As wifi is not possible at the hostel (and no reason why) we end up at McD's for
breakfast because they have free Wifi. We are able to get on the internet but unable to download emails, which is a real pain as we are hoping for photos from the wedding! Never the less it was almost worth breaking our "No Maccas on tour" rule because it's kinda interesting to see that the menu and the quality varies much more than we expected. Shona's nana, her twin sister (Aunty Darky) have their 80th birthday today and Shona's cousin Louise has her 21st! Happy Birthday to all the lovely ladies. Today we have paid for another tour by the same company that did the Sound of Music tour yesterday, however we have until 1pm to fill in beforehand. You'd have to be a first time reader of our blog to be at all surprised by what we found to fill in the 3 hours we had to spare.
The Salzburg Zoo is not far out of town and isn't as well known as other zoos because it is much smaller in size. To be honest however -we are amazed by the quality of it considering that the population is only 140,000 and
that it is snowed in during winter. Mike spent a while wondering what it'd take to set up a zoo in Dunedin considering that the city is about the same size and that the climate is probably more favourable for most animals. He then realised that Dunedin already HAS a zoo -as his father confirmed when he emailed to say that 80 students had been arrested during a cam
pus gathering gone wrong! We're not sure if we came at the wrong time -but it seemed like a disproportionate number of animals were either sleeping or shagging! Seriously -Shona has nicknamed this "the horniest zoo ever" considering the antics a lot of them were getting up to. One of the highlights of this zoo was the cheetah. We were looking at the enclosure thinking "I
wonder if they are in there" when a female (we think) turned up, walked right near us, had a drink, jumped 2m to an island, did a bit of a show, jumped back and walked away. Shona's cousin Callum loves cheetahs and would be well and truly jealous! The squirrel monkeys and the walk through enclosures were once again highlights, as were the big cats... even though they are still in the process of getting lion to join the family. Because it's quite a small zoo, it's really easy to navigate and get through all the animals without doubling up. Perhaps we could have gone back to see the bears and the otters (to see if they had woken up) but to be fair -we've seen enough zoos on this trip that we don't feel we've missed out on either. We just miss the bus back, but luckily our 'last chance' one comes through on time and we make it back to the centre of town where today's tour departs from. We have around 20 mins before the bus departs -so Mike races to the hostel to get extra camera batteries (which of course we never end up needing -but would have if he didn't get them) and another layer for Shona, while Shona races to get medication for her nose tap and lunch. We meet back, but quickly evaluate that a quick bratwurst for the roadside stall really is
crucial. The bus ride is around an hour and a half and takes us to the car park of the world's largest ice cave. Eisriesenwelt is a continuous limestone cave 42km long, with the unique feature of having ice in the first 1km from the bottom entrance. Water enters the cave through very small cracks in the rock (which also rusts the iron content -making the walls red in places). This water then reaches freezing point at the lower end, because the colder / heavier air decends, resulting in wind gusts of over 100km per hour on a hot summer day
! To get to the cave from the car park, we first need to walk 20mins to the bottom of the cable car. The walk isn't very far, however it's uphill and we stop every few minutes to take in a incredible Austrian scenery and the view across the valley. In the photos it looks as though there is a layer of smog, however we later learn that this is actually just very thin cloud cover, caused by the moisture coming off the lakes in the area and the lack of intense
heat or wind at this time of year to burn it off. It definitely feels warm when you have to walk up the steep side of the Tennengebirge mountain range however! Luckily the 3min cable car ride takes us up the worst of it, leaving us with another ridiculously scenic 20min walk to the entrance to the cave. As we wait the 5mins till the next English tour, we think about how weird it is to be going from t-shirts and shorts, sweating in the midday sun, to needing to put on jerseys to go into subzero conditions. The tour starts with a hiss and a roar as all of the handheld gas lamps get blown out by the freaky ice wind that hits in only the first 2m of the cave. Once you push through this wall of air -it goes to being deadly still and the guide relights the lamps... very very spooky indeed! The tour lasts for just over an hour, goes 1km each way, up and down
