September 20, 2018. Hiked the mountaintop and cycled 15 Kilometers.

We had a nice leisurely breakfast this morning, and sat out on the terrace with our coffee afterwards. Tim did his best politician imitation from the second floor window (he doesn't drink coffee) while Carrie fed apples to the donkeys.

We had a short van ride to Hallstatt, a city that was here before Rome was founded. The Hallstatt Era, from 800 to 400 BC is named for this spot, famous for its salt mines. We had only one hour here.

My first goal was to see the Bone Chapel at the Catholic Church. The cemetery is very small, with no room to expand--this town is wedged between the mountain and the lake. The custom here was to bury the dead for 12 years. They were then exhumed to make room for the newly dead, and the exhumed bones were enshrined in the Bone Chapel.

The skulls are decorated with the names of the people they were once part of. This custom stopped in the 1960s when the Catholic Church became more tolerant of cremation.

We drove through several long tunnels to get to Dachstein Mountain. We took two different cable cars to get to the level of the Dachstein Glacier.

The view of Lake Hallstatt was wonderful!

We all took the 25 minute hike to the 5-Fingers lookout. The path had no guardrails--call it survival of the fittest!

Here are Diana, Carrie, Tim and me on one of the 5 fingers--they extend out over the void.

A hang glider lifted off from the mountaintop--I tried to get the photo but the sun glare on my camera screen obscured my view. Fortunately Carrie had my back!

A handy stranger took our photo with the Dachstein Glacier behind us.

We ate lunch halfway down the mountain. When we got back to the parking lot we unloaded the bikes. Peter's bike had a flat tire, and it was 3 PM by the time we got on the bikes. We descended very rapidly the first several kilometers, a wild ride! We then rode around Lake Hallstatt.

We rode the "hanging bikeway" alongside the railroad tracks and above the lake.

There were several large hills, some of them very steep. Here are Rudy and Cheryl coming up the last one--Cheryl is doing this ride on an E-bike, since she had not biked in several decades before this year.

After several stops for photo opportunities we found Marietta waiting in the van. Diana and I rode back a couple hundred meters to take a photo of the cows and barn--the cows were in the back yard of a house right in town, the barn next door.

This time the hotel was ready for us--not only do we get 2 beds, we get 2 bedrooms! Diana agreed to take the upstairs round bed, and she bumped her head on the low slanted ceiling. I probably would have knocked myself out!

All of our rooms have views of Lake Wolfgang. We are in the resort town of St. Wolfgang for tonight and tomorrow night.