Since Charlie was here we wanted to go out and do a little exploring. A friend of Charlie’s had told him about a salt mine that was a few hours away. So we loaded up the Jeep and headed out.
It was a great drive. Driving though the country and seeing all of the beautiful colors on the trees. We actually drove into Austria on our way to the salt mine. We didn’t get to see much of Austria but it was still exciting to be in another country. We were only in Austria for about five minutes or so. We will have to go back when we have more time.
It wasn’t far to the salt mine after we left Austria and were back in Germany. The mountains around the salt mine were beautiful.
After buying our tickets we had an hour or so before our tour stated. So we hiked up some of the surrounding trails and got some good pictures.
When it was time for the tour to start we were taken into a large room and were all given reflective jump suits to wear. After suiting up we were taken to a small train. Seating was single file straddling the bench. As we sat down on the train one of the tour guides came over and asked if we spoke English. Apparently we didn’t look German enough! We said that we did and he gave us an English audio tour player.
As the train started moving we went into a very narrow tunnel. You could reach your hand out and hit either side of the tunnel and would have hit your head if you tried to stand. After a short train ride (which Eli loved!) the tunnel opened up into a large opening. They did a short presentation about the mine and then we went down a very large slide. They use the slides to get from one level of the mine to another. The kids loved it. Caelyn looks scared to death in the picture but as soon as she was off it she was asking to go back on.
We did eventually get to go down another slide. There was a lot of interesting things to see and do in the mine. They had a lot of little presentations as you walked though the mine. So it wasn’t boring at all. It was probably one of the funnest things we have done so far.
When the find the salt they fill that area with water. The water absorbs the salt. After about 30 years they pump the water out and then take the salt out of the water. We were able to take a boat ride across a salt lake. The water was so clear that when we walked into the room it looked like the boat was sitting on the floor. After we were on the boat they turned off all of the lights and did a little light show on the walls of the mine as we crossed the lake. It was very pretty as all of the lights reflected off the water.
An inclined elevator and a train ride later we were out of the mine. As usual Eli loved the train ride the most. But I think that the slide came in a close second!
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