Hallstatt: looking good enough to clone

I'm trying to blog on the run, so I'm downloading pictures from my phone and then typing later. Hence the drop in quality of the photos.
After Mauthausen we drove to Hallstatt, one of the prettiest places in Austria. In fact, I heard that it's so popular in China that they actually recreated the whole town there somewhere. I cannot imagine how it would be done.

Here is the main plaza (or half of it, anyway). The window boxes and espaliered fruit trees and cobblestones make for a beautiful backdrop.


We let Maddie go off with the students, and Will and Sebi went on their own. But we took Joss with us and headed up to the beinhaus at the Catholic church. Since land was at a premium, for a few centuries, once you'd been buried for 10-20 years, they would dig up the bones, clean them, let them bleach in the sun, and then paint the skulls and place them in the beinhaus by family name and date of death. They only do it now by request. It's an interesting feel in there.

Joss was done after humoring us with the beinhaus. But if you won't pose for pictures this summer, you're the photographer.



Then we took a boat ride. It was quite warm yesterday, so we got one with a sun shade.

Joss steered us around and around in circles. We saw Will and Sebi with two students in another boat and several students back on shore. Maddie tried out one of the swan paddle boats with three other students. I don't think I knew before, but Franz Josef and Sissi liked to come to Hallstatt for the holidays. Sissi liked swans and so there are swans hanging around on the lake.

It is still lovely as ever.

Comments

Curtis said…
I'm glad you're back to blogging. Instagram and FB just aren't the same. And reading your posts, I just pretend for a few moments we're there with you and not stuck here. Looking forward to many more posts this summer. Say hi to Rob and the palies.

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