Babymoon / Anniversary Getaway to Upper Austria

This week (on Good Friday) Brian and I will celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary!  So thanks to some wonderful students watching our kids back at home, we headed out of town for a quick getaway / babymoon :)

We spent the night in Bad Ischl, a spa town in the southern part of Upper Austria (about two-and-a-half hours west of us).

So nice to getaway without the kids...except for this one :)

36th week

Our hotel is the yellow one in the middle

Famous Zauner Cafe across the river from our hotel

Love the Christian Statues around town

Most Austrian towns have displays of Christ and Saints

We enjoyed the pool, sauna, and relaxation room in our hotel!

The next day, we drove to the famous town of Hallstatt about 15 minutes away.  We rode the cable car up the mountain.

Views of Halstatter See (Hallstatt Lake) were beautiful even with the clouds, rain, and bit of snow coming down.

We then walked along the upper mountain path to the world's oldest Salt Mine.

Along the way, there was a display of St. Barbara, the patron saint of miners (and my confirmation saint!)  She was martyred at age 29 and this is why miners' jackets have 29 buttons.

Entering the world's oldest salt mine -- sections of it are over 7,000 years old!

We got to ride down the 64-meter-long Mega-slide, Europe's longest wooden slide!

After the tour, we enjoyed lunch at the building on top of the mountain overlooking the lake.

We, of course, scheduled this day as our re-introduction of gluten-containing grains... Our first time eating pasta in over 30 days and it was sooooo good - especially with some salt from the mine :)

Then we took the cable car down the mountain and checked out the quaint, lovely town of Hallstatt.

15th-century Roman Catholic Ascension of Our Lady Church

18th-century Evangelical Church of Hallstatt

This Austrian town really became famous after it was "re-created" in China!  Picture I found on the internet below...

Recreated Hallstatt in China

We enjoyed our peaceful drive home, still admiring the beauty of the Austrian mountains and foothills around us!

Back at home in time for dinner, we went out for pizza (did I mention it was our day to eat gluten?!) with the kids.  Ellie enjoyed the special Nutella pizza in honor of the 4th anniversary of her baptism!  Francis enjoyed it as well :)

It was great to getaway... and great to be back home!