September 22nd: A long driving day. We stopped for lunch at a small roadside food stand that turned out to be surprisingly good, with many regional specialties.
We didn’t buy an Austrian toll-road pass, so we had to drive back roads that wound through a lot of scenic mountain passes. But the weather was a bit cloudy.
Eventually we arrived at our almost-lakeside hotel, the Seerose, in Obertraun.
The next-door Pizzeria Kegelbahn looked pretty good, so we had dinner there. It turned out to be excellent. I ordered soup and a cutlet, while Carol went for comfort-food lasagna. (Kegel is an Austrian form of bowling or skittles, so “Kegelbahn” could be translated as “bowling alley”; the restaurant has 2 lanes near the back.)
September 23rd: We planned to see the Dachstein ice cave in the morning, but their cable car lift was out of order. They said it would be fixed in half an hour, but 2 hours later it was still not working. So, we wasted a couple of hours sitting around waiting for it, but eventually gave up, which was wise , because they never did get it running that day.
So instead, we went to the nearby Salzwelten (“salt worlds”) salt mine above Hallstadt. This is the oldest known salt mine on the planet, dating back about 7000 years.
For some reason, I don’t appear to have taken any still photos inside the mine. But Carol did.
For dinner we went back to Pizzeria Kegelbahn. Why go searching for something else when you’ve got something this good right next door?
Energy and Time 
Now I will have to do some digging. I have a very old collection of salt samples that I found among my mother’s photos and momentoes that I believe came from that mine. I’ll have to check. It really is old – perhaps picked up during the war when my dad was stationed there.
I really love your food reviews, and this one has me planning my menu for the week; it all looks so good.