At first I do not know Hallstatt at all but there are people posting their photos of the landmark of Hallstatt and the scenery looks tremendously beautiful. There was a net friend of mine invited me to go to Hallstatt on his visit to Regensburg, Germany for work purpose and I just said yes when I have a flip on internet about Hallstatt. We rent a car from Eurocar and took 4 hours drive to Hallstatt, Austria. Austria is one of the most beautiful countries in the world. Due to the geological location, the country is surrounded by alps and the alps covered by snow every half yearly. And the beautiful nature has given them crystal clear and sweet water created the scenery that makes your jaw drop! I believe, by using your phone camera, you can catch the beauty of Austria.
These are my friends who went together with me. We are Malaysian!
When we are about to reach the destination, we will have to drive along a lake and that is enough to make your eyes open. If you are a scenery lover or a landscape photographer, I bet you will keep stop by every 3km for photo shooting. I can suggest you to prepare a cup of coffee and enjoy the view along the way. You can even create a beautiful picture with your cellphone camera.
I would love to be there with my family and I always wish for that. Somehow, people already did it. Sometimes "wasting time" chatting with family, enjoy a cup of coffee, expose to the green, expose to the atmosphere is a way to release tension, improve family bond and is meaning to live a life. There are tables and chairs are waiting for you here.
At some point, I really cannot judge which photo is the best, here I post up both of this lovely family photos.
The view here flashed back the memory of my childhood TV show where they showing some outing activities in the wild. And there was a man on the boat, in the middle of the lake and do the fishing. Here is the reality of the in front of my eyes.
Okay, can you imagine how the view looks like from the family that sitting at the picnic site? I bet with the pictures that you seen above, you still can't imagine how beautiful the place is. Here is the panoramic view that make my jaw drop even before I reach the destination, Hallstatt. We are just closed!
Driving through Austria, you will experience to drive through the tunnels. There are a lot of tunnels in Austria this is because the country were surrounded by alps. To make a tunnel, they able to preserve the beauty of nature.
Now we are very close to Hallstatt. But we are still can't resist to stop by for another photoshoot. I would like to share these photos. There is an island on the lake and the church was built there. Now I can understand why a lot of people like to have longer stay in Austria.
Finally, we reached the destination. There are few tourist destination at Hallstatt. Other than the church landmark which is the small city of Hallstatt, there are salt mine on the mountain to be visited and also the Ice cave. We parked our car at a private car park and we have a garden full of flowers at the small village. The citizens here are a great gardener and they decorated their house with colorful flowers.
A garden full of flowers.
Crystal clear water from the mountain to the lake. Please ignore my ugly look that spoil the scenery but I have to put myself in some of the photos, else the photos will look like copy from internet.
The house beautifully decorated by their work of gardening.
After 4 hours of driving journey, it was time to fill up some energy before continuing our tour in Hallstatt. Handsome were biting the burgers. The strange thing was, when we go for travel and we walk a lot, we will not feel very hungry and food like burger is essential to fill up the empty stomach and allow us to continue to walk.
Hallstatt is a city located by the lake side and at the downhill. The unique of this town is the heritage buildings were built by the hill side, and also by the lake side. The landscape allows you to relax at a higher ground and enjoy the lake view. We were walking towards to the landmark, St Michael Church. Along the way, we scouted this unique tree planted in front of a hostel. They architectured the plant to grow side ways only (2D).
The view of the Hallstatt from the entrance of the small town.
It is hardly to spot a swan in Malaysia. The only place that I have seen a swan in Malaysia is at Bukit Tinggi. And in our imagination of swan since were kids, were the love shapes form between the 2 swans. And here I have the chance and manage to catch it together with a castle at the background of the image.
The second landmark of Hallstatt is the houses built by the mountain. Where it looks like a Japanese houses. Some of these houses were converted to hostel and some were still remained. We also saw a conventional fire station by the hillside. The picture below shows the road and the house and you can imagine the full picture of the houses.
A better view of the heritage houses. They live a very simple life and enjoy their life everyday with the beautiful scenery.
There are restaurants alone the way by the river side. You can always have your relaxing vacation with your love ones here. A great cup of cappuccino and a set of Austrian food is waiting for you.
This is the Cemetery Church and it is well preserved.
The view of the lake from the Church
This is the center of the Hallstatt panoramic view. I was not able to go into the St Michael Church as they were having an event in the church. St Michael Church also known as The Bone House, where they collected 1200 skull and nicely arranged. There are 610 skulls were nicely painted. Too bad, I was unfortunate to visit the church.
Walking down the hill to the spot to catch the beautiful image, I will never forget to shoot couple photos whenever I have chance. I would like to share these 2 beautiful couple shot from Hallstatt.
The tour boat. There are tour boat available near the St Michael Church, where they will bring your to tour around the lake.
And finally, the landscape photo of Hallstatt.
The Ice cave is something that worth to go. It is only 5km from the Hallstatt city and the parking is free of charge. There are few tours for the adventure. There are Mammut caves where there are some fossil in side of it. The Ice cave where you can see the ice was form from the crystal clear water. You also can visit the Museum and also the enjoy the mountain view of Hallstatt. You also will have the chance other alps from there. The total charges for the tour is below 50 euro. You can chose your packages. But bear in mind that you have be there as early as possible. Best is around 9am. And bring your own winter jacket. There will be no jacket provided. We visited the downhill at 3pm and the last cable car from peak is 5pm. So we missed the trip.
This is the cable car station where you can buy the ticket from here.
