Who Knew Salt Could Be So Fun?

MANNHEIM--It's hard to wake up at 6:15 and be in a great mood day after day. But it's much easier to get motivated and start your morning when you have the wonderful scenery we've been blessed with the past few days.

We left Salzburg early Friday morning and headed to the salt mines in Hallein, about 30 minutes away. That's not quite accurate; it should have taken 30 minutes, but it took us closer to an hour due to the size of our bus and trailer. The mountain roads can't accommodate such a big vehicle so we had a lovely detour that provided us with some beautiful views of the ski resort area.

I'll be honest. Since the moment I found out we were going to the mines I've been giddy. I found a website that described the ridiculous white overalls, the slides you ride down into the mine, and the raft ride several hundred feet underground. It lived up to my expectations and then some. It was such a different experience from the other tours we've taken--there was still plenty of history and information, but we were able to be silly (and look ridiculous) and a little more active than the usual guided tour.


In our Oompa-Loompa outfits, we rode a long train deep down into the mine. We were escorted by a surly-looking gentleman in an engineer's getup, who told us a little about the history of salt in Salzburg but most of his job appeared to be starting the next movie and keeping us moving. We walked through skinny caves and corridors and in each room we stopped to watch a brief movie about the mining of salt and its impact on Austria. I realize that this probably sounds a little dull to most of you, and I understand. I've never gotten really excited about salt either, unless it was on top of pretzels or tortilla chips. But this was fun just because it was so weird and they tried so hard to turn a simple mining operation into a Disney attraction.

We spent a couple of hours on the road and stopped for lunch at the nicest rest area I've ever seen. They had a McDonald's, a great cafeteria of Bavarian food, toilets that clean themselves!, Wi-Fi, and a biergarten that overlooked the Alps. With the World Cup starting yesterday in Germany, the place was packed with buses and carloads of soccer fans en route to various stadiums throughout the country. It was cool to see so many people from so many different places, all proudly displaying their flags.

After several more hours on the bus we finally made it to Mannheim just before 8 PM. Germany won their match against Costa Rica and the streets were full of celebration. People drove by honking air horns and screaming, while others unfurled their Germany flags in hotel and apartment windows. We walked to dinner and were able to see many revelers in the streets and the city squares; it's hard to believe it was just a first-round game!

Dinner was good (although I believe by now most of us are getting sick of it)...salad, sausages, potato salad, and Neopolitan ice cream. The only really wacky thing was the beverage situation. Usually we have been greeted by carafes of water on each table. We drink tap water for free, or we have the option to order a Coke or other drink, including bottled water. This time we each had one glass of water and no carafes. When we asked for more water they said we'd have to pay for it, even if it was just plain old tap water. Mr. Russell saved the day by speaking firmly with our waitress; she brought out 4 more pitchers of water, complete with ice. Many of our travelers have come down with mild colds or sinus infections, so I'm glad that they were able to get more to drink.

We walked back to our hotel and hit the hay, awaiting our last full day of Europe.