Lego Building

We bought each of the kids a small Lego set for being good while we were gone, including for James as his first very own Lego set: a truck.

Hailey built a cinderella coach.

Evan built a Ninjago motorcycle.

Day 9: Herrenchiemsee

We could see Hohensalzburg fortress in the mist on our way to Church.

We met some more very nice people at Church today in the Salzburg ward.  And just like the other day in Salzburg, there were several people wearing their dirndls and lederhosen at Church.

Goodbye Hohensalzburg!  Farewell Salzburg!

The final leg of our trip was taking a boat out to the island Herreninsel.

Jeni and Gillian both wore their brand-new dirndles they bought at the festival in Salzburg.

A nice walk through the forest led us to Herrenchiemsee, our third and final palace of King Ludvig II.

This one was patterned after the palace of Versailles.

The large, sweeping grounds hold this and two other large fountains.

Oh hey there, cutie.

Intricate carvings on the outside, but only around 1/3 finished on the inside.

The inside is beautiful where we went on our tour and, though I haven't been to Versailles, is made to look exactly like Versailles.

We caught a little bit of the unfinished part of Herrenchiemsee after the tour where a modern art exhibit is on display. It's all brick with none of the gold or columns or other ornamentation that the completed rooms have.

Today was such a lovely day, coming out here to the island and touring the palace and its grounds.

We ate a fabulous dinner at Wieninger Bräu.  It was cash only and we barely had enough to cover dinner.  Gillian was disappointed that there wasn't even enough money for gelato next door.

It sure was good food. I'm so glad we scraped enough cash together to pay the bill! Seems like a sign that it's time for us to head back home.

This was such a fun trip. It was busy and we saw a lot.

Day 8: Hallstatt

Driving through the countryside on our way to Hallstatt.

Once we arrived we rode the funicular up the mountain.

So beautiful looking down at the lake from up here.

Up among the clouds.

That's Rudolfsturm restaurant. We'll be back for lunch after our tour.

Our friendly cut-out guide points the way to the salt mine.  We had to set aside at least a half hour to take the funicular and walk the mountain trail up to the mine before our tour time.

Getting all dressed up for our tour.

And here's the reason for the jumpsuits: descending from one level to the next requires sliding down these salt chutes.  It was so fun.

Big hunks of illuminated salt along the way. There were also large brine pools where they dissolve the salt then pump it up to the surface to refine & extract the pure salt.

While mining they discovered this prehistoric wooden staircase (dating back to around 1344 BC).

The tour was quite a ways into the heart of the mountain so we rode a little train back to the outside.

The air is so fresh and clean out here.

We then had lunch high above Hastatt and overlooking the lake.

There was a nearby table of adults with these 3 sleepy babies.

More Sachertorte.

Excellent food at Rudolfsturm restaurant.

And here's our view from our table.

That's Hallstatt down below us.

And another beautiful town to our right.

Hallstatt is such an iconic little village built right on the lake (Hallstatter See).

I passed these schaumrollen and just had to try one.

Cream filled pastry: delicious.

Central Square Marktplatz.

Going inside the Evangelical Christuskirche (Christ's Church). It's pretty small.

Heading over to the Catholic church (Katholische Pfarrkirche).

They take such care of the cemetery plots out here.

The cemetery is so small and land not widely available, there surely isn't enough room to bury all their dead...

And that's where the Hallstatt Charnel House comes in.

In the 1700s the dead were dug up and moved to the Charnel House to make room for the more recently deceased.

There are 1200 skulls packed tightly inside here (along with the rest of the skeletons stacked underneath).

Ah, mountain fresh drinking water.

We still had a 2 hour drive ahead of us, and errands to run, so it was time to say goodbye to Hallstatt.

Tomorrow's Sunday (and our final day out here) so we hit up the grocery store before closing time to fill up on treats to bring back home with us.

Jeni was especially excited about the soups.