Underground in Salzberg to avoid rain

Ready for the mine
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We spent 3 days in Salzberg and it poured with rain the whole time! One night I thought our tent would flood or atleast get carried down the hill in a waterfall. So instead of my much anticipated Sound of music tour we instead headed underground to the Salzberg Salt works mine and tour as it was at least touristy and reasonably dry! We kitted up in our miners suits and took a miniture train ride underground. The whole tour group spoke German except for us so while the guide was explaining everything to them we had a recorded English voice blasting over the whole group loudly so everyone kept looking at us! It was pretty embarrassing but at least we knew what was going on. We then entered the mine deeper via the miners slide, a wooden steep slide that is 44 feet long and lots of fun. We went down so fast that when you stand up your bum is on fire even through the reinforced pants of our suits! The tour had lots of interactive displays and 3d laser maps of how big the mine actually is and where all the shafts are. In simplistic terms they dig great big holes in the rock then fill the hole with spring water. This then leeches the salt from the rock and forms a brine which floats on top of the water and is siphoned off every two weeks. It takes a year to extract the salt from one hole. We tasted the brine and it was crazily salty. We even got a tiny sample of table salt extracted from the mine on the way out. The last part of the tour was a mirror lake. It is so salty it perfectly reflects the rocky roof above it like a mirror and it´s pretty amazing because the roof is all patterned and has rich colours of sienna, orange and browns mixed with tourquoise. We took a boat across the lake and they had a light and laser show to music all around the walls and roof as we crossed over.

Laurens xmas shop!!!!!
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After the tour we drove back to Salzberg and as the rain had temporarily ceased we explored town, took in some market stalls and looked at all the churches, buildings and fountains we could. We walked up to the castle to enjoy some more views over the city and when it was dark and started drizzling we headed back home to our tent.

we went down so fast that when you stand up your bum is on fire