Every now and again you get a day where everything just seems to fall into place. Like the cosmos has decided you’ve had enough bad luck, and it’s time for a little break. This happened today. We had finally managed to make an early start (being hemmed in by loud Italian campervaners gave us the motivation we needed) and were cycling along looking up at the most stunning mountains, when Matt spotted a tiny moving object high up on one of the cliffs. The object turned out to be a cable car, and we stood there for about 5 minutes trying to work out how on earth it got up so high.
We cycled on a little further, making really good time, and came across an amazingly preserved castle set high up into the hill. There was a reception area at the bottom, and a small funicular going up to the top. Inspired by our earlier sighting, we thought we’d pop in and see if we could ride the funicular up to get a good view. Unsurprisingly you couldn’t ride the funicular without paying for the castle, so we gave it a miss. However, Matt struck up a conversation with the ticket guy, and found out that the cable car we had seen earlier was actually to take people up to Eisriesenwelt, the worlds largest ice cave, and that there was a bus that takes you to it only a few hundred metres down the road. Matt had read about the caves in lonely planet before, but had assumed they would be way to hard to get to. Excitement was starting to build at this point, but we still had to jump the last hurdle – “do you know how much it costs?” asks Matt. €22 p.p. was the reply. Hang on – you’re telling us we can ride the funicular we saw way up on the mountain AND see the world largest ice cave and it’s only going to cost us $40? Holy cow batman!
So off we went. We pulled up at the pick up point for the bus, and had just enough time to make and eat sandwiches and put on some warm clothes before it arrived (the cave is 0 degrees). We then had a 20 minute bus ride up the mountain, followed by a 20 minute scenic walk, a gorgeous 3 minute funicular ride (travelling at 7m/s) and another 20 minute walk. We then went on a 70 minute tour inside the cave.
The cave system is 42km long, of which we traversed 1km. There was no lighting inside, so about every forth person in the tour group carried a davy lamp, and the guide used magnesium to illuminate things. We walked up 700 steps (and back down the same) and saw gigantic ice walls that were over 5000 years old, massive ice sculptures made from dripping water and smooth glistening ice floors. It truly was an amazing experience.
If Matt hadn’t have spotted the little cable car high up on the mountain, and if we hadn’t had pulled into the castle and started a conversation with the ticket man we would have ridden right past not knowing what we missed out on. And if we hadn’t have started early that day, we wouldn’t have had enough time for the 3 hour side trip. Thank you cosmos.
4ks an hour 