The highlights from my weekends

Last weekend, I went with my host family to a mountain called Petersberg. It has a church on top of it, and from the road it looks like it would be impossible to get it there. The church was first built in 1137, but has been rebuilt a few times over the years.

From the top of the mountain there is a great view of the valley below, when it is sunny.

This Sunday, we went to a salt mine near Salzburg, called Salzbergwerk. The mine first started 500 years ago. Today, it still produces about 900,000 cubic metres of brine per year.

The tour that we went on starts with a train which takes you underground. We travel for a few minutes, and then get off in a big cave called the salt cathedral. To get down in to the bottom of the cave we have to go down a steep wooden slide that miners used to use to get to work. We follow the guide through tunnels, looking at some information as we go, until we get to an underground salt lake. The water is so clear that you can't see it if you aren't looking closely. The tour gets on a boat, and as we drive across the lake we watch a light show.
We walk along some more tunnels, learning about different mining technology, until we get back to the train. It was very interesting to see what a mine looked like 500 years ago, before Europeans had come to Australia.

Now we have one week of holidays, and my family is taking me to Berlin. I am looking forward to this and I will write about it in my next blog.
Robin