Salt Mines, Salzburg, June 10

Our real "sightseeing" day in Salzburg was intense; we went to see the salt mines, where the city got it's name ("Salz" is German for salt), and the Festung fortress, and we did another walkabout the city before ending in the beergarten we went to our first night where the beer is brewed by the Augustinian monks who live in the monastery above.
The Salt Mines tour, operated by Panorama tour group, is 40-odd euro, and I'm not sure if it was really worth that much. Possibly we could have bussed up there and gotten admission for less, but the tour group meant that we would get some info on the way and that we got to see more than just the mines. The tour was separated into groups, the ones headed up to the Eagle's Nest (Hitler's seat of power in the Bavarian Mountains) and those of us headed to the Salt Mines. There were five of us headed to the mines, all from the same hostel, and all around 20's. So we stuck together for the tour, and it was probably more fun for it. The bus ride up there was not too enjoyable, the tourguide wasn't very good at his job, and it would almost have been better without narration. When we got to the mines, they put us into coverall suits because not only are the mines incredibly salty, but they're cold and there are slides which, if you didn't have pants on or didn't want to ruin your own, would have sucked. So there we are, looking ridiculous, but warmer for sure, taking pictures and dreading the rest of the group we were being stuck with: lots of babies and toddlers in a group with, presumably, their parents. They screamed a lot. So, firstly you have to take the tram to get into the mines, a nice long ride at a decent speed, where you straddle a bench and hang on to a rail to keep from falling off. Then, when you arrive at the first cavern you can walk around for a few minutes before the first slide. the slide is long and it's another straddle operated shindig, where five people get to hug one another and then scream to the bottom their their legs straight and you cannot try to stop with your feet, you come to a halt at the end. It was fantastic.
After that you take your audioguide and follow the conductor around to various demonstrations and attractions, the best of which is the "Mirror Lake," a cavern lake with no inlet or outlet, so when it settles it looks like a mirror it's so clear, thus the name.
The frustrating part of it was that the audio guides didn't work half the time, and the tour guide didn't speak a word of English or anything but German. Frustrating. We finished the tour with an elevator ride and free miniature salt shakers with salt (which will be used for cooking along the way!). Then another train ride to the surface and kabam, finished. Then the tourbus picked us up and took us to gather the rest of the group at the Eagle's Nest and then to some Bavarian town in the mountains where we stopped for lunch. The five of us had pretzels and then Air, C and myself played hackeysack to the great amusement of the general populace.
Overall a nice tour, but wouldn't recommend doing it through Panorama Tours