700 stairs and gets you out just before your hand freezes to the lamp that Mike is carrying. One of the wonderful things about this incredible place is that all of the ice formations are constantly changing over time. Each year the stalagmites, stalactites and ice walls recede during the autumn when the cave temperature reaches a high of around 2 degrees and they then grow in the spring in different shapes and thicknesses. The 'elephant' used to be the most famous shape -however this now looks more like a long nosed, two humped camel. At the moment the most amazing shape is the 'polar bear' which sadly we couldn't photograph as no recording is allowed in the caves. Some of the thickest ice is over 1000 years old, although the
cave wasn't discovered until 1913. The largest ice wall was scaled several years later (the man's ashes are in a tomb in the largest room of the caves) and tours started around 30 years before the cable car was put in during 1955. The caves are only open between May and October, because they use the rest of the time to fix the walkways (remember the ice keeps changing position on them!) and to clean out the remains of the magnesium strips, which the guides use to bath the caves in white light during the tours. Once again this it the sort of thing that is hard to describe, would be impossible to do justice to even if photos were allowed -but will stick in our memories for a long time to come. We escaped the cave cold, but unharmed and invigorated... unlike the Chinese girl behind us who was silly enough to tip her gas lamp at one point and set her hand alight! The walk down the hill is as amazing as the walk up -however is has the advantage of a pit stop at the restaurant for an apfelstrudel (apple strudel)... something Shona is getting very used to eating over here! The only shame about the trip is that only 17 euros of our tickets go to the ice caves company (of which 6% goes to the forestry company that owns the land) and the remaining 33 euros go to Panorama tours... even though the "guide" barely did anything during the 3 hours of bus time -making us think it was more of a transport service than a tour. Definitely go to these caves if you get a chance -but do it by car if you have the opportunity! Kebabs for dinner and a little Mozart chocolate for dessert (mostly as a gag because we know that he hated his home town -but the locals use him to make money anyway!) before another battle with the wifi and a reasonably early night. A very cool day in the mountains.
breakfast because they have free Wifi. We are able to get on the internet but unable to download emails, which is a real pain as we are hoping for photos from the wedding! Never the less it was almost worth breaking our "No Maccas on tour" rule because it's kinda interesting to see that the menu and the quality varies much more than we expected. Shona's nana, her twin sister (Aunty Darky) have their 80th birthday today and Shona's cousin Louise has her 21st! Happy Birthday to all the lovely ladies. Today we have paid for another tour by the same company that did the Sound of Music tour yesterday, however we have until 1pm to fill in beforehand. You'd have to be a first time reader of our blog to be at all surprised by what we found to fill in the 3 hours we had to spare. 
The Salzburg Zoo is not far out of town and isn't as well known as other zoos because it is much smaller in size. To be honest however -we are amazed by the quality of it considering that the population is only 140,000 and 
that it is snowed in during winter. Mike spent a while wondering what it'd take to set up a zoo in Dunedin considering that the city is about the same size and that the climate is probably more favourable for most animals. He then realised that Dunedin already HAS a zoo -as his father confirmed when he emailed to say that 80 students had been arrested during a cam
pus gathering gone wrong! We're not sure if we came at the wrong time -but it seemed like a disproportionate number of animals were either sleeping or shagging! Seriously -Shona has nicknamed this "the horniest zoo ever" considering the antics a lot of them were getting up to. One of the highlights of this zoo was the cheetah. We were looking at the enclosure thinking "I 
wonder if they are in there" when a female (we think) turned up, walked right near us, had a drink, jumped 2m to an island, did a bit of a show, jumped back and walked away. Shona's cousin Callum loves cheetahs and would be well and truly jealous! The squirrel monkeys and the walk through enclosures were once again highlights, as were the big cats... even though they are still in the process of getting lion to join the family. Because it's quite a small zoo, it's really easy to navigate and get through all the animals without doubling up. Perhaps we could have gone back to see the bears and the otters (to see if they had woken up) but to be fair -we've seen enough zoos on this trip that we don't feel we've missed out on either. We just miss the bus back, but luckily our 'last chance' one comes through on time and we make it back to the centre of town where today's tour departs from. We have around 20 mins before the bus departs -so Mike races to the hostel to get extra camera batteries (which of course we never end up needing -but would have if he didn't get them) and another layer for Shona, while Shona races to get medication for her nose tap and lunch. We meet back, but quickly evaluate that a quick bratwurst for the roadside stall really is 
