Salzkammergut

I was so hoping to do the lake district here in Austria.  It's known as Salzkammergut.  The whole area is seriously amazing.  The photos in my travel guide were beautiful so I couldn't wait to see it.  But then I figured out how far it is to the lakes(at least an hour if you drive) and sorta crossed it off the list.  While they do drive on the right side of the road all the signs are in German.  Go figure.

But for Easter Sunday and last Saturday some of us went to the lakes.

Easter was St. Gilgen.  That's one of the prettiest places I've ever seen.  Adam drove, since he knows German and how to get there. (And it was his idea.) The four of us (Andrea, Adam, Katrina and I)had a great time.

Mozart's family originally hailed from St. Gilgen(his maternal  grandfather was a judge there) and there is some Mozart tourism, but it's just a nice place to go.

 We walked around, mostly by the lake and stuck our toes in.  It was cold, but hey Alpine lake in late April, so it wasn't terribly surprising.

Then on Saturday we (Lisa, Darren, Adam, Katrina, Andrea and I)went to Hallstatt.  It's further out than St. Gilgen.  In fact you pass through it on the way.
Hallstatt has the oldest working salt mine in the world and ice caves.  Also an amazing lake.  We rented a boat and cruised around.

We spent about an hour exploring the Hallstatt lake.  It's the odd green of the Alps lakes and my favorite part was the castle on the other side.

We also had lunch by the lake.  I had fresh caught trout from one of the local lakes.  Yummy.  It was off-putting at first since the fish was whole.  But so good once I got over the inital, it's staring at me! reaction.
Then we walked around the town.  It's such a cool place.  A place I have to go back to.  I didn't get to see the mines or the ice caves.  And there were some great shops in this little square.