MikePadgett.com

Hallstatt

— This little lakeside village in the Austrian Salzkammergut region must be one of the most picturesque in Europe.”

The slow train deposits us on a small platform late on a February afternoon in Austria. The sun has already plunged behind the mountains opposite. Everything this side of them is cold and blue.

For the last hour or so, we’ve been watching in fascination as the landscape outside the window of our compartment transformed itself seamslessly from rolling pastures to jagged, snow-capped mountains and icy green lakes.

No time to waste standing about in this air. We descend the path to the lakeside and climb into a boat. We pay the captain and take a seat in the aft.

In the golden light that still reaches the far shore, we make out the rooftops and tall, narrow spire of Hallstatt.

Less than a thousand people live there, on the steep sides of a mountain that rears skyward in a near vertical from the waterline.

Once they came here to mine salt. Now it’s only for peace and tranquility. As did we.

We reach land once more. Hallstatt in late winter is silent but for bird calls, rushing meltwater and water lapping idly against the empty quayside. When summer eventually comes to this deep valley, Hallstatt will abide the influx of tourists in good spirit.

Trinket shops will open, traffic will increase and spoken languages will proliferate. Yet the shops will be respectable, cars will park well outside the village and everywhere the Hallstatters will understand but politely reply in their own tongue.

For now though, the kiosks stay locked and the cars stay away. Everything is just wonderfully quiet. And that’s what we came here for.