Today was happily surreal at times — mountains coming slowly out of hiding, corporate Austria doing something right, and roads far too narrow for traffic going both ways.

Meredith and I had a rough night sleeping — I had a pulled muscle in my neck which was causing a headache and thus a stomachache, and it was really hot in our room. My getting up to get some aspirin woke Meredith up because she was not sleeping well because of the heat. I fixed it by opening the window, which worked, but then the birds woke us up early before dawn, so I closed it again.

We finally woke up for real to the alarm at 8:00 and got ready, including going to the expensive, but convenient, hotel buffet. I then splurged on a taxi to take us the two miles to the car rental place, where a very kind and patient young man got us our car — an Opel five-speed. Once we got underway, we drove the short drive to Hall, where we’ll be staying the next two nights.

Hall is an old salt mining town that has a good-sized old town section. It is located on the Inn River like Innsbruck, and it is surrounded by mountains. We got to our hotel about two hours early, but the room was ready, so they let us in. It is a brand-new room (they came in around 3:00 to put up shelves in the bathroom), located on the third (top) floor with a private balcony overlooking the Inn, the old town, and the mountains beyond. We were delighted.

We crossed over the covered pedestrian bridge to the town, and we explored all of the old town. Though it had not rained all day, the mountains started off the day shrouded in clouds, but while we were in the old town, one mountain came out fully from the clouds, so we grabbed a seat outside at a cafe and ate while soaking in the mountain.

Exploring the old town took a couple of hours (it is not too big, and the main church is closed for renovations), and then we went back to the hotel to regroup. I decided we should check out the Swarovski Kristallwelten (Crystal Worlds). Some background — we saw some billboards in Innsbruck of a giant shrubbery head, with water coming out of its mouth. I thought it was a fantasy picture, and jokingly told Mer it looked like a giant barfing, because that is the quality of humor I aspire to. It turns out the head is real, and when I realized that from a poster today in Hall, I got curious. It turned out to be a park made by the Swarovski Company, which makes crystal. I was skeptical that a commercial company could make anything worthwhile to visit as a tourist attraction, but the website mentioned gardens and art, and I like art in gardens. And I wanted to see the barfing giant.

It was a short drive of about fifteen minutes. We parked in outer Mongolia (or outer Tirol, if you will), because I assumed, wrongly, that the main lot would be full. Ooops. At least the mountains were mostly out from behind the clouds now, so the five-minute walk to the gate was pretty.

We got our tickets and entered the Crystal Worlds just next to and under the giant’s mouth (after the mandatory Meredith picture next to the giant). It was a room full of art showcasing crystals, which were cool, but pretty typical kinds of art. Given the number of tourists who came in with us, I thought it was going to be a long afternoon. But, two things happened — we went into the next room, where the “worlds” actually started, and after just a couple of rooms, we were slow enough that the group left us and went ahead.

The crystal worlds were varied, and each room contained one. Some were good, some amazing, some not so great, but all of them were elaborate and showcasing some use of crystal or drawing on the Swarovski technicians to implement. There was a room with robotic people giving a fashion showcase and dancing — very weird but interesting. The room where I knew I was going to be okay was the crystal dome. You walked inside a huge round room with mirrored facets everywhere. The effect was incredible — and any sound you made came back to you, and localized to you; so I could hear an echo of myself when I spoke, but not when Meredith spoke. The light kept changing in the room, so everything reflected in the room (including us) kept changing. We spent about ten minutes just in that room.

My favorite room was called “Eden.” It was a bronze forest set up in a dimly lit corridor, and the corridor was lined with mirrors. Since the “trees” broke up the direct reflection, you did not immediately see yourself in a bunch of mirrors. Instead, the room gave a very real feeling of being in a huge forest, and I could only make out the mirrors by the line in the floor where the mirror met the floor. It was very effective.

There were about a dozen “worlds” in all, and it was worthwhile. Meredith admitted she was skeptical about the place too since it was a corporate commercial, but she ended up finding it fascinating as well. And all of that was before we got to the gardens, but first we had to get through the gift store, where we managed not to buy (or break) a $17,000 crystal-studded tiger or leopard.

Out on the grounds, we followed a path up to an observation tower that overlooked the shrubbery maze that was shaped like a hand. The mountains were all out now, so it was a great spot. We wandered down to the maze and started taking random paths. We actually ended up finding the center of the maze, quite by accident, and then got back out, with a few wrong turns.

We clambered over and around the outside playground area, which looked like wooded ocean waves, and then we headed into the five-story indoor playground, where “children of all ages” were encouraged to play. Mer was happy because the hostess spoke little English, but very good Italian, so she was able to explain to Meredith how the lockers worked (to store our backpack in) and how we had to take our shoes off. The, we started playing.

The rolling wooden hill was okay, if a little tough in socks — slipping was easy. The FOUR-STORY rope web that we could climb had to be abandoned after I found out that 170 pounds on ropes on bare feet hurt. That was sad. I’m still impressed at a company that can build something that high without giving too much thought to liability.

We liked the trampoline level, and even though the trampolines were small (only about three feet across), they worked surprisingly well. It turns out my sore knee did not like the landing part, so I had to stop. The last level was a giant web — there was no real floor; it was a mesh that looked down on the trampoline level. It was much fun to see parents and grandparents playing with little kids, and we had a good time laughing ourselves.

The last major sight to see was the Crystal Clouds. These were mesh “clouds” filled with crystals that sparkled in the sun and gently banged against each other, making a gentle tinkling sound. There were thirty or more individual clouds, and they were very effective. Many of them were located over a reflecting pool, which must be quite a sight at night (the clouds are lit at night too). You could walk out on a descending ramp into the pond, so that you were waist deep in the water, but completely dry and surrounded by clouds.

So, yes, the place was a giant commercial for the wonders of Swarovski crystal, but they did it very well. We both left impressed. We hiked back to the car, and I took us over to a very small village near Hall, called Thaur.

I found out about Thaur from a tourism pamphlet that Mer happened to grab, and it looked pretty, was close to Hall, and boasted the oldest preserved church in Tirol. We arrived there after a few tight turns on narrow roads, and headed over to the biggest church. We entered through a graveyard, and looked at a few headstones to look at names and dates and the few that had photos on them, and then we headed into the church, which was still open, even at 6:15. The inside was covered in murals, the alter was gilded, and the place was beautiful, all for, as Mer pointed out, a dinky little town in the middle of nowhere. We were not (and still are not) sure that this was the old church, as there were no signs, but since the floor had old gravestones in it, and they were worn almost smooth, we decided to say we had found it.

We left the church and wandered some up toward the mountains toward a small chapel up the hill, and some ruins of an old castle, but I decided to give up, as I was not sure the road we were on went there (it did, as I found out later when I looked it up on a map). Also, it was getting close to 6:30, and we still needed supper.

So, I drove more winding, narrow streets, including a fun encounter with a determined SUV, back to Hall. We walked into Hall from our hotel and grabbed supper at the Goldener Engl, a restaurant my brother recommended from when he was here two weeks ago.

So, we had a good weather and a good-in-general day today. The weather is supposed to be very fine tomorrow, so I am hoping to get up into the mountains to see them up close.