David Whitley goes exploring deep underneath the Bavarian Alps, taking on many different forms of novelty transport in a 500-year-old salt mine.
Underground adventures
Deep underground, the oversized raft ploughs quietly across the lake. The lights dim slowly until the point of total darkness and then the show begins. Lasers bounce off the walls and roof of the subterranean cavern, their patterns reflected in the water. It’s like a fireworks display in the most unlikely location imaginable.
The raft isn’t the only form of bizarre novelty transport on the journey through what is arguably the world’s most hi-tech salt mine. We entered on a little train, which despite being little more than a series of benches plonked on top of an undercarriage, managed to pick up rollercoaster-worthy speed as it took us the best part of a kilometre inside.
And, in order to get further into the guts of the almost 500-year-old mine, we had to whizz down the miners’ slides. Heavily greased and over 30 metres long, these are a case of sitting down, keeping your legs in the air and pretending you’re in the playground again.
Salzburg history
Contrary to popular belief, the Austrian city of Salzburg didn’t become rich on the back of Sound of Music Kitsch and Mozart memorabilia. The clue is in the name – the surrounding area is one of the world’s biggest producers of salt.
Over 250 million years ago, the region was ocean. It then became a giant salt lake, and when the Alps appeared on the scene, that salt was buried underground. And for centuries, people have been trying to get it out again then sell it.
Confusingly, the Salzbergwerk isn’t in Salzburg. In fact, it’s just over the German border in Berchtesgaden. As our guide Otto tells us, there are salt mine tours available in the Salzburg region, but this one is just as close and it offers a better experience for tourists.
Berchtesgaden salt mine
He’s not wrong – it’s brilliant fun. Some evil genius has clearly decided that the way to make a rather dull subject interesting is to turn the mine into some kind of strange underground theme park.
That means everyone gets kitted out in bodysuits more suited to Bond henchmen, all the walls up are lit up with spectacular light shows and every section of the journey involves a huge wooden door being slammed behind us.
It also has things like the Rock Salt Grotto, a somewhat indescribably odd shrine that was built in remembrance of “the fairytale king”, Ludwig II of Bavaria. It’s made of various-coloured salt crystals and looks brilliantly out of place.
In between the train rides, slides and the Mirror Lake boat ride, there’s an attempt to educate. The ridiculous transport is clearly the spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down, but the less sexy bits are also covered well.
A million things you didn’t know about salt
We’re taken through the minutiae of how salt is extracted, right from the hand-drilling of 1517 to the modern machinery, flooding and brine extraction methods of today. A million cubic litres of brine are extracted every year, and it’s from this that the salt comes via a combination of hot air driers, other dull stuff and er… maybe fairy magic?
In mitigation, concentration on this explanation does waver somewhat if you’ve dipped your fingers in the brine that they have thoughtfully left out for tasting. It is, of course, revolting, and leaves the whole group dry retching and grimacing as they walk on through.
Inside the space-age educational section, with its glass pyramids and touch screens, we get to see just how ill we’d feel if we kept going back for seconds. Inside a jar is a mound of salt – 310g worth. Apparently, that’s what would be needed to kill a 70kg human being if consumed all at once. It’s a theory that’s probably not worth putting to the test.
The on-screen button-bashing reveals a few more interesting snippets. The human body is 75% sea water; we need salt because we’ve evolved from sea creatures; we add salt to the water when cooking pasta because it raises the boiling temperature by two degrees and makes it cook faster. At the risk of using a dreadful pun, it’s a mine of fascinating factoids.
Funicular railway
But this odd trove of buried treasure has one more trick up its sleeve – the granddaddy of all novelty transportation. We’ve ventured pretty far down into the mine, and only a funicular railway is going to get us back to the little bench-rollercoaster-train. As it chugs away, it’s almost surprising that there isn’t a zeppelin or hydrofoil waiting at the top.
Sure, it’s expensive gimmickery, but it performs the impossible in making salt seem really cool.
But in a way, it is, and Otto explains why on the way back to Salzburg. As we drive through the Bavarian Alps, the sides of the road are laden with that other white gold: snow.
“It probably wouldn’t be safe to drive here tonight,” says Otto, “if they hadn’t sent out the trucks to put salt on the roads.”
And to be fair, it would be rather difficult to slide all the way back home…
Trip notes
The Bavarian Alps and Salt Mines tour is available through Isango*, and departs from Salzburg. It visits the Salzbergwerk in Berchtesgaden.
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