A Georgia Girl in Germany

While the kids were back in the states, I headed out to Berchtesgaden to visit the Salzbergwerk, or Salt Mine. The mine has been in operation since 1517 when salt was as valuable as gold. I had to take an open train that I sat on like a toboggan down 2,300 feet into the Obersalzberg mountain. From there, the modes of transportation included walking, sliding or rafting to continue our tour (except for the elevator ride back to the top).

Our guide wore a traditional uniform that the miners of previous generations would wear. This is at the top of the first slide inside a huge cavern (almost 55 feet high and encompassing more than 840,000 cubic feet).

It was amazing how much can be made out of salt. This salt rock grotto was dedicated to King Ludwig II of Bavaria, who lived 1846-86. Even the light fixtures above this grotto (not visible in this photo) were made out of salt!
The mine has its own regulations, the most obvious one is that every visitor has to wear a miner’s outfit before heading deep into the mountain. The outfit consists of pants, a jacket and a leather apron. The apron is to keep the friction created while sliding down the wooden rails from becoming unbearable. Yes, that's more salt beside me!

After a short film explaining how salt was obtained from the mountain in the early days of the mine and how that process has changed over the years (well, the process is similar, the equipment is what’s changed dramatically), we came to a large underground salt lake. The very front of our raft is at the right in the photo below. Once we got to the other side, everyone had an opportunity to taste the water as it comes out of these lakes. As expected, it was salty...much like the leftover brine after making a pot of boiled peanuts.


This last photo is the bottom of another wooden slide the miners use to move about inside the mine. We didn’t ride on this one, though.

It was definitely neat (and chilly) to be so far underground. The best part was riding the wooden slides -- kinda like riding an open roller coaster ride...without any safety straps or even the coaster car itself. I guess it could be compared to sliding down an extremely long bannister. At first it was a little unsettling as I gained speed, but by the second slide, it was thrilling!

Labels: Germany, Travel