DAY 14: Innsbruck

Friday, August 20th 2010

We got up early as usual and got ready to go. The first bus to Natters left at 10:17, so we aimed for that one. It was a very nice summery day, so we decided it would be a good day to go swimming. Oh, and here are some clickable pictures of the best camping site we'd been to:

Pinky really wanted to go see the Bergisel ski-jumping tower, so we asked the bus driver to drop us off at a stop closest to that. We got out, and walked up the hill towards the tower. It was a pretty steep climb, and I was tired and a bit cranky. The entrance fee to the tower was 8.5€, and I wasn't too interested in the place because I'm not a sports fanatic, so Pinky went up there and I stayed behind and waited down below. I think I'd better leave it to her to tell about the Bergisel experience :)

View over the city. Note the Alps in the background.

After that we walked down the hill and towards the old town of Innsbruck. It wasn't very far, and just about all the historical sites were close to one another. We saw all the old buildings, statues, etc that were highlighted on our map, and it didn't take us very long. The gardens of the Imperial Palace were pretty. There was some energy stone there, that apparently was a present to the city from the organizers of the Feng Shui Congress 2000. Pinky went and touched it, but didn't feel any more energized. I climbed up some cool-looking tree and then later noticed the sign saying "Don't climb the trees". Oooops, my bad.

 A street in the old town, and a silver lady with a dog

 In the Imperial gardens

We walked along the river Inn, which was a very interesting greenish color, and also cloudy. Never seen water like that before. The river + Alps = gorgeous. 

The river Inn

Did I mention I love those mountains?

It got very hot and sunny very fast, so we started looking for a cocktail bar. Found some quiet place and I ordered a Mojito, while Pinky ordered a Caipirinha. Both had like 5 cl of booze in them, which to me seemed like a lot. I don't think we have such strong cocktails in Finland. Afterwards we went looking for an Internet cafe, because we had to check train timetables and other important stuff, such as Facebook :P We found an internet cafe right by the railway station, and paid 2€ for one hour. Most of the computers were in use, and the one next to ours was occupied by a young guy who was playing World of Warcraft and kept smoking. Almost everyone else in the place was smoking as well, and the cigarette smoke was nauseating. I realized how glad I am that it's not allowed to smoke indoors in Finland. We checked everything we needed to check, even the lyrics to "My favorite things" from Sound of Music. It was bugging us for a few days, ever since Salzburg.

We got back to the camping site, and changed into our swimwear. The weather was really nice, so we went swimming in the artificial lake. The water was quite cold and refreshing. 

The artificial lake at the camping site

Afterwards we ate at the restaurant there and later in the evening had our biggest argument of the trip. I mentioned something about the song "My favorite things" and how she sings about apple strudels, and Pinky was so sure that there was nothing about them in the song. She even texted one of our friends, who at first agreed with her, but then googled the lyrics. "Cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudels, doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles". Yep, I was right!

It's always nice to end with a picture of a sunset

-Brain

Day 13: Salzburg and Innsbruck, Austria

Thursday, August 19 2010

My alarm clock rang at 6.45. We got ready and went for breakfast. It was 3€ for all you can eat. I was still sick so in addition to coffee, buns, cereal and juice, I got some tea and put a Finrexin in it. 

Our room had like a corridor with doors to the toilet, bathroom and the room with all the bunk beds. When we came back from breakfast, we just went in the room quickly with the beds and the lockers. The smell was disgusting!!! Ugh the room smelled so bad!!! We quickly took our stuff out of the lockers and dropped it all in the corridor. And that looked like this. 

And the end result was this. We had to take the sheets off the beds too. We packed, returned our room key and left our luggage to the common corridor lockers. We had to ask the front desk for directions to the Untersberg.

The bus stop was in front of the Mirabell castle. We took bus 25, and it cost 2.10€ to go to the Untersbergbahn, where the cable car went to the top, the Geiereck peak. The mountain's elevation is 1972 meters (6 470 feet, Google converter), but the Geiereck peak is at 1300 meters (4 265 ft, Google converter).

It takes about 10 minutes to go up with the cable car. It costs 20€ to go up and down. It would've been 11€ or so one way, but the climb down would've taken 3 hours, and we simply didn't have the energy or time to do that. And I'm sure we would have gotten lost!!! 

I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves. This was my favorite thing about this trip and I would go back a hundred times.  You can click on all the pictures and see them in full size.

The numbers here are not the same as listed in Wikipedia, oh well... 

Going up

.

We wandered around the mountain for a long while. It was really cold and windy. In the beginning it was really foggy up there too. The weather was clearing up when we were returning to the cable car station. There was a restaurant there and we ate and had beers.

We went down with the cable car eventually, took a bus back to town, I fell asleep, and we had to find a grocery store before our train to Innsbruck. Of course, we couldn't find the closest one to the hostel, we went really far and had to hurry back to pick up our luggage and find our way to the train station. 

Our train to Innsbruck left 16.02. This time it was very easy to find a compartment (for 6 people). I'm sure we went directly to the right end of the train where these places weren't reserved. We shared it with an English couple. We nearly missed our stop since we didn't really hear the announcements. There was something wrong with the speaker in the compartment.

In Innsbruck we found a tourist information and got a map from there and asked for directions to our camping site, Natterersee Camping. BEST CAMPING PLACE ON EARTH!!! Pictures will be in another post. The map would've been 1 euro, but the old man selling the maps was kind and gave it to us, and gave us bus schedules too. We could take the first bus 4143 to Natters, and then change to a 4168 to the Camping place. One way ticket was 2.30€. The bus goes from town to Natters more often, but from Natters to the camping site every two hours.

