August 9, 2022
Seeing the Ice Caves in Werfen (Aug. 9, 2022)
Last night we rode in to Werfen and had a pizza and salad - and bottle of wine- at literally the only place open in Werfen on a Monday night. Before we went there we looked at the reviews which said the restaurant was mediocre- it’s primary positive attribute being that it was open on Mondays - but we were distracted because of how Dave was feeling. It turned out to be just fine and, with the bottle of Chianti, it exceeded our expectations, especially when Dave said he was feeling better! This little town of Werfen gets tons of tourist traffic (besides the caves it also has tours of the Hohenwerfen castle) but not many places to eat or sleep. It seems like everyone just comes in from Salzburg for the day.
Today we just had the good (no bad, no ugly).
We got up for an early breakfast and Dave evaluated his side and hip and decided he was fine to do the previously planned Eisriesenwelt (ice caves) excursion. Relief! We rode our bikes down to the shuttle and then the shuttle rode up to the caves, about 2000 ft up the mountain. The pics will tell this story but it was truly a beautiful Austrian-looking day with great views. (I wanted to break into a rendition of the “hills are alive” but Dave gets mad at me when I do). We met a nice Dutch couple and wound up on the same tour with them and visited with them on and off throughout the day. We talked politics…..
Visiting the caves is a pretty significant effort and we are as tired right now as if we had done a long day of riding. Once you arrive (at the prearranged time noted on your ticket which should be purchased online and in advance of your visit) you then walk about 2o minutes uphill with killer views, ride a gondola and then walk another 20 minutes uphill to reach the cave entrance.
After arriving at the cave, we were met with a good humored Austrian guide who spoke very good English. He then took our group of 30 inside the cave for a 70 minute tour, which involved climbing 700 steps up and 700 steps down in a massive cave system with a temperature being about 0 C. It was interesting and a ton of work and well-worth it even though it was very touristy. I will let the pics do the rest of the talking.
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If you go:
1. Go early in the day. It was noticeably more crowded later in the day.
2. Dress warmly. We had on all our layers and our cycling gloves; if you have full-fingered gloves wear them (we forgot ours). Dave is now happy that I strongly suggested he take a warm cycling jacket on this trip.
3. For the highly motivated riders, it IS possible to ride up to the caves rather than shuttling, and it would be an amazing ride on a nice day. The ice caves website did not indicate this was allowed but our observation was that it would be no problem, so long as you want a really serious ride before climbing a bunch of steps.
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