Today we left Salzburg and headed south towards a town called Hallein which is by the Salzach River. Here we headed to the
Dürrnberg Mountain where you will find the salt mines that gave the name and wealth to Salzburg. We got our tickets and then we collected our traditional miners costume...well actually they are just white pants and a long sleeve top that i think are just for keeping you from getting dirty. The salt mines are among the oldest in the world. Once we were dressed, we took a little train into the mines and then we got lead through different parts where we were shown some multi-media clips about the history of the salt mines and trades. We then go to go on two wooden slides- the first one was 27meters and the second one was 42meters long. There was also a boat cruise over an underground lake of brine. In one part there was a display of a mummy that was a Celtic miner and was preserved because of the salt. The tour ended with another train trip back to the opening of the mine. We even got a sample of the salt they mine in the area.
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| Castle Hohenwerfen |
We then drove further south to a town called Werfen. On top of one of the mountains was this spectacular castle- Castle Hohenwerfen. But this is not why we went to Werfen. After driving up the mountain, we arrived at the Ice Caves. These are the biggest ice caves in the world. After a 15 minute walk to the ticket office, we walked another 20minutes to the cable car, which takes you from an altitude of 1076 meters to 1586meters above sea level in just 3 minutes. Marilyn wasnt too happy going up in this but it ended up being ok as it was so foggy and raining. It may have taken us only 3 minutes to get up the mountain, but it took more than an hour lining up to get on, in the rain.
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| The walk up! |
Anyway, once up and after another walk, we headed into the caves with our guide. He was the worst guide ever. Not only could we not understand his German, we couldn't understand his English. But apart from that, we saw strange ice sculptures and an iced hall which was named after Alexander von Mörk, who discovered the hall in the middle of the mountain. After he died in world war one, he was buried there in the hall. After 700 steps up inside the cave with 0degrees, we were ready to come out as we were all cold and wet. Then another 700 steps down, more walking and waiting, we were ready to head home. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take any photos inside the caves, so i have found one off the Internet so you can see a little of what we saw.
Today we left Salzburg and headed south towards a town called Hallein which is by the Salzach River. Here we headed to the Dürrnberg Mountain where you will find the salt mines that gave the name and wealth to Salzburg. We got our tickets and then we collected our traditional miners costume...well actually they are just white pants and a long sleeve top that i think are just for keeping you from getting dirty. The salt mines are among the oldest in the world. Once we were dressed, we took a little train into the mines and then we got lead through different parts where we were shown some multi-media clips about the history of the salt mines and trades. We then go to go on two wooden slides- the first one was 27meters and the second one was 42meters long. There was also a boat cruise over an underground lake of brine. In one part there was a display of a mummy that was a Celtic miner and was preserved because of the salt. The tour ended with another train trip back to the opening of the mine. We even got a sample of the salt they mine in the area. 
Anyway, once up and after another walk, we headed into the caves with our guide. He was the worst guide ever. Not only could we not understand his German, we couldn't understand his English. But apart from that, we saw strange ice sculptures and an iced hall which was named after Alexander von Mörk, who discovered the hall in the middle of the mountain. After he died in world war one, he was buried there in the hall. After 700 steps up inside the cave with 0degrees, we were ready to come out as we were all cold and wet. Then another 700 steps down, more walking and waiting, we were ready to head home. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take any photos inside the caves, so i have found one off the Internet so you can see a little of what we saw.
2 comments:
dont think i would be enjoying that walk but the cave picture looks amazing
you wouldnt get me going up that cable car and definetly not in the caves, ill just look at the photos, thats how close ill ever get
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