Eisriesenwelt Ice Caves

Time to leave Salzburg today, which meant we were homeless until we could check in at our next place after 3pm. It was also raining, so an indoor activity was required. What better activity than to visit the world's largest ice cave?

The slight flaw in the plan was that after driving to the parking lot of the ice cave and buying a ticket, there was a 20 minute uphill walk to the cable car. After going up the cable car (very steep!) there was another 20 minute uphill walk. Both walks were in wafty rain with clouds coming and going and remnant of overnight snow on the ground.

The ice cave tour was incredible. Lasted about 70 minutes and during that time we walked up another 700 stairs, the guide saying by the time we finished we had walked the equivalent of a 40 storey skyscraper today. The temperature in the caves is a consistent zero degrees all year around, so we were suffering from cold noses and lack of feeling in our toes by the time we got down to the warmth of the restaurant.

It was quite incredible seeing the speed with which the clouds were wafting up and down the mountains.

We relocated to an AirBnB overlooking Lake Mondsee. The apartment is on an organic farm, so we have arranged for a litre of milk direct from the cows to be delivered at breakfast tomorrow! There are a number of cats living here, and within minutes of arriving one of them had made itself at home on Kate, then walked into the bedroom and taken up residence.

Both then followed us down to the games room. Kate has named them Felix and Garfield. Felix kept jumping up on pool table and rolling around right where you wanted to play your shot. I suspect they are used to lots of guests giving them lots of attention.

The other interesting thing about today is that it is Sunday... in Austria... which is like Sunday in Queensland in the early 1980s. Nothing is open! Luckily we were able to cobble together some sort of unleavened bread thing + a sausage and some cheese for dinner which we had in our grocery supplies.Read more