Days #27: Hallstatt

This weekend Annie and I were planning on making our Bach pilgrimage to Erfurt and Leipzig, but our plans fell through at the last minute, and so I ended up hiking in the Alps and going to Prague instead. My friends Hannah and Brian had made plans to visit the Austrian city of Hallstatt for the day on Friday and invited me to accompany them, so I decided to tag along. We would return to Gaming on Friday evening to leave early Saturday morning for the school trip to the city of Prague, Czechoslovakia.
We left for Hallstatt bright and early at 4:30 in the morning. I had to wake Hannah as she had overslept, but we were still able to make it to our bus on time. Brian took care of us and helped us get to our correct platforms. It was enjoyable riding the trains together, chatting and getting to know one another better. As we drew nearer to our destination the beautiful Alps emerged on the horizon with their snow white peaks. We drew closer and closer until they towered over our little train. We had to cross a lake to get to Hallstatt on the other side, so we took a little ferry across for a small fee.
When we first set foot in Hallstatt, the first thing we set out for was the church. There were two churches, on in the center of town, the other located slightly overlooking the town and the lake higher up the mountainside, but still incorporated into the city. The first turned out to be a sort of Protestant church, but the other was Catholic. Mass wasn't until 6:30 pm, so we wouldn't be able to go, but we went inside to look around and to pray. The church had a unique design to it, as there seemed to be two main altars in what looked like a double sanctuary. A third, modern altar had been built in front of one of them, yet another consequence of misinterpretation of Vatican II. There was a smaller side altar on the left near a beautiful statue of the Pieta. The choir stalls on either side of the sanctuary were painted with images of the Twelve Apostles. Another particularly interesting feature of the church was the Stations of the Cross, which consisted of a series of paintings along the outside of the choir loft. Hannah had the wonderful idea of singing a hymn from their German hymnal, so we found Brian's favorite hymn in German, God Head Here in Hiding, and sang it in the empty little church. It was a nice memory, as we all love that hymn and we all love to sing (Hannah was in Schola with me last semester).
When we finished we went back outside to explore the cemetery surrounding the church. The cemetery started out front, then wound behind the church and upwards, with about three levels as it climbed up the  mountainside. It was neat to see the different tomb markers- one had the name Egger on it, the name of one of my fellow organ majors back on main campus! A lot of them were marked with the image of a saint, a queen, or a princess with a sword, tower, and holding the Blessed Sacrament. I couldn't remember who she was; any guesses? There was also a neat little shrine within the cemetery depicting the Agony in the Garden, with statues of Christ and an angel with the chalice, and God the Father and several angels painted on the backdrop. Each angel carried an instrument of Christ's Passion.

We climbed the levels of the cemetery until we reached a set of stairs and a path, leading to a hiking trail to the salt mines - Hallstatt is known for its salt. We had planned on going hiking, so we spontaneously decided to follow the trail up the mountain. It wound up the side of the mountain, back and forth, back and forth. The day had started out cloudy and drizzling, but as we climbed up, the clouds blew away to reveal a cerulean backdrop of blue sky and plenty of sunshine gracing the little valley. It was a long trek, but definitely worth it! We kept looking out over the valley, thinking, "It can't get much better than this," but it kept getting more and more beautiful almost with each step. We found a spring pouring down a crevice in the mountain into the valley below.  Further up we found one of the mines, but it was blocked off, so we were disappointed. Hannah and Brian had really wanted to go exploring. The mine dated back to Emperor Franz Josef I. But we kept going. We didn't make it quite all the way to the top of the mountain, but pretty close: we made it to a bridge built overlooking the valley. It was breathtaking to look upon. It was as if God was displaying His masterpiece for us, this little Austrian valley. We stood on the bridge for a long time, admiring the general splendor. The bells from Hallstatt rang out the noon hour, so we prayed the Angelus, then sang "Eidelweis" from The Sound of Music. Brian recited Psalm 19. I didn't think of it until later, but I thought of Nahum 2:1, Ecce super montes pedes evangelizantis et annunciantis pacem. - "Behold on the mountains the feet of him who brings good tidings, who proclaims peace."
Eventually we had to leave, so we slipped and slid and ran back down the mountainside. By the time we reached the foot of the mountain, the sky had clouded again and there was a slight drizzle. We had lunch on the dock overlooking the lake. Some local ducks came over to check out our cheese and ham tortillas. Among them was a swan which Brian mock threatened with his water bottle. When we finished, we decided to explore the city and buy a few souvenirs.  One interesting find we happened upon was this series of little shrines to the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary. We had to overcome a few snowbanks to look at them, but that was part of the adventure. The last one consisted of a church on top of a hill. The main entrance was blocked by construction work, so we scaled a snow bank and jumped a stair rail to get to it. Unfortunately, the church was locked so we couldn't see the final mystery, but it was worth the adrenaline rush. We had to buy food for the journey back, so we waited outside a grocery store for it to open while Brian told various stories of his sleep walking and sleep talking experiences - most of which I had heard already, but it was entertaining to hear them again. ;-) Some of those just don't get old.

Afterwards we just wandered around the town some more. The train ride back was fun, too, just to talk and reminisce over memories from previous semesters and to share memories from the fun day we had had together. It was a good day, all in all! We got back to the Kartause at around 10:30, to get up at 4:30 for the trip to Prague the next day.