I'm a Doctor, not a Salt Miner . . .

On our way to Salzburg this weekend we stopped at the small mountain town of Hallstadt to tour the oldest salt mine in the world that is still in operation. The tour was one of my favorites thus far this semester. We walked through a mining tunnel deep into the mountain. The tunnel gradually became smaller and smaller and progressively darker. And then all of the sudden I heard the voice of a woman creepily whisper

Stein . . . stein . . . stein and Salz . . .salz . . . salz

right into my ear. I nearly jumped. There were speakers hooked up to the sides of the walls and were continually playing this creepy woman's voice. And it was very scary.



We stopped at the top of the first slide--yes, we got to slide down two slides in the mine. I already felt like I was in a cheesy Star Trek episode in a cooked up set. I almost expected to turn around and find Spock and McCoy on my left and right.
"This salt mine contains one million, three hundred twenty-three thousand four hundred and forty four point one two seven four nine . . ."
"I'm a doctor not a salt miner."

So, anyway, we were all a little apprehensive about the slide. One girl mentioned how she would probably scream. Then our tour guide turned to us and said, very calmly and pleasantly, "You can scream down here and no one will hear you." Creepy! ;) The slide and the mega-slide were a lot of fun. I even bought a hokey photo of myself going down the slide.

Hallstadt was a beautiful mountain town nestled between to foot of a mountain and the shores of a large alpine lake. And it snowed the entire time we were there. I loved every single minute of it.