Well I think I found a little patch of paradise in Austria. The town of Hallstatt (population 859!) sits perched on the edge of a beautiful lake with a mountain as it’s backdrop. I had to reach it by boat from the train station and the view coming over was spectacular. It also looks like the weather will cooperate the next few days so I hope to get some hiking in. Rumor has it there may even be a cable car in the vicinity so look out! Lol
I got a late start out of Salzburg and had to change trains once so I didn’t get here until about 3:30. So I just walked around the quaint little village admiring the scenery. I seemed to notice an above average number of Asian tourist, then I read where the Chinese love this place so much they created a replica of the town in China as a tourist incentive. Go figure!
As small as it is, it still has two churches (whew, thought I was going to miss out on my church fix!), one Protestant and one Catholic. The Catholic one has the most bizarre chapel next to it’s tiny cemetery. It’s called the Bone Chapel (Beinhaus) and contains more than 600 skulls (and bones)! Each has been carefully decorated and marked with the deceased’s name and date of death. The skulls on the books were those of the priests. Their space was so limited in their tiny cemetery that bones only had about 12 peaceful buried years before making way for the freshly dead. Many of the dug up bones and skulls made it into this chapel. They stopped that practice in the 1960’s about the same time the Catholic Church began permitting cremations.
OK, enough of the dark, dead talk! Lol. Hope everyone had a great Hump day!
Jeff
The Wandering Italian 