Brain's side-note: we also asked the old man at the tourist info if it would be possible for us to buy some sort of a travel card to save money on bus tickets. He didn't know, and sent us to the nearby kiosk. We went there and they didn't know either, and sent us to the post office. The young boy working at the post office said that he's not from Innsbruck and so doesn't know anything about tourist cards (I thought that was a very strange excuse). He sent us somewhere else, but at that point we just gave up and went to the bus stop.

We arrived at the camping place and were in awe of the place! It's so fancy looking! It cost 62€ for the two of us and a tent for two nights. The bathrooms and showers were brand new. They had sinks to wash clothes in, and dish washing sinks. The kids playground was amazing and the artificial lake too! So awesome! 

Brain's side-note: after we checked in, one of the employees took us to our spot on a small car thingy (kinda like a golf cart). He was very weird, maybe Italian, kept talking funny, and I didn't really understand half of what he was saying. He seemed to be friends with everybody at the camping site and was very very talkative. Oh, and we ate our first real Austrian apple strudels at the restaurant there :)

The campsite quieted down around 11 pm and that's when we went to sleep as well. It wasn't cold this time really. 

-Pinky

Innsbruck, Austria - Part 1

A little bit about me first. 

I guess you could describe me as a sports fanatic. I tend to get really into watching sports and sometimes doing sports myself, like how I started a new sport a couple weeks ago and I'm loving it. I have always watched World Championships, Formula 1, ski jumping world cup, summer and winter Olympics, basically any international sport competitions. When  World Cup was in Germany in 2006 I had booked flights to Berlin for that time without realizing that World Cup is there at the same time. I only realized it when World Cup started that I am actually going to be in the same place at the same time. It was a fantastic holiday. 

Last year the Athletics World Championships were in Berlin, I was there again, and this time I was actually at the Olympic stadium for two days watching the competitions. During World Cup we didn't get to go to the stadiums, so we went to the viewing parties in the center. 

At some point I got obsessed with ski jumping, and especially the 4-hills tournament that is every year in Germany and Austria. It begins in Germany in Oberstdorf, continues to Garmish-Partenkirchen, then the two last competitions are in Austria, first in Innsbruck and the final one one Bischofshofen. These competitions are within one week of each other. Some day I will go to Germany, to Oberstdorf and continue the tour to Bischofshofen during the 4-hills tournament. 

This is why I got a little obsessed with these 4 places and now we are only going to one of them, Innsbruck. Brain will hate me for this, but I have read so much about Innsbruck already and I cannot wait till we arrive to Innsbruck. I am so excited. Yes, the 4-hills tournament is not while we are in Innsbruck, but I don't think I could go as near that ski jump tower in Bergisel during the tournament as I can this time. €8.50 for adults. You can get there by tram 1, or by foot (20 minutes).

Bergisel Sprungschanze both pictures

So here's some general info about Innsbruck. 

Innsbruck is in the Inn Valley. The name actually means "bridge over the Inn". Innsbruck is the capital of the federal state of Tyrol. There are 119 000 people, making Innsbruck the 5th populous city in Austria. The Inn River flows through Innsbruck.

Winter Olympics in 1964 and 1976 were hosted by Innsbruck as well as the Winter Paralympics in 1984 and 1988. In 2008 Innsbruck hosted several games of the EURO 2008 European football champinships. Ice hockey world championships were in Innsbruck 2005.

Innsbruck's climate is continental, which means that nights can get very cold during the summer and the days can be very hot. Days in general are either cool and rainy, or sunny and hot. The average annual temperature is 9 °C (48.2 °F). I had to look this average annual temperature of Finland and it is 4.8 °C (41 °F).  

(Wikipedia)

Places to see:

• Old town, probably in every city there is some kind of an Old Town that is worth a visit, Innsbruck is no exception. 
• Goldenes Dachl - the Golden Roof. Built in 1500 for Maximilian I so that he could watch the tournaments in the square below from this three-story balcony.
• Kaiserliche Hofburg - the Imperial Palace. Later gothic style, built around 1460. Emperor Maximilian I held court here. Empress Maria Theresa renovated it. Open daily 9am-5pm, admission ends 4.30pm. There is an entrance fee, but it shouldn't be too much, I think. The outside is pretty anyway. 

 Kaiserliche Hofburg Innsbruck

• Goldener Adler - possible to visit only from the outside. It is a historical building on Herzog-Friedrich-Straße 6, several famous people used to visit it and stay there
• Helbling House, a 15th century gothic mansion in the Old Town on Herzog-Friedrich-Straße. To be visited from the outside only.
• Ottoburg - an extremely old house on Herzog-Friedrich-Straße 1. For a long time it served as an excellent restaurant and bar.
• Court Church, Hofkirche. Emperor Maximilian I has his tomb in this church. There are 28 ginormous bronze statues. In Tyrol this is the most important monument to visit. It is open Mon-Sat 10am-6pm. Sundays and holidays 12.30-6pm. 

 Hofkirche in Innsbruck

•  St. James's Cathedral (often called St. Jacob's Cathedral which is wrong) is a heavily baroque style Cathedral. Daily at 12:12 the bells in the north tower toll. Open Mon-Sat 10:15am-6:30pm. On Sundays and holidays 12:30-6:30pm, 7:30pm summertime 

www.innsbruck.info
Wikipedia

End of Innsbruck, Austria - Part 1