Day 23: Salzburg -> Werfen

What a day! With my new friend I met the evening before we planned to go to the „Eisriesenwelt“ in Werfen, the biggest ice cave in the world. I cycled there in the morning while he took the train and we met there. Before we got to see the cave we still had a bit of a way in front of us, as the cave is high up in the mountain. First we had to take a shuttle bus up, then walk up 20 min, take a gondola and then walk up another 20 min. We went high up into the fog and were finally at the entrance of the cave. Through the cave is a guided tour that takes about 70 min, all the while walking up and then down 700 steps. In the entrance I could already feel the cold, but once we got inside it was about 0 degrees. My clothes still a bit wet from my sweat started to cool down, and after a while inside it did really start to feel cold, even if I had multiple layers on. The cave was amazing and very impressive, huge ice structures and walls were inside, and the size of it was unbelievable. we got handed lanterns and all of the lights inside the cave were by those or by some other small temporary lights, it really added to the mystic feeling of the cave. This also meant that it was a bit hard to get great pictures inside, but the pictures reallt can’t show the scale of it all.By the end of it I was also glad to get out again, so I could feel my fingers again. The fog had even lifted a bit and we could see some mountains.

on the way
Schloss Hohenwerf, the castle in Werfen
the way up
looking up at the cave entrance
looking out the tunnel
inside the cave
looking down in the valley, where I will cycle
the path down again
the cave is somewhere up there
I‘ve set up my tent not far from there