Aloha and Holo Holo: Werfen

In an effort to send cold vibes to our beloved friends and family in Texas, who are melting in the ridiculous summer heat, we donned all of our winter gear this morning to go explore what claims to be the largest ice cave in the world (Eisriesenwelt), in the charming little town of Werfen, outside of Salzburg. First, we drove. Up and up and up. Next, we hiked, still further up. Then, we took a cable car up the steepest part of the mountain. And, from there, we continued to hike in an upward direction, until we arrived at the entrance to the cave, just above the clouds. At every stage of this adventure, we were treated to amazing vistas and glorious views. And, the cave itself was really phenomenal! We traveled to a height of 1775 meters (or 5,823.5 feet, for pretty much everyone who regularly reads this blog) and traversed 1,400 stairs, over the course of about a kilometer (that's a little less than a mile, for those of you, like me, who are less familiar with the metric system). The temperature in the cave stays below freezing all year long, but the exertion of the hike and the many layers of clothes we were wearing kept us from getting too chilly. (Yes, even me!) The entire cave comprises about 42 kilometers (26 miles), but only this first kilometer has the stunning ice structures, because of the way the wind blows and the ice melts and trickles into the cave at this particular point. When our tour was over, we made our way back down the mountain and past a castle, to a lovely park for a picnic. It was a wonderful day! (In the interest of giving credit where credit is due, I must tell you that we were not allowed to take pictures inside the cave, so the photos of that part of our trip are pictures I took of the postcards I bought in the gift store.)