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Published: December 2nd 2007
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We took a shuttle bus from Czesky Krumlov to the Linz, Austria train station. We started our Eurail pass there and headed on to Salzburg. We spent our only evening in Salzburg doing laundry and on the internet! We just didn’t have a choice! We did stay at a nice bed and breakfast that had a great view though. She served us a great breakfast with Nutella. Man have I eaten way too much of that stuff on this trip!
The following morning we embarked on an adventure that Yuri found in the wonderful Lonely Planet book. We took a train to a small town called Werfen to hike into some ice caves! After a bus ride, a hike, a tram ride and another hike we made it up to the entrance of the caves. As we were standing there a group came out of the doors and the air that came out with them was bone chillingly cold! Our guide was great and even spoke perfect English. I don’t think he made all of the Germans and Austrians in the group very happy when he told all English speakers to go to the front of the line though! He
was just trying to make it easier on his translation by having us grouped but they thought we were getting something special! Before we entered the caves he gave every other person a lantern. Good thing because it was pitch black in there! Along the way he was burning pieces of magnesium (I think that's what it was) so everyone could see him. It was amazingly bright but would only last for 30 seconds. When he opened the door for us to go in this HUGE gust of wind almost knocked us over. He later explained that when there is a big temperature difference between the outside temperature, and that of the caves, pressure is created and that’s why you feel the wind. He said it is really bad during the summer and parents have to hold onto their children or they get knocked over!
There were 40 kilometres of caves but only the first kilometer had ice. It forms from water dripping down between the cracks above the caves. They had created a pathway, including a lot of stairs to go up, for the tourists to use to explore the caves. We stayed in there for about 1
hour and we were literally freezing by the end. At one point I took my camera out for more pictures and the lens was freezing!
Our goal was to make it to the castle by 3:15 to see the falconry show! Unfortunately we had just missed the bus down the hill so there was no way we were going to make it. As we started walking down the hill I decided that it wouldn’t hurt to ask the nice German couple on our tour for a ride! They didn’t understand me very well but I managed to get my point across by pointing to their back seat and then at the hill! The woman seemed happy to help but it seemed like her husband may have been a little worried that we were crazy Americans or something! Everything was going fine until he hit a huge pot hole! The woman looked out of the rear view mirror to see the hub cap rolling down the hill and then down into a very large ditch! We pulled over and the men went to search for the thing! While they were gone the lady told me that they were on vacation
X marks the spot
This X was drawn by the first man to find the cave. I'm sure they have reinforced it a few times! in Austria for one week and had already lost three hub caps in that time! Either Austria has a lot of pot holes or that guy doesn’t know how to drive there! They found it, slammed it back on and we were on our way! They dumped us off at the base of the castle and we made it up there in time for the show! I’m assuming it was all about how royalty used to use birds of prey as hunting tools. However, it was all in German so we really have no idea what they said! It was still fun to watch those amazing birds though. They even had a bald eagle and it was the one bird that the handler would not let land on her arm. She would kind of guide it down to the ground and then pick it up! We took a tour of the castle and had our own little English head sets because the tour was also in German!
Oh the night of the NIGHT TRAIN! After our train ride back from Werfen, we grabbed a quick kebab and falafel in the Salzburg train station and headed back to Linz to
catch the overnight train to Venice. What a lovely evening that was! To save money we had booked a six person room instead of a four person room. When we got there, the top two bunks were already taken up by two young American girls. They had two huge rolling suitcases that took up two thirds of the aisle so we just put our packs at the end of our bunk. No one had come to claim the middle bunks (we were on the bottom) so I was happy about that UNTIL the door opened. The last additions to our cabin were an Indian couple in their mid to late forties! They just kind of stood there wondering where to put their luggage as well. Eventually they went to get the train attendant who came to yell at us about not making any room. Yuri and I explained that we already had our bags in our bunk. Then the girls from above yell down “There is NO way that my bag is going to fit up here with me. Plus it’s too heavy for me to lift”. Mind you this was in a very valley girl like accent! After no
Layers of ice
Here he was showing us how the conditions can change the color of the ice layer. one made an effort to help these people I finally got up and put one of their suitcases behind the ladder on a small table! Brats!
Needless to say we didn’t sleep very well that night between the shaking of the train, the retched stench that seemed to fill our entire train car and our inability to completely stretch out. Oh yes, and we had a snorer with us! My ear plugs took care of that though. I knew I was in trouble (this was my idea) when I looked over at Yuri to ask him how he was doing and two big, hairy, dirty feet were dangling in his face from the bunk above! This was my second experience on a sleeper train and Yuri’s first. I don’t think we will be taking part again anytime soon (:
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Jen G.
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Wow that ice cave is amazing! Never seen anything quite like that!