crucial. The bus ride is around an hour and a half and takes us to the car park of the world's largest ice cave. Eisriesenwelt is a continuous limestone cave 42km long, with the unique feature of having ice in the first 1km from the bottom entrance. Water enters the cave through very small cracks in the rock (which also rusts the iron content -making the walls red in places). This water then reaches freezing point at the lower end, because the colder / heavier air decends, resulting in wind gusts of over 100km per hour on a hot summer day
! To get to the cave from the car park, we first need to walk 20mins to the bottom of the cable car. The walk isn't very far, however it's uphill and we stop every few minutes to take in a incredible Austrian scenery and the view across the valley. In the photos it looks as though there is a layer of smog, however we later learn that this is actually just very thin cloud cover, caused by the moisture coming off the lakes in the area and the lack of intense 
heat or wind at this time of year to burn it off. It definitely feels warm when you have to walk up the steep side of the Tennengebirge mountain range however! Luckily the 3min cable car ride takes us up the worst of it, leaving us with another ridiculously scenic 20min walk to the entrance to the cave. As we wait the 5mins till the next English tour, we think about how weird it is to be going from t-shirts and shorts, sweating in the midday sun, to needing to put on jerseys to go into subzero conditions. The tour starts with a hiss and a roar as all of the handheld gas lamps get blown out by the freaky ice wind that hits in only the first 2m of the cave. Once you push through this wall of air -it goes to being deadly still and the guide relights the lamps... very very spooky indeed! The tour lasts for just over an hour, goes 1km each way, up and down 
700 stairs and gets you out just before your hand freezes to the lamp that Mike is carrying. One of the wonderful things about this incredible place is that all of the ice formations are constantly changing over time. Each year the stalagmites, stalactites and ice walls recede during the autumn when the cave temperature reaches a high of around 2 degrees and they then grow in the spring in different shapes and thicknesses. The 'elephant' used to be the most famous shape -however this now looks more like a long nosed, two humped camel. At the moment the most amazing shape is the 'polar bear' which sadly we couldn't photograph as no recording is allowed in the caves. Some of the thickest ice is over 1000 years old, although the 
cave wasn't discovered until 1913. The largest ice wall was scaled several years later (the man's ashes are in a tomb in the largest room of the caves) and tours started around 30 years before the cable car was put in during 1955. The caves are only open between May and October, because they use the rest of the time to fix the walkways (remember the ice keeps changing position on them!) and to clean out the remains of the magnesium strips, which the guides use to bath the caves in white light during the tours. Once again this it the sort of thing that is hard to describe, would be impossible to do justice to even if photos were allowed -but will stick in our memories for a long time to come. We escaped the cave cold, but unharmed and invigorated... unlike the Chinese girl behind us who was silly enough to tip her gas lamp at one point and set her hand alight! The walk down the hill is as amazing as the walk up -however is has the advantage of a pit stop at the restaurant for an apfelstrudel (apple strudel)... something Shona is getting very used to eating over here! The only shame about the trip is that only 17 euros of our tickets go to the ice caves company (of which 6% goes to the forestry company that owns the land) and the remaining 33 euros go to Panorama tours... even though the "guide" barely did anything during the 3 hours of bus time -making us think it was more of a transport service than a tour. Definitely go to these caves if you get a chance -but do it by car if you have the opportunity! Kebabs for dinner and a little Mozart chocolate for dessert (mostly as a gag because we know that he hated his home town -but the locals use him to make money anyway!) before another battle with the wifi and a reasonably early night. A very cool day in the mountains.
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Ha ha ha - another zoo!
ReplyDeleteCaves sound cool - in more ways than one!
Great cheetah shot - or was it genuine?
ReplyDeleteOf course it is genuine -Shona is becoming a very good photographer on this trip. She got an equally impressive shot when the cheetah jumped BACK across!
ReplyDelete