Day 9 - [I]nnsbruck

The First Museum in the World

I had originally thought that I might use today for a day-trip to Salzburg and tomorrow for a day-trip to Munich. I’ve decided to drop the Munich adventure (I’m getting a bit of Germany on my Rhine River cruise) and have bumped Salzburg to tomorrow. The morning was spent posting the blog entry and then buying the train trip for Salzburg and return.

The Triumphal Arch

With that admin out of the way, I headed out for the day. First stop, the Haupbanhhof to buy my first class seat reservations. Then, try to negotiate the public transport system to get a bus out to Schloss Ambras (another castle recommendation from Paola). According to Google Maps, I needed to catch the 540 bus from platform D in 8 minutes (from when I looked, obvs). I managed to find platform D, stumble across a ticket machine, buy a random ticket (turns out it was the default single fare) and wait for the bus. It never showed. Eventually, the ‘Sightseer’ bus stopped at the platform. I’d realised that it also went to Schloss Ambras, so I got on it. I asked the driver if my ticket would get me there. He said, “That’s for public transport, not this bus.” I explained that I’d been waiting for public transport but it never showed. He took pity on me and said to take a seat.

I should have arranged to take the ‘Sightseer’ from the outset! It has a headset with travelogue as you drive around (in about a dozen languages) and, I discovered much later, stops just down the road from the AirBNB! Anyway, that was a Bob Ross ‘happy accident’ that added to my sightseeing day.

Gorgeous homes that the ‘Sightseer’ went passed.

By the time I arrived at Schloss Ambras, it was lunchtime. So, I bought a ticket to tour the castle, and went straight to the cafe for lunch. I ordered the clear soup with Kaspress Knödel, also recommended by Paola. It was lovely! Then I started touring the castle.

Inner courtyard of the Upper Castle where the cafe is located

Interior of the cafe

Klare Zuppe with Kaspress Knödel

There are two main building parts to Schloss Ambras, the upper castle and the lower castle. The cafe is in the upper castle, so I started there.

Looking up to the Upper Castle

Looking down to the Lower Castle

The castle is most famous for being the residence of Arch Duke Ferdinand II of Austria – who is most famous for starting the first world war by being assassinated (I’ve heard that scholars are divided about whether that was the real trigger, but it is certainly popular belief). Interestingly, the Arch Duke was a significant aficionado of art and ‘wonders’. He filled his castle with stuff from ancient Rome right through to his present day. Oodles of portraits of the kings, dukes, queens and duchesses of Austria (and Hungary and the region), dozens of Roman busts, bronzes made for mausoleums, astonishing artworks in all manner of materials, and ‘wonders’ such as dwarves and giants living in his household. The shortest dwarf—at 65cm—is shown in a portrait with his giant—at 2.4m! Another wonder was a huge pig/boar that was on the castle grounds. The life-size portrait of the beast showed an animal nearly 2m in length and about 1.5m high! Finally, as I was coming to the end, a huge collection of armour and armoury. Really, an amazing collection of stuff! The collection is so significant that it is called the “First Museum in the World”.

I’ve taken so many photos, it’s hard to pick what to put here. This is just a tiny selection of what I saw and a small selection of what I photographed. There’s no real sense to the selection.

The chapel in the castle	Vestments worn by the priests	One example of the dozens of displays of engraved glass
Portraits of husband and wife	King Leopold I	Empress Eleonore Congaza
I have to say, the long hierarchy of aristocracy here were not glamorous
One of many tiled stoves (for indoor heating)	One of many gorgeous detailed cabinets	An extraordinary coin and jewelry box
The Spanish Hall – truly eye-watering. A possible model for Trump’s ballroom?
A lithograph marquette for frescoes	Another jewelry/coin box	Death, carved from a single piece of wood!
King Maximillius I mounted and in regalia	The house guards	The house ‘wonders’ armour

The castle itself is absolutely amazing. It’s in magnificent repair (not least because it’s a museum, I suppose) and sits in its ground with great majesty. The grounds are a wonderful wooded garden and the views across Innsbruck are fantastic. As the day cleared in the afternoon, the whole environment took on a fairy tale feel.

Schloss Ambras in its grounds

The wooded garden surrounding the schloss

The view from the garden looking over Innsbruck

The little court where I stopped for a wine

I caught the 540 bus back to the Haupbanhhof. It stopped at Platform J! (Coincidentally, that’s where Google Maps had said the bus was, but it said Platform D in the text, so I’d been misled. More lessons for the novice traveller.) I planned to walk back through the altstadt and have a glass of wine at a bar, for the experience. I found a really lovely place, that was empty, a little off the tourist track in the altstadt and had a glass of the local rose (well, a Tyrolean rose; that’s local).

And now I’m back at the AirBNB writing up my blog because I won’t have time tomorrow before my day-trip to Salzburg.

Daily facts: Location: [I]nnsbruck Temp: 17 Weather: Overcast, turning clear