October 4th: We started with breakfast in the pizzeria. It was still rainy but the view was great.
Our table for breakfast (and dinner the previous night). Lake Como in the background.
We couldn’t leave town without paying our respects at the temple to Allesandro Volta., founder of electrochemistry, inventor of the electric battery (“voltaic pile”), and discoverer of methane.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t go inside because it was closed for renovation. The museum houses some of Volta’s original devices.
Our next target was a gastronomic one: Salumificio Rossi, one of Italy’s top producers of prosciutto.
The retail store. Each of those hanging lumps is a prosciutto-cured ham.The meat sampler for two included several prosciuttos and salamis.Parmigiano Reggiano is also produced in this region. This is a sampler plate of different ages.The cheese came with fig, apricot, and cherry jams. And Italian basil leaves.Did I mention that they made prosciutto?
Then a lot of driving in the rain. Easy to blog because nothing much to say. We stopped for the night in Fontanella, and had dinner at a simple pizzeria.
Carol got a calzone; I ordered a smoked salmon pizza.
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.
I had a “bread soup”: beef-onion soup with chunks of bread and thinly-sliced crepe/pancake “noodles”.Carol had a nice fried bratwurst that came with an intense mustard and grated horseradish.
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 view from our balcony
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.)
The garlic soup was creamy, intensely garlicky, and utterly delicious.Turkey schnitzel with cranberry relish and parsley potatoesLasagne Bolognese, and yet another attempt to find a decent dark beer
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.
It’s a long cable-railway ride up to the mine.Looking down across the lake to ObertraunLooking back down at Hallstadt
For some reason, I don’t appear to have taken any still photos inside the mine. But Carol did.
About to enter, wearing my pink knit cap
Video of Carol and I descending the wooden slideRiding out on a narrow mineworker train
For dinner we went back to Pizzeria Kegelbahn. Why go searching for something else when you’ve got something this good right next door?
Carol opted for a Salzkammergut Pizza featuring local meats with corn, onions, and mushrooms.I got the Hearty Lumberjacks Steak, “pork with roasted potatoes, onion, bacon, mushrooms”.
Energy and Time 