The picturesque lakeside town of Hallstatt

On Saturday we woke up and discovered that while it was still drizzly, the torrential rain and freezing cold from the day before had gone, much to our relief!

We had planned to spend the day in Hallstatt, about 45 minutes South East of Sankt Gilgen. Hallstatt is a tiny lakeside town, with only about 1000 inhabitants. The journey to Hallstatt is an interesting one. We had to catch a bus to the town of Bad Ischl, then a train to Hallstatt, and then as the train stop is across the lake from the town, we had to get the tiny ferry across the lake. 

Arriving by train and boat is by far the best way to go, the view of the town as we approached was amazing. I'll warn you, this is a very picture heavy post, I actually took over 400 photos in four and a half hours.

The view from across the lake towards Hallstatt

When we arrived, the mountains surrounding Lake Hallstatt and the town itself were covered in a low, misty fog. We had been thinking that Lake Wolfgangsee, the lake we were staying on, was amazing, but Lake Hallstatt put it to shame. It was absolutely stunning, and has perhaps knocked Santorini off the top of the list of the most picturesque places we have been.

It's known for being so stunning, that an exact full size copy of the town has been created in China.

Our little ferry

We arrived at about 11.00 a.m., and found we had much of the town to ourselves. We had managed to beat most of the day trippers and tourist buses that usually arrive after lunch.

The only other people on the ferry with us had been a few older couples and a group of guys on their stag do. They were pulling behind them a huge cart full of water and alcohol, and carrying a huge blow-up doll. It was a bit strange, I wouldn't really have thought Hallstatt was a place for a stag do, but anyway...

Looking across the lake from the town

Bradley looking like he's walking on water

So I'm posing prettily in front of the lovely people fishing in their boat with the mountains and the fog and it's all very lovely. I'm also in front of a huge Church, and I look behind Bradley to find half the guys on the stag do going to the toilet in the bushes of the Church garden! Smiling at me the whole time.

The town square

We wandered round the town and enjoyed the quiet. Austria and Germany are very similar, and the back streets and colourful buildings reminded me a lot of the towns we had seen in the Black Forest at Easter. 

We had heard that the best photos of Hallstatt are taken from the road up towards the Salt Mines above the town, so we headed up the slightly slippery road until we got to a little lookout over the town.

The views were just amazing, and there was no one else around. I suppose no one else wanted to walk up into the mountains on a wet day!

The view over Hallstatt and the Lake

Trying to fit the town and the mountains into one shot was not easy!

After getting a LOT of photos of the town and the lake from above, we wandered down to find some lunch. The town had gotten busier now that it was the early afternoon, but still not as busy as I imagine it would be in Summer.

We found a nice looking restaurant in the town square, I had the Wiener Schnitzel and Bradley had the Risotto. Both meals were fantastic, though I think my Wiener Schnitzel won out in the end, but only because of its immense size! In Austria it is served with cranberries, which is a delicious combination.

HUGE piece of Wiener Schnitzel

Colourful lanterns in a lakeside restaurant

We headed back to the ferry and saw we had almost an hours wait for the next ferry and train back home, so we wandered around the town a bit more, and did some shopping. There was lots of salt products, plus several stores full of amazing wooden products... we purchased a few wooden ornaments to add to our ever growing travel collection.

The view from the ferry on the way back

We decided to stop in Bad Ischl for a while before heading back to Sankt Gilgen. Bad Ischl is larger than most of the other towns in the region; it's also a spa town. Spa towns in Germany and Austria always have Bad at the start of their name. 

When we arrived the sun had finally come out. So we spent some time just strolling around the town with some Gelato and enjoying the sunshine.

We arrived back in Sankt Gilgen in the early evening, and stopped at an Italian place on the lakefront for dinner. We were still a bit full from lunch, so we shared a Pizza and some Bruschetta. Afterwards we stopped for some more Gelato and watched the sunset over the Lake.

We ended up talking to an elderly man and his wife in a mix of broken English and Austrian, he was very excited to learn we were from New Zealand and I'm sure would have talked to us all night had the language barrier not proved so frustrating!

Bradley's ice cream flavour was called Schlumpf, which means Smurf! The guy laughed at Bradley when he ordered it.

Our hotel!