The rain seems to be following us as we woke up to a cold rainy morning.
Had breakfast in our hotel, Austria Trends Hotel (a comfy clean setup, a two min walk from the bus stop).
We were off to Werfen (shelved our plans for Hallsttat due to weather and it being outside our ticket zone). Werfen has a castle atop a hill famously featured in the movie, Where Eagles Dare, which also includes a falconry display!
While waiting at the train station in Salzburg – Lieferinger Spitz; Ulhas started talking to a lady who belonged to Werfen! She recommended to visit the Eisriesenwelt Ice Caves -the World’s Largest Ice Cave, and that is now open to public.
We decided to go there first and then do the castle/fortress visit.
Ae reached the Werfen station in about 40 min by train and we could see the Honehwerfen castle.
From Werfen station we took a bus shuttle to the base of the cave mountain, then a 30 min steep walk up to the cable car, then another 20 min walk up to the mouth of the cave. All this exercise had us doubting our decision to include this in our plan…and then we entered the cave! What a fantastic, though tough, walk through the huge ice caves,1400 steep steps, frozen barristers, formations of ice resembling an elephant, a tsunami etc it was –a totally worth it experience!
Throughout the walk, our guide shared not just scientific insights, but charming anecdotes and stories from the cave’s exploration history. His passion for the place was contagious.
At regular intervals, the guide would burn strips of magnesium, flooding the vast icy chambers with bright, white light. These moments were spellbinding — walls shimmered, ice formations came alive in ghostly hues, and we stood in silent awe.
Ulhas has written a detailed blog on the Eisriesenwelt here –
Caught the shuttle back to the turning point for the fortress, Burg Hohenwerfen. Managed to book the last guided tour, so up we went by the cable car. Our interesting guide, dressed in a period costume, spoke in a heavily accented English at superfast speed! It was so hard to keep up with him and his jokes!
Ulhas was the only one among the group clued in about the details of Where Eagles Dare related to the castle and the guide, Florian Willem was impressed enough to share a special edition magazine for the movie!
We missed the falconry display but the short tour of the castle along with all of us tolling the bell, was a wonderful experience.
I have written a detailed blog of our visit to Hohenwerfen –
We all got down from the castle and then there was a short walk through the beautiful town of Werfen to the train station -And ofcourse it started drizzling!
Took the train back to Salzburg Hbf, found a lovely Pizzeria in the Mirabelle area for dinner and got back to the hotel to give our legs the much-needed rest after covering almost 20,000 steps!
