The World’s Largest Ice Cave: Austria’s Eisriesenwelt

One of the few things I had planned on doing ahead of time while we were in Austria was seeing Eisriesenwelt – which translates to “World of Giants Ices” in German – the largest ice cave in the whole world. The cave is 26 miles long, so you can nearly run a marathon in the cave if it weren’t for, ya know, all of the slippery ice and freezing temperatures in there.

(source of images)

The ice cave is located in Werfen, a town not a far distance from where we were staying in St. Johann, but it was quite the trip getting there (which is half the fun might I add!) that went as follows:

Walking from our hotel to the train station –> train ride –> walked to a bus stop, but not before walking completely into town to figure out what we were doing –> hiking –> cable car –> hiking = the ice cave!

Once we arrived towards the top, we spotted the cave:

The tour was a bit over an hour, during which we walked over 1,400 stairs using lanterns as our guiding light. At first the cold didn’t feel too bad, but towards the end my toes were numb and I was shaking – partly from all the stairs, partly from the cold I think! The cave tours stop operating during the winter, when winds blow into the cave and freeze the snow inside. In warmer months, a cold wind from inside the cave blows toward the entrance and prevents the formations from melting. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the cave, but trust me when I say that it was pretty damn cool!

After seeing the ice cave, I warmed up with some hot chocolate as we hiked down the mountain and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

Werfen has a castle that we would have liked to visit had we had time to. It’s surrounded by mountains and greenery and pretty neat looking:

The next day, my hubby and I did a bike tour with our hotel’s fitness guru and found ourselves in the same small town of Werfen once again. Like every place I saw during our stay in Austria, it was a quaint little town.

I burned some serious calories during our Austria bike adventure! I think I partly have my workouts in Austria to thank for me not gaining a pound while in Europe for nearly two weeks. Getting to be in the beautiful outdoors with my hubby seeing natural wonders like waterfalls, the Alps, and ice caves, all while getting exercise in — what could be better? 🙂