Werfen Ice Caves
What do you get when you mix natural ice, a cave and a
funicular that makes going up mountains very easy? You get a tourist
attraction! Before we headed east for Vienna, we made a day trip to Werfen to
visit the world’s largest ice caves at Eisreisenwelt (literally: Giant Ice
World).
We arrived by train, took a 20 minute van ride up the
mountain to the entrance of the park, then a 20 minute walk up to the funicular,
then a funicular takes you straight up for a 10 minute ride, and then for good
measure, another 20 minute hike up to the mouth of the cave.
Turns out, 70 minutes of straight ascension gets you pretty
high up. Like, above the clouds
high. We were actually looking down on
birds in flight. Take that, bird’s eye
view!
The day we went was very nice and sunny, forcing us to shed
layers as we hiked up and up. The closer
we got to the cave, the less dressed we were, and the more warmly dressed the
people heading back down were. By the
end, we were getting some pretty worried looks that read, “why would you go
inside an ice cave in a tank top?”
Entry to the cave is only possible with a guided tour. Unfortunately,
the guides only spoke German, but they had an informative sheet of paper for us
to follow along with in English. The cave
was lit by handheld oil lamps, and the occasional strip of burning magnesium. The tour took us through the first kilometer
of the cave system, and up and down 134 meters of steps, which kept us pretty
warm (except for our hands that were holding the freezing metal
handrails). The cave was filled with rolling hills of ice and interesting formations created by the wind that goes through the caves. We saw a few people in
shorts, and also one person with a dog!
We’d read that they were allowed but hadn’t believed that anyone would
actually bring one.
After the tour, a combination of thriftiness and
adventure-seeking led us to skip the funicular ride back down in favor of a one
hour steep downhill hike. We rushed through the last steps of the hike and
literally ran to catch the last bus back down to the train station. But the views were worth the effort.
Best eats:
The restaurant on top of the hill, despite being the only
eating option had very affordable and delicious food. The Weinershnitzel we had
almost 10,000 feet up was one of the best of the trip.
Best sights:
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| The view from below and the view from above |
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| Steep switchbacks |
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