The same evening when we had visited Berchtesgaden - Eagles Nest we started driving to a place which is situated on the edge of Hallstätter See and Dachstein Mountains. It was none other than Austria’s most photographed location: ‘Hallstatt’. I was extremely excited to see this place which is a beautiful UNESCO recognized world heritage site. The journey of 1.30 hrs seemed like we were driving through the fairytale landscapes with alpine scenery on every corner. Lush green grass, grey mountains, magnificent blue lakes glued us to the windows of our car. I am so grateful we drove to this place. The best thing about driving was we had an option to park the car aside every now and then and capture a perfect picture of the heaven around us.

The very moment we entered Hallstatt we found a parking and rushed to the lakeside. There were thousands of people surrounding the lake and it was really packed with crowds. It was not much of a surprise because Hallstatt is a tourist magnet and attracts over 600,000 tourists an year; Yes, that’s a lot for a place this small. When I caught the first glimpse of the village, it looked like it was snuggling between the glistening lake and magnificent mountains. As the clock ticked and it was nearing 5pm lots of tourist buses started driving up to the lakeshore. Just as I was worrying about more people coming in, I was seeing people climbing into the buses. The packed crowds I just referred to, almost every one of them left in tourist buses that would ferry them away to some city nearby. Come 6pm & we had the complete place for ourselves with only a handful of people around. We walked along the edge of the lake through the beautiful village to reach the other end.

The town looked perfect from here. The pretty pastel houses, the small flower gardens hanging from balconies, charming small little shops and the waterfall in between the mountains made the whole town look out of the world beautiful. The cute little houses made me feel ‘I want to stay in this kind of a house at least for a day’. The catholic Parish church which took 5yrs to complete in 18th century added a distinct touch to the already beyond perfect landscape of Hallstatt. It was a pretty small village of around 1km that houses around 750 people, but no explanation would do justice to how beautiful this place is when you see with your actual eyes. Don’t just take my word or the look of the photographs I have here. A visit to this place is more than worth every penny and every minute you spend.

It was getting dark and we were excited to have that typical landscape photo of Hallstatt which we always dreamed of. The swirl of the church, the reflection of the mountains in its background and gloomy little lamps that light up a beautiful reflection in the lake Hallstätter See was just a jaw-dropping view. There were little or no people around at this time. Hallstatt is a home to a lot of more things than the beautiful homes and dreamy lake. It is the home to world’s first salt mine and we wanted to try and visit these mines. We had heard the story of ice caves here which was also pretty interesting. Both were located on different mountains and would have closed by 5pm. So we decided to visit one of it early next day.

We had our dinner in a nearby place and drove back through the twisty streets in between the mountain ranges to reach our stay for the night. It was a small village called ‘Gosau’. I must say the drive was good and the whole village was beautiful and serene. I screamed with joy when I saw the place because it resembled the one which I had seen at the Hallstatt village that I wanted to stay in. It was like a typical traditional Austrian house with charming hanging garden from the top. With all my love, I call it the ‘Gosau’ house. We had the most relaxing and peaceful sleep.

The next morning we opened the windows as soon as we got up and realized we were staying in a place which was completely surrounded by Alps. Since it is a village and we had come here quite late after sun down, all we thought was this is a pretty house. This was not just a pretty house. It was a complete package with its own set of Alps and every pretty thing that comes with it. All I could see was Alpine ranges surrounding the village. The village looked way prettier in the morning. The cows grazing the lush green grass, spacious small houses placed far away from each other, sun peeping from the mountain ranges - This was our perfect breakfast balcony view! We left the place with a heavy heart hoping to come back and stay in this place for longer someday.

Our first stop was a small parking spot on the way, from where Hallstatt looked stunning covered in fog. It was hard to believe we were actually getting to see this amazing view which I had seen only on some travel shows on television. The whole view looked like a small village was floating in the fog that’s hovering on the lake. Satisfied with the perfect shot, we went ahead and decided to explore the ice caves.

Krippenstein Mountain of the Alps Dachstein Range is one of the very few places in the world which makes ice caves easily accessible to public. A short ride in the cable car for few minutes and around 20 minutes of hike got us right in front of the ice caves. Now, how easy was that! The walking path had beautiful views of Hallstätter See and the Hallstatt village. The tour guide showed up and took us inside the ice caves which seemed quite dark and it took some time for us to get used to it. The small lights and the walkways in the giant ice caves were meticulously planned and well built. The guided tour took us through the caves, bridges and man-made ice sculptures. The ice in different shapes and sizes were surrounded with lights and music.

This made it even more appealing. In freezing winter the water which seeps into the caves through rocks and cliffs creates the ice sculptures and summer is not so harsh to melt these off and so the balance is maintained throughout. The pathway had many ups and downs, it took us through narrow passages to see the different ice formations like ‘ice palace’, ‘Parsifal Dome’, ‘Big Ice Mountain’, ‘Grias Castle’ and finally through ‘Big Ice Chapel’. The last section was the rope bridge and it was inexplicable and bottomless overflowing with ice deep under it. No wonder over 150,000 people travel to visit this underground beauty every single year. At the end of the journey as you exit the caves you are again in front of the magnificent Alps. It was an amazing 50 minute journey.

We walked down the rocky hill and finally back to the parking. It was time to move on to the next destination. I wanted to stay in front of the glistening Lake forever. Hallstatt made me fall in love it so much! ‘A place which at some time I had only dreamt of visiting’. This would always be fresh in my memories and my favorite destination.

Notes:

• Ice caves are closed from October to May (of course for public safety)

• Do not miss the guided tour to ice caves which is approximately 1 hour

• The temp is around -2degrees inside, so make sure you are wearing warm clothing

• Cost - Ice Caves EUR35 per person