We need to pivot

On occasion, during this trip, we don’t plan ahead well when we’re getting from one place to another. It was a surprise when we found out it would be a 12 hour travel day on trains to get from Krakow to the place in Austria where we were headed, Bad Ischl. 12 hours on trains might not be bad for 2 adults, but it’s harder with kids. Think about getting ready to check out, bringing luggage to a train station and hopping on a train by lets say 9 (after waking up at 5 to do all that) and then being on trains until 9 at night, and finally going to find a new airbnb with exhausted kids. That scenario also included changing trains 7 times, some of which would have been quick changeovers. Not as feasible with kids. So we pivoted.

We left Poland one day early and did half of the journey in one day. Then we stayed overnight in Vienna, near the train station. (Sidebar – Vienna is an amazing city – one of my favorites but it just wasn’t in the cards to stay there for long on this trip.) The next day we got up and did the other half of the journey. Much more manageable to have two days of 6 hours of trains.

Bad Ischl

Our next destination: Bad Ischl, Austria. A place known for its Thermal Baths (therapeutic pools of salt water).

Chris and I discovered Bad Ischl in 2010 while on a 6 week journey through Europe. The two of us were on a train, having visited the nearby Hallstatt. I heard the town name “Bad Ischl” over the train loud speaker and told him I thought it meant they had baths there. We made a split second decision and hopped off the train. We spent the day in the thermal baths and had a memorable time, before continuing on our journey. So now, this time, we deliberately sought it out for a place to stay near Hallstatt.

Our lovely place in Bad Ischl had a big backyard, a resident (outdoor) cat, and friendly hosts next door. The kids tried to befriend the cat, who promptly gave Chiara a big scratch. From that point forward her secret code phrase for everything became “the cat scratched me”. The kids were less excited to see the cat after that, but no matter what we did, it sat outside in our yard.

Our plan was to spend a day at the Thermal Baths, a day in Hallstatt and a day going to Mass and laying low.

Hallstatt with kids

The next morning we were up bright and early on a train, and then a boat, to get to Hallstatt.

I first discovered Hallstatt back in 2001, on my study abroad trip. We were taken to the charming little town, on the side of a mountain, with a great big lake in front of it. We were taken to a church room filled with skulls (the beinhous or bone house) and also on a tour of the oldest salt mine in Europe.

Chris and I came back for a visit in 2010 on our 6 week European adventure. At that time, it was still a quaint little town and had not yet become overtaken with tourists. We added a paddle boat ride to the activities we do each time we go there.

On this trip, we were advised to get there early and it was good we did. Hallstatt is no longer a secret little hidden away town. It seems the world has caught on to its charms. Apparently this is due to a particular instagram photo that went viral, followed by the rumor that the town of Arendelle (from the movie Frozen) was inspired by Hallstatt. On average over 10,000 people come to visit each day. We were glad to have a little time in the morning before the crowds descended.

After the lovely boat ride across the lake, we began exploring Hallstatt with the kids.

They immediately found a playground and would have happily played for a long time. But we moved along.

We walked to a square of the town to take in the charming buildings and then up a hill to the church and cemetery near the Beinhous. It wasn’t open yet and the kids didn’t want to see a room full of skulls, so we headed back down the hill. (There is a legitimate reason for the beinhous – being on the hill and near a lake, burials didn’t work well here so that was a way they dealt with remains.) See a picture here.

We decided to take the funicular up to the top of the mountain. From there we would get to visit the salt mine.

The funicular takes you most of the way up and then there’s a hike to actually get to the salt mine.

We put on coveralls and got ready to do the second salt mine tour in a week.

This salt mine tour was different from the last in many ways but the most distinctive for the kids, was that this one has slides to help you get from one level to the next. One slide was 12 meters and the other was 65 meters. They were a piece of wood that you straddled and slid down. I was nervous to do the 12 meter one and then surprised to see how much bigger the second one was. I didn’t know it would be 65 meters. It was a looong way down and it didn’t feel as safe as a normal slide would have because you had to keep your legs up while balancing on the piece of wood. This was one of those moments of feel the fear and do it anyway. The kids weren’t a bit scared. We all did both of the slides. My guess is those will be pretty memorable moments for the kids.

The salt mine was a hit. The kids enjoyed learning how the whole area had been covered with salt water way back when and that was how the salt deposits had come to be.

After our tour, we walked to a restaurant with a view down the mountain. It was a nice place to have lunch.

The day was capped off with a ride down the funicular, enjoying some ice cream and then a swan paddle boat ride on the lake.

The town had filled up with tourists when we had been up the mountain, so after enjoying the time on the lake, we headed back to find the ferry. By this time it was 4:30 and we were ready for the boat and train home. It was a lovely day but with the number of tourists that go there, we probably won’t be back to Hallstatt anytime soon.

Thermal Baths

Our second day in Bad Ischl was spent at the Thermal baths. We got a day pass for everyone.

There was a large indoor pool, an indoor hot tub, a smaller play area for kids, an outdoor shallow relaxing pool, and an outdoor lazy river. No tubes for the lazy river though because this is a resort that caters to adults, not to kids. 🙂 Think more spa, less waterpark. We were happy to find that they had some pool noodles and a few items the kids could use to float on for safety.

We did not bring cameras in – it was simpler not to just leave our phones in the lockers. The kids were having so much fun that we stayed there for lunch and swam after until us parents were tired and ready to go.

Our last day in Bad Ischl was spent going to Mass and then trying to see if ANY grocery stores were open on Sunday. We know better than to expect things to be open on Sunday in Europe but we hadn’t planned ahead well since the other two days were so busy. It’s interesting what Google thinks is a grocery store – one place it navigated us to was just two vending machines. 🙂 Eventually we found some food at a takeaway place and started to pack up for the next destination.