Austria

Underwater Austria

Completely landlocked doesn’t necessarily mean that diving is out of the question. Austria is best known for alpine skiing, historical Vienna and delicious cakes, but also offers some really spectacular diving. Here, one can dive wrecks and walls, enjoying a rich aquatic life in lakes with great visibility.

Lake Toplitz in the Austrian alps

Austrians ban diving for 'Nazi Gold' in lake Toplitz

Legend has it that, when Hitler's Third Reich was beginning to collapse in early 1945, the Nazis looking for a perfect place to hide their valuables -- diamonds and gold worth millions, stolen art trucked their treasures through the dense mountain forest to Lake Toplitz and dumped them into the 350-foot-deep just before U.S. and allied forces closed in on them.

Over the years divers have recovered crates full of counterfeit British bank notes and a money press apparently created by the Nazis in an attempt to crash the British economy.