Day 8 - [I]nnsbruck

Exploring the Tyrolean capital

Still not on the clock here. The early rising is not unhelpful, though, as I can post my blog and still have a lot of the day left to do stuff. Today, because I’d done a lot of the prep last night, I had the blog posted and was out the door before 9 am. The plan for the day revolved around wandering around town, taking a ride on the funicular, and maybe visiting a museum or two.

“Unbound coffee”

First order of business: breakfast. The place where I’m staying is very near the university. There was a little cafe close by that I thought I’d try. It was very cool – all smooth white curves and low seating – and it offered a variety of bagels, including an egg and bacon one. At least it felt a bit more like breakfast. The coffee was good. I must say, all the coffee I’ve had so far has been pretty good. The Europeans (that I’ve experienced) certainly know how to make a good espresso. If you don’t complicate it, you can’t go wrong.

European architecture, wider streets	On some strasse, front gardens
Central pedestrian mall	Painted facade on old building

I set off from the cafe to “Experience Tirol”, what I thought was a museum of the local history and culture. The venue is housed in a very modern shopping complex. I was distracted by the presence of a G Star shop on the way to the museum. The shops in Canberra are gone. I don’t like buying clothes online. I decided to take this opportunity! I now own another really nice pair of G Star jeans. Onward to the museum, which turned out to be a virtual reality/3D projection experience. I was a little uncertain to begin with, but the technology I was provided worked flawlessly, the staff helped out exactly as much as needed, and I went through the 60-minute show on my own. While the narrative that drove the presentation was a little trite and perhaps a little amateurishly performed, the whole show was really quite engaging and interesting. The VR bit was particularly captivating. The 3D full-immersion tank was also quite impressive, especially getting to experience it solo. I really enjoyed this much more than I thought I would. I spent a lot of the time thinking in the background that a similar ‘experience’ would suit Canberra really well.

Modern, luxe shopping centre

Helpful tips for tourists

The funicular carriage

Suitably enlivened to the history and culture of Innsbruck and the surrounding area, I decided that the funicular ride would be next. I actually thought that it might be an old vehicle, a bit like the one in Wellington, NZ. I was mistaken. It was a very modern vehicle but a real funicular all the same. Furthermore, it was only one-third of the whole ride that you could take.

Top of the funicular ride	Classical alpen chalet
The view South-West from the chalet	The view South-East from the chalet

The other two-thirds were cable car rides up the mountains. I bought the ticket to “Top of Innsbruck”. The cable car ride stole the show, of course. The views as you climb the mountain suspended way over the steep mountain-side are spectacular, even in the poor weather conditions of the day. I did what I later saw all the tourists who arrived on the cable car do, straight outside and photograph the view immediately. It was very lightly snowing when I ventured outside. Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t much like being places where it’s cold enough for water to stay hard on the ground. So, I wandered around the building to make sure that I’d seen all there was to see, then went inside to the big restaurant that was there. I was served by a young man who was a delight. I found out later that he spoke five languages (Bosnian is his native tongue) and he was just the right balance of efficient and light-hearted.

The view over Innsbruck	The motorway snaking down the valley is a local wonder
None of the ski infrastructure was operating It’s not the season	Behind the restaurant at Seegrube

Today’s traditional Austrian meal was goulash soup with bread, a stein of weissbier (wheat beer) and a sacher torte with coffee. Very nice! After lunch I visited the souvenir shop and acquired the mandatory souvenir for this trip (I’m collecting fridge magnets to spell out my name back home). It was only then that I realised that there was more cable car riding available. Having paid for the ticket, I went on the ride.

The Top of Innsbruck

The next car coming up

By this time of the day, the weather had genuinely closed in. It was snowing and the view was a white-out. I hoped that the next section of cable car ride might rise over that weather, but it did not. Consequently, the visit at the “Top of Innsbruck” was a bit underwhelming: cold, snowing, and essentially no visibility. Never mind, I can at least say that I’ve been there!

The view from the cable car on the descent I took six of these, five turned out to be photos of raindrops on the window

The ultra-modern canopy over the funicular station Same style at all stops

With nothing more to do, I headed back down the mountain. I managed to get some more ‘panoramic’ shots of Innsbruck in its valley as the cable car descended below the weather. By the time I got back to the very bottom, I had decided that the whole thing had been completely worthwhile. I was having a very good day of touristing.

The view from the funicular descending

‘Close up’ of the view from the funicular

Next stop was to be the Swarovski Kristallwelten, which I had seen a huge sign for as I was approaching the funicular station. It was one of the Lonely Planet recommendations that I’d written down and so I thought I’d duck in as I was going to walk right past it. Turns out, the sign was just an advertisement. The actual shop was further away. Undaunted, I let Google Maps lead me to it.

The Innsbrucker Hofgarten

Jesuit Church

It turned out, the shop was in the middle of the the altstadt (‘old city’?). So, I walked through an arched entrance into an enchanting ancient tyrolean town. My first impression was that I’d walked into Diagon Alley (though not as dark)! The place just oozes charm, and throngs with tourists. I actually recognised a bit of it from my VR experience earlier in the day, so I photographed that, of course. It’s an unbelievable charming place to be, except that it’s also (of course) touristy and commercial at the same time.

First impression of the altstadt	Gorgeous decorative architecture	The main street in altstadt
The Goldenes Dachl The Golden Roof		Real life image of a VR scene from ‘Experience Tirol’

Marvel characters in crystal

I found the Swarovski store and had a wander round. There were some unbelievable pieces on display and many crystalline figurines. And, of course, rings, and pendants, and necklaces, and bracelets; the whole nine yards. Fortunately, I didn’t see anything that I just had to have, though some of the pieces were in the ‘reasonable’ price range.

After all that excitement, I was feeling quite tired, so I’ve come home. I stopped on the way and acquired some food from a Spars (supermarket). I was looking at the balance on my travel card over lunch. I have decided to slow down on some of the spending I’m doing, to make the money I’ve put away for this holiday last for a longer part of it.

Daily facts: Location: [I]nnsbruck Temp: 8C Weather: Overcast; snowing on the mountain