Vienna: The Woods and Subterranean Lake

On the morning of June 26 we went on a prearranged tour of the “Vienna Woods”. We wanted to get a peak at life outside Vienna in Austria. The Vienna “woods”, or more accurately described as the Vienna forests, are on the outskirts of Vienna and consist mainly of coniferous trees, and a lot of hills.

Driving through Austria is absolutely beautiful. Wherever we were driving we would always see old ruins or castles:

We first drove through the town of Baden, famous for their thermal baths. Unfortunately we were unable to stop and try them out.
We then went to the Mayerling Chapel. This was the site of a tragedy in 1889. Mayerling used to be the location of the Crown Prince Rudolf’s (son of Emperor Franz Joseph 1830-1916) hunting lodge. He was unhappily married, so he had a lover: Baroness Mary Vetsera, who was only 17 at the time (I think he was in his late 30s). On January 30, 1889, at approximately 6:10am the Crown Prince shot his lover, and then himself.
There have been many speculations over the years as to why he would do such a shocking thing. The Crown Prince had very liberal ideas, very ahead of his time, thus creating a lot of political conflict, as well as conflict with his father. It is suspected that these conflicts, in addition to his unhappy marriage and his family life led him to this fate. The Imperial family ordered all documents or evidence surrounding his death be destroyed. When the autopsy revealed his cause of death (suicide), the doctors were ordered to proclaim him mentally unfit or out of his mind at the time of his death so he would be granted burial in the Imperial vault. His father ordered the rooms where the tragedy took place to be destroyed, and thus a chapel was built in their place.
Photos of this chapel are shown below:

Our next stop was the Holy Cross Monastery, a beautiful monastery still in use today by 75 monks. We had a chance to walk through the medieval building.

I really enjoyed the wood carvings and stained glass windows.
We then went to Lake Grotto in the Hinterbruhl (Lower Austria), near Molding. This lake is exceptionally unique, as it is the largest subterranean lake in all of Europe, and it is all manmade. It used to be a gypsum mine, which took 60 years to build, until in 1912 an explosion caused 20 million liters of water to flow into the passages and tunnels, creating the lake. During the 2^nd world war it was used as a protected area to build the world’s first jets.
When we arrived we were told we would have a guide to take us down for a boat ride. We were also warned about the 9 degree Celsius temperatures in the former mine.
The guide walked us down the long, cold, dark and damp passageways and tunnels with a little boom box CD player. It was used to play descriptions of the mine in different languages (Spanish and Italian), for our listening pleasure.

The boat ride was beautiful and peaceful. It was really dark, but was illuminated by some lights, strategically placed to maximize the beauty of the lake.

I met a really nice couple at the lake, the girl was wearing a sweater and was wrapped in a blanked (which can be rented for 50 cents), while her boyfriend was in a T-shirt. When I asked if he was cold, his response was “Oh no, I’m Canadian!”. Oh how I love my fellow Canadians!!
Later that day, we decided to go shopping!! I realized this was probably my only chance to shop on the whole trip because of my strict backpack weight restrictions. Whatever I buy I must carry with me for the next 2 months. Except, since my mom was going back to Toronto on June 28, she could carry all my purchases back with her!! So we hit the shops and both came out successful with some clothing and jewelry.