting.
Well TGIF to all you working folks and hope everyone has a great weekend!
Jeff
The Wandering Italian 