Of Mountains, Mines, and Caves

Austria is a country built in the mountains, so we did some very mountain type things. One day it was raining so walking around outside wasn't very fun. We drove up a mountain and at the top of the mountain was a restaurant. So we had lunch and we took a picture with this farmer and son.
Here is a view of the town we stayed in. This is taken as we were coming back down the twisty mountain road.
Another mountain adventure was going deep into the mountain into a salt mine. We didn't take a camera into the mine, so this is the only picture we have from inside. We got to slide down these really fun wooden slides. They are how the miners used to get from the higher levels down to the lower levels very quickly. Gluck Auf! is an expression the miners used to say to each other as they entered the mine, is means something like 'Good Luck!'.
At the salt mine, there was also a recreation of a Celtic village. The Celts were the first people to mine the salt in the mountain. They lived in the area from 500BC to about 100AD - a long time ago. Here we are hanging out with Auntie Kendra in what would have been a Celtic home- look how short the door is!
And we are just hanging out in the animal barn. Although there weren't any animals in here today.
This was the entrance to a Celtic mine shaft, although we couldn't get past the barrier. The Celts had to dig their way into the mountain with very few tools, and chip away at the salt and rocks. What a lot of work.
Our third mountain adventure took us up a very tall mountain. When we got to the parking lot we had to take a bus up a very narrow, winding road. Then we had to hike for about 20 minutes up to the lift. As you can see, it is very rocky.
Then we got to go up the steepest part of the mountain in a cable car. It went really fast, and it gave us a great view.
Finally we had to hike another 20 minutes up to that big hole in the side of the mountain. We stopped often to take pictures - or at least that's the reason Auntie Kendra gave for our frequent stops.
We couldn't take our cameras into the mountain so we had to buy some postcards, and here is one. There were huge sheets of ice on the floor, or hanging on the walls, or free standing like this ice sculpture. It was very cold, but very amazing to see.
Well that's all for now about our mountain adventures but we did see more in Austria, so stay tuned. Love KT and QT