The First Out-Of-Town Venture: A Weekend in Innsbruck

Since Robert was taking two weeks of vacation to get settled in Munich and since we got all the paperwork stuff scheduled early in the week, we decided to take a long weekend and go somewhere close to Munich. Lisa's number one criterion was that she wanted to "hike in the Alps," and we both wanted to go somewhere new - this only eliminated Salzburg, but that was something. Poking around, we settled on Innsbruck, about a (theoretical) 2 hour drive from Munich.

We found an AirBnB with a check-in time of 4, so we figured we could leave at 12:30 and have plenty of time to get there and get parked and wander a little before check-in. This is where the "theoretical" part kicked in. Traffic was a bit of a nightmare and we ended up stopping twice (once to purchase an Austrian toll-tag and once for a bathroom break). In addition, we had to walk 15 minutes to get the key for the AirBnB and then go back to the car for our stuff. All that to say, we finally got in the room at about 4:00 straight up. with no pre-wandering included. By the time we got settled and unpacked, we were getting hungry, so Lisa did her go-to move: Read lots of Yelp! We found a highly rated Italian restaurant about a 10-minute walk away, so off we went. We got there at 5 and were told they open at 6, so it was finally time to explore!

Innsbruck has hosted two winter Olympics (1964 and 1976), so it is known for it's wonderful Alpine scenery. And rightly so. It was cloudy, so getting a unobstructed view of the mountains was difficult, but this gives some idea.

We walked up the street a bit and stumbled on a church. Churches will be a theme for us in Europe as we both love old churches. In addition, as can be seen here, the Europeans do graveyards very differently and the gardens around them are almost always beautiful and well-kept.

By this time, the restaurant was open, so we headed back down the street for dinner. Out dinner wasn't "exotic" food in the sense that it could be had in the US, but it was very good (lasagna, spicy, pepperoni-like sausage pizza, and tiramisu for dessert) . As we were preparing to leave, an Australian couple sat down next to us and we ended up talking to them for at least and hour before actually leaving the restaurant. More on them later. :)

We decided to stop at a bar next to river and have a beer and a glass of wine. The view across the river at dusk was pretty amazing as well.

After a rather poor night's rest (due mostly to the half dozen people partying in the street below our window until 1AM), we got up late-ish. Lisa hung around and got ready for our day of hiking and Robert went out and got some croissants for breakfast. The picture below, taken on the croissant hunt, is of the touristy center section of town with the Alps in the background. It may be shops that sell too many souvenirs, but it is still stunning to look at.

 

After eating our croissants, we headed ... up. First there was the winding drive up to the Hungerburg section of Innsbruck. 

After this, we took the first of two cable car rides up the mountain. After we crowded into the car, we looked over and there was the Australian couple from the restaurant last night. Whacky. They were also going up to the top, so we ended up wandering around with them for the day.

At this point, we have to try to pick through all of the amazing pictures taken from the top of those particular peaks and narrow them down to a number that you're willing to scroll through. :)

Europeans are much less worried about 100% safety, so the path to this little side peak was different than anything you would see in the US.

Facing the other direction gave a lovely view of Innsbruck and the Inn River, from which the city gets its name.

We saw this guy or girl paragliding. Comments were made by Robert about having to wear your brown pants.

Another "top of the world" picture, although in truth we were only at 7500 feet (~2300 m).

There are bike trails going down the mountain. The guy on the right (in blue, below the trees) is taking the "fun", twisty path and the guy on the left the "fast" path.

This is the cable car. And bike trails. And Innsbruck. All of the things!

The valley with the Inn River.

Flowers, flowers, flowers.

We decided to meet our new Aussie friends for dinner back at the same Italian restaurant (it was that good!) at 7:00 that evening, so after arriving back in town we rested and cleaned up for dinner. We spent 3 hours at dinner having lovely conversation, which is totally OK in Europe. The wait staff does not start glaring at you after 45 minutes or an hour of "camping." After our meal, we found an open bar and had another beer or two and many more laughs. The husband of the couple (Paul) has never met a stranger and there are no dull moments when he is around.

We had a 10:00 check-out time Sunday morning, so we packed up our stuff, put it in the car and went for another walk around town. We found another church (shocking!) with another beautiful graveyard (even more shocking!)

We strolled down the river a little way and bid a final farewell to Innsbruck. I have a feeling we will be back as I'm sure this town will look equally (if not more) lovely with a blanket of snow. And Lisa missed the Swarovski museum a short bus ride away in Wattens, Austria.

Auf Wiedersehen für jetzt, Innsbruck!