The Caves in the Swabian Alb [Near Stuttgart, Germany]
We took a short 45 minute drive south to visit a cave in the Swabian Alb. This area, while in my backyard, is fairly new to me and I’ve been having a blast exploring it recently.
We went to the Bad Urach waterfall the other weekend and since then I’ve been researching other areas with the Alb to hike around. I came across a few caves that are close by and within a short distance from one another. These are the Nebenhöhle, the Barenhöhle and the Falkensteiner cave.
The Falksteiner has over 4 km of cave corridors but access is limited to experienced cavers (which, sadly, I am not). The other two are close to each other and are illuminated caves.
I decided to check out the Barenhohle cave since it looked cool and I’ve never been in a cave….and I wanted photos. It’s basically all about the photos it seems. I had to bump up the ISO to right around it’s max (25,600) to get the shots because tripods aren’t allowed, but I think they still turned out alright.
Information about the Barenhöhle
The cave’s full name is the Charles and Bears Cave (Die Karls und Bärenhöhle) but the names refer to two different areas within the cave.
The cave was discovered in 1834 by Karl-Wilhelm Fauth and inside he found many human and animal bones, jewelry that dated back thousands of years, and stalactites and stalagmites. Unfortunately most of this was stolen shortly after people found out about it.
The cave is closed from November to March because bats hibernate here in the winter and they’re endangered species.
There are guided tours daily. The cave is actually fairly short. We ended up leaving the guide and going a bit ahead because it was all in German. They did, however, have a handout in English which was helpful. I think we were through it in 15 minutes.
They kept a skeleton of a bear that is on display toward the end of the tour
So. Close!
This is also a very kid friendly activity, and as such there is a traumland, or dream land, once you leave. We don’t have kiddos so I’m not sure what all it entails but it looks kinda like a kid’s paradise.
Traumland Entrance
