Day 10 - Hallstatt, Austria

We got up early this morning and caught the 9:12 train to Hallstatt, arriving at 11:24. The rain had stopped and other than a few clouds, it was a slightly cool, bright sunny day.

 A short walk down to the pier and we boarded a boat that takes you across Lake Hallstatt. The lake is smooth as glass. The town is nestled between the lake and a mountain.

We ate pork snitzel in a local hotel restaurant.  The restaurant is the Seewirt in the background.

Once we had re-energized, we set out to find the funicular that would take us to the top of the mountain where the observation deck is located.  It wasn't hard to find. We just had to follow the tracks down the side of the mountain.  

This was probably good advice.

Of course, we opted for the easy way.

The view from the observation deck was phenomenal. It is also not for anyone afraid of heights, or just standing on a platform on the side of a mountain.  

We started from down there...where the boat is.

Walking back through town we saw a few swans. They seem to be a little more friendly here. Probably because they figured out that friendly swans get more food. 

Always learning...

I had all the train times for going to Halstatt, and I knew we had to make one change in Attnang. I didn't look up all the trains coming back from Halstatt to Salzburg because I thought Attnang had only 1 or 2 platforms. Unfortunately, it had about 7. So on the way back to Attnang I asked the train conductor what train (platform) goes back to Salzburg so we don't miss it staring at the schedule on the platforms. He told me platform 4. As we made our way over to platform 3/4 we saw that 3 listed Salzburg as the main route and was leaving before 4, which had Salzburg listed in smaller print. Well, we should have listened to the conductor. We ended up getting on a train that stopped at every train station back to Salzburg which added 30 min to our commute.  

So ends our stay in Austria. Tomorrow we catch a train bright and early for a 7 hour ride that will take us through Zurich, Bern, and then our destination, Lauterbrunnen, Swizerland. 

Travel Tip:

Make sure to write down all train times, changes and platforms on paper if you're not sure when you might be returning from a day trip. I did to a certain extent, but thinking Attnang was like Steinach (heading to Rothenburg) where there were only two tracks and one train would wait for the other, I did not write down specifics.