Superlatives

For my day´s outing in Salzburg, I went on an adventure to the largest ice caves in the world, by way of the steepest cable car in Europe, deep in the Alps, some of the tallest mountains anywhere. It was a day of superlatives for sure.

I started out on a 50 minute bus ride through the breathtaking Alps. I know we´ve all seen them on postcards and on the Ricola package, but there´s just no describing the feeling of being at the mercy of these massive monsters as they reach up into the clouds, reminding you what a mighty thing the earth really is. When we got to the base of the part of the mountain we would be ascending to, our bus took a very, very windy road that was a way too steep to be safe for a bus. I saw my life flash before my eyes as we drove . . . my first day of preschool, mom crying as she dropped me off, fast forward to my first day of college, my wedding day . . . ok, I wasn´t going to die. Cut the drama, Melanie.

Finally, when the bus could push the limits of physics no further, we got out and walked about 20 minutes up - what else - a very, very steep, windy path. This took us to the little hut where we would catch the Austrian death trap - otherwise known as the cable car. I swear this thing went straight up at a 90 degree angle. At the top, after narrowly escaping death once again, we were faced with yet another 20 minute walk up a steep, windy path. (Are you noticing a pattern?) At last, thanking all manners of gods and goddesses for allowing me to keep my young life, we reached the entrance to the ice caves. I took out the piles of clothes from my bag and started preparing for the freezing temperatures. I hadn´t packed for this sort of activity, so I looked rather silly with a tank top, t-shirt, long sleeve shirt, hoodie, summer scarf, 2 pairs of socks (mismatched), and my birkenstock sandals. When they opened the door of the cave, the cold air came blasting out at what they said was 17 kilometers an hour. You literally had to hold on to something so it wouldn´t knock you over.

Then we entered these white, silent marvels. The entire cave is apparently 20 kilometers long, but we only saw the first kilometer, the only part remotely safe enough for visitors (a judgement I questioned several times as I slipped and slided my way past steep sheets of ice). The cave is not lit at all - AT ALL - except for a few lamps they pass out to some visitors to carry for the rest of the group. Every now and then, the guide would stop and illuminate some ice sculptures with manesium, which gave them a greenish, aurora-borealis sort of tint. After about an hour´s walk through an arctic wonderland inside one of the tallest peaks of the Austrain Alps, we descended again, walking right through a glacier! (The photo up top that looks like we´re walking through a cave wall of rock is the glacier. It´s actually solid ice. The lines you see tell how many years old the glacier is, sort of like tree rings.)

When leaving the cave, you get pushed out with the same forceful, frigid wind that nearly knocked you over when you came in. But this time it comes from behind, so it feels like someone gives you a swift kick to the rear end as a formal aufwiedersen as you bounce out of the door. Then the descent down the mountain, taking all the same steps we took to get up, but this time we stopped for a beer and a snack at the cable car shack. The other photo above is a beautiful castle we saw on the drive back down.

So I didn´t see many of the Sound of Music sites while in Salzburg, but I had quite a satisfying day!