Vienna: Schönbrunn Palace from the Entrance Courtyard
“Schönbrunn” means “beautiful spring [fountain]”.
The statue in the nearer fountain represents the provinces Galicia, Lodomeria, and Transylvania (Siebenbürgen) of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Vienna: Schönbrunn Palace -View from the Gloriette Pool
The Palace, in its present form, was built in the 1740-50s. It has 1,441 rooms.
The church in the distance to the east of the palace is the Rudolfsheim Parish Church (Pfarrkirche).
Vienna: Schönbrunn Palace – View from the Gloriette
The Gloriette, built in 1775 for Emperor Franz Joseph I, was destroyed in WWII but restored by 1947. It is now a café with an observation platform.
The word “Gloriette” comes from an old French word “gloire”, which meant “little room”. “Gloriette” denotes a formal garden structure built on an elevated site.
Hallstatt (Austria): View from Pension Seethaler, Hallstatt, Austria
Hallstatt has given its name to a major period in the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age (12th – 6th centuries BC). The area itself is rich in related archaeological sites. The “hall” in Hallstatt goes back to ancient words for “salt” and is the same as the “hal-” in “halogen”, which means an element, like chlorine, that reacts with a metal, like sodium, to produce a chemical salt, for example sodium chloride or common table salt. The salt mines in the Hallstatt area have been worked since the Neolithic period, and “hal” appears in dozens of place names near and far, such as Hallein, Bad Reichenhall, Halle, and even Vorderhalleswies.
The camera site here was our tiny balcony off our room in the Pension (inn, B&B) Seethaler, as it looked in 2006. The Pension Seethaler was operated for years by the Seethaler family, whose name might be translated as “Lakedale” (or “valley”). Then quaint and picturesque (and cheap!), it has since been melded with two other local hostelries into the “Heritage Hotel Hallstatt”. To borrow a pun from German, the inn has gained in paint (Farbe) but lost in color (Farbe). Now at least some of the rooms have their own bathrooms, and perhaps the phone-booth-size coin-operated shower on the ground floor has yielded its space to some other purpose. Prices have climbed accordingly, but it still looks pleasant and the location can’t be beat. Hallstatt, particularly since becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997, has been “discovered”.
Hallstatt (Austria): Beinhaus (Ossuary)
The mountainous location of Hallstatt limits cemetery space. Some years after initial burial the bodies are (or were) exhumed and the major bones cleaned.
Even within the added dates, the skulls can be distinguished by time according to the style of decoration.
Hallstatt (Austria): View from the South Side of the Parish Church Maria am Berg (Mary on the Mountain)
The church was constructed, in several stages, from ca.1150 to 1505. The tower, whose base is visible in the near northeast, is the oldest part.
Hallstatt (Austria): View from the Northern End of the Cemetery
The actual graves are larger than their rectangles suggest. Cemetery regulations specify that, given the very limited space on the steep mountain slope, the graves are collective and can be reused after ten years.
Hallstatt has only a few actual streets, but many narrow paths. Often it is possible to stand on one of the them and reach out a hand to touch the roof of a house that fronts onto a path further downhill.
Hallstatt (Austria): View from the Cemetery
The steeple of the Protestant church and the Catholic church (foreground) are much further apart than the perspective suggests.
The larger boat is the ferry that connects Hallstatt to its train station across the lake. Other than the busline along the lakeshore, vehicular access is indirect and parking is limited.
Hallstatt (Austria): A Neighborhood near the Lakeshore
“Seelände” on the address plates of two of the houses, means “lakeside” or “lakeshore”.
Seelände is the southern extension of Seestraße (”Lake Street”), which is the only real street in central Hallstatt. Most of the other routes there are not passable by car, since the area between the lakeshore and the mountains beside it is so tight.
Dachstein (Austrian Alps): Rieseneishöhle (Giant Ice Cave) – View from the Exit
The cave, first systematically explored in 1910, extends 2000m, with an altitude change of 70m.
The cave entrance is reached most easily with the mountain cable-car lift from Obertraun, at the southern end of Lake Hallstatt.
Near Hallstatt (Austria): View from the Trail near the Exit from the Giant Ice Cave (Rieseneishöhle)
The lakeside village in the valley is Obertraun.
The cluster of buildings in the near distance is the middle station and restaurant of the Dachstein mountain cable tram.
Austrian Alps near Giant Ice Cave (Rieseneishöhle)
On the Dachstein, just south of Hallstatt
The building complex houses a restaurant and the middle station of the aerial tramway between Overtraun on Lake Hallstatt and the Dachstein in the Alps.