Climbing Up the Mountain via Funicular at Salzwelten Hallstatt
The funicular is the main mode of transport to get to Salzwelten Hallstatt. The steep slopes of the mountain behind the village of Hallstatt made it impractical to build a road all the way to the top. As it is common to use in this region of Europe, a funicular was built to climb the mountain to the top. The car is constructed such that it has several levels to compensate for the extreme slope of the mountain. It is not unlike a tilted multi-level elevator. There funicular also has a single track to go up and down the mountain, however, this doesn’t mean that there can only be one car using the track the whole time. There are two cars going up and down simultaneously. Although, it is mostly a single track, there is a part where the track splits to allow the cars to pass each other. The track joins back together after that. I thought that was a brilliant way to make better use of the track.
Thick Clouds Obscure the Valley Below at Salzwelten Hallstatt
The funicular car climbs up a track via cables. Actually, it would more accurate to say that cables pull the cars up the mountain. I thought this is an ingenious way of isolating the power source of the funicular and moving it to somewhere which is more accessible. After all, if a self powered car were to breakdown in the middle, it would be a pain to try to retrieve and fix it. On the way up the mountain, there was a lot of cloud cover. As the car went up, it became apparent that the cloud cover is all primarily in the valley below. I guess this is typical in the morning. Unfortunately, it made it difficult to see the valley below from the car. Hopefully it will clear up as the day goes on.
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