The cavern is gigantic and filled with stalactite and stalagmite formations as well as some rare crystalizations (in the shape of triangles, for instance) with live water running through. In the 18th century, it was on a road connecting a couple of bigger towns, and was a great place for the local road pirates to dump trash and/or bodies when they were done robbing people blind. So, for a long time the gauffre was a big, stinking dump that scared people silly, especially because it's a fairly constant, humid 14 degrees Celsius inside, so in the winter, it steams! The first picture (i.e., ticket stub) shows three people in a sort of elevator they've fashioned, for a ride on which it's possible to pay extra. This gives a sense of both the scale of the place and the lengths to which the owners of the cave will go to make a buck, er, euro.
About 130 years ago someone went down into the cavern, discovered how cool it was, and cleaned it up. More recently a side entrance, ramps, sound systems, and a laser light show were added to, you know, spiff the place up. Also, they've added many tables of little kitsch under the mineral water to be coated with calcite and sold in ye olde gifte shoppe. (We like to call the photo on the stub shown here "the altar of kitsch".)The stone puppies, gnomes, and pitchers -- or whatever they were -- baffled both girls, but Betsy was truly impressed with all the lights and music! All of us really did like the part at the end when we got close enough to touch formations and feel the different textures, and when they had all the lights on so we could see the enormous formations really high above our heads. The "medusa" (jellyfish) was Molly's favorite. Ask her to show you the ticket stub with a picture of it sometime.
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