We went out to Hellbrunn, an estate just outside of Salzburg where the archbishop used to bring guests to entertain them on summer days. The best part of Hellbrunn is the trick water fountains in the gardens. We enjoyed a tour of the gardens and the kids loved the fountains.
There are beautiful fountains all around the grounds. When you are enjoying the fountains, there are surprise hidden sprinklers that spray you and get you all wet!!! We didn’t get too wet, but it made the tour much more entertaining and surprising. It was also super interesting that the fountains and water features were built around the natural waterways that were already on the land. The mechanisms that made the fountains work were all powered by water and were made in the early 1600s.
There was a little museum of the inside of the Baroque palace. There was a room with interesting paintings, such as the 8 footed horse that was actually a painting of a real horse! There were a few beautifully decorated rooms like the music room and ballroom with gorgeous paintings covering every surface.
The gardens and grounds were beautiful and there was a fantastic playground. We spent a long time just letting the kids play. We would love to build this playground in our backyard someday. So many cool structures to play on. There is also the original gazebo from the Sound of Music where the song “16 going on 17” was filmed. It is a beautiful place to spend the day!
The next day we took the bus out to the Hallein Salt Mine. It is in the beautiful mountains surrounding Salzburg. It was a cold rainy day, but the area was just gorgeous! I would love to come back in the summer when the weather is nice. We got to put on some fun miner clothes (Marion was mad and didn’t want to!) and take a train down into the mine.
The tour was so interesting! The mine has been worked for over 7,000 years, starting with the Celts. The salt made Salzburg a prosperous trading community. We walked along small stone tunnels where you could see the veins of salt in the walls. We also crossed the border from Austria into Germany while we were down in the mines. The salt was originally mined by hand, but now it is mined by pumping water into salt caverns, waiting for the water to reach a certain salinity and then the water is pumped down to the town where the salt is extracted from the water. We crossed an underground lake in one of the caverns where water has been placed. The kids really liked the tour and it was so amazing to see where the salt in the stores actually comes from. As part of the tour you go down super long slides that take you deeper into the mine. Marion was a little scared, but in the end all the kids loved the slides.
The salt water pumped out of the caverns is 72% salinity. The ocean is only 3%. Here is James’ face after tasting the water that comes from the mine! The kids each got their own little salt shaker from the mine as we took a really long escalator back up to the train.
Outside the salt mine is a little model Celtic village that teaches about the way of life of the Celts who lived in the area mining salt thousands of years ago. It was cold and even hailed a little bit, but we enjoyed going in the little huts that had items showing how metal was worked, wood goods were carved, what kinds of food they ate, and how they worked leather. It was really a fun spot (and would have been great on a warmer day!) These two day trips were so fun to do with kids and I am glad we decided to venture a little bit outside the city to check them